We made it – 50 days and over 400 miles!
Once we arrived at the Cathedral we literally laid down on the ground on the plaza stones in front of the Cathedral. Overwhelming emotions of joy and exhaustion consumed us. All around us in the plaza there were pilgrims in a similar state of emotion and shouts of joy were filling the air.
We will probably post a Camino summary in a week or two once all of this settles. For now our emotions are in flux as the actual reality of what we have accomplished has yet to sink in even as we write this at 10PM.
After sitting for a while the next high priority was to get to be the pilgrims office to claim our compostela. The officials there reviewed our stamps to assure we walked the required distance which of course we had. In past years it could take hours to get through the line of pilgrims all trying to get their certificate but now the office really has streamlined the process and we were done in 15 minutes. 1015 pilgrims checked into the pilgrims office today!
There is a pilgrims Mass at 7:30PM in the Cathedral and it is not to be missed. The Cathedral is very large and it was a standing room only Mass. They announced before Mass all the countries that finished the Camino on that day and of course the US was announced.
At the end of Mass they swing the giant incense thurible.
