Day 11 - Arrival in Santiago

We made it!!! After 11 days and about 250km, we have actually arrived in Santiago de Compostela...👣💪🏻😍😥😲

After a wonderful but long and exhausting day, I am too tired to write🙈 But I promise you that I will continue the report tomorrow and catch up on everything. For now, I will share some pictures😉

So, for now, good night to all of you from Santiago!

Your happy and exhausted pilgrims (with sore feet🙈),

Sandra & Dani

As promised, here is the report for yesterday's day🙂

We started before sunrise at 06:00 AM - full of excitement, anticipation, and new energy!👍🏻👣 So, we packed our backpacks one last time, patched up our feet, and put on all the warm clothes/hats we had - it was quite chilly at only 7 degrees🥶 We walked the first 4km in the dark before seeing the sunrise on the first hill🌄 The path to Santiago includes everything we have encountered in the past few days - gravel, asphalt, our beloved cobblestones, and of course, forest paths with roots and stones. We also go uphill and downhill, walk next to or under highways, or sometimes just straight ahead.

As I had seen last year, this last day gives us new energy and we make progress at a sensational pace, without major pain (🙃). We walk kilometer after kilometer. The stones on the way, which were especially annoying on the stage to Redondela, are now a silent motivator, as each one brings us closer to Santiago😃

Of course, we also stopped for breakfast and another coffee break about 5km before the end, but we are still moving at an incredibly fast pace today.

Around 11:30 AM, "finally" we arrive at the square in front of the Cathedral, holding hands in a group of four😍🙌🏻😍🙌🏻😍🙌🏻😍 We hug each other, shed a few tears (and there is definitely no shame in that!), and take the first pictures/make phone calls with loved ones at home!

Why "finally" in quotation marks? Because while we have reached our goal, our shared journey is also coming to an end...😔 When four completely strangers (except Sandra and me, although you never know how it will be) suddenly not only walk the Camino together but also experience it, it creates an incredible bond! We spend almost 24 hours together, not only walking but also doing almost everything together, and most importantly, supporting and motivating each other - you can talk about it, but you can't really describe it... It was also a Camino of extremes, and our little group has overcome everything that came our way - whether it was extreme heat, rain & hail, sore feet and blisters, fatigue and exhaustion, none of us gave up💪🏻🙌🏻

I had the great fortune of not only having Sandra with me, but also meeting Anne and Luca again - two wonderful people with big hearts, a great sense of humor, empathy, passion (even for suffering😜), and patience. I am grateful for that, and I'm sure that the four of us haven't seen each other for the last time🥰

Going through this adventure together with Sandra was also an incredible experience! On the one hand, I believe that a friendship that survives the Camino can withstand anything🙈 and on the other hand, I have been able to experience the Camino in a completely new way! For that, dear Sandra, I am very grateful😘

After enjoying our moment in front of the Cathedral, we head straight to the Pilgrim's Office with our backpacks - we want to immediately collect our Compostela😊 At the door, I am briefly stopped by the security guard, who asks me how many people we are in total. He finds my answer of "4" great, and so do I - we are classified as a group and can collect our Compostela together. Why is that special? It means we don't have to wait in line for 2 hours like individual pilgrims do😲, we receive a receipt and can come back later to pick it up😃 This means we already have time to have lunch, so we go to the first restaurant that has a reasonable offer and prices. We walk in - still in our hiking clothes from the day - with our backpacks into the restaurant of the best hotel in the city (the Parador)😂 However, we are warmly welcomed, and later, various other pilgrims come in, so we don't feel so out of place anymore🙈😜 After lunch, we go to the hotels, and for the first time in 9 days, our paths "separate" - only for about 200m, but it feels strange nonetheless...

We quickly check into our rooms and plan to meet again to collect our Compostela. Sandra and I are a bit late because we quickly bought four drawstring bags with Santiago motifs on the way, so Anne and Luca have already picked up the Compostela. We meet again on the square in front of the Cathedral. Pictures are taken, and we also meet Roberta, who has now reached the goal👏🏻 Afterwards, as expected, we treat ourselves to another coffee and a glass of wine in the bar of the Parador😉 **At this point, a big "thank you" to Grandma Esser😊** This is where we encounter (Super) Mario again and congratulate and hug him☺️ He is so happy because, according to him, the afternoon was the most beautiful part of his journey😍 By the way, he walked 50km in one day the next day - simply unbelievable😵😵😵

Then we go to the hairdresser (Anne and Luca) and shopping (Sandra and me) - it's time for a haircut and new sneakers or comfortable shoes, as well as a sweater🙈 In the clothing store, I eventually want to put my T-shirt in my new drawstring bag and then I start to panic😱 My drawstring bag with my Compostela is gone - I must have left it somewhere.🙄🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ So, I go back through all the shops, and finally, everything is fine in the sweater store - my bag with its contents is sitting undisturbed on the sofa in the store🤗 I was really lucky there...

We then go back to the hotel and make full use of the whirlpool bathtub😍😇 Fresh and clean, we go back to the old town for dinner - as always in the past few days, we all have a big appetite. We go to a great tapas bar and enjoy ourselves - we truly deserve it👍🏻🙌🏻😉

We would like to have a drink in a bar afterwards, and while looking for a location, we first meet Nan and then Steffi & Christoph - we hug, embrace, and congratulate each other🥰 Nan can't join us, but we go for a drink with Steffi & Christoph in a bar and talk about the Camino and all its peculiarities... Everyone is tired, so by 11:30 PM, we all head back to the hotel. It's strange that the four of us are no longer staying in the same accommodation... But we will see each other again tomorrow morning😊

So, happily and exhausted, we fall asleep in Santiago...😴