Amenal to Santiago de Compostela – 16.3km, 3.75 hours, Casa do Perigrino, A lot of €

If you were following on Facebook, you know we arrived in Santiago de Compostela yesterday. We only had 16km to go with a single big hill that started exactly at our hotel in Amenal. Of course we stared at 7:30am after a normal (normal for us in Spain) breakfast and it was still dark on the forest trail despite the full super moon. Part way up the hill, we heard behind us the distinctive Bronx accent of Nancy, a pilgrim we have walked with many times since Roncesvalles. It was her friend that helped me up when I fell on Day 3. Yesterday though, we heard her say “Is it okay if I follow right behind you since you have a pace and I don’t trust my torch?” As gruff as I could I joked “no, this is our trail”! That kept her quiet for a minute, which was the longest we have her silence lasted this whole month. I was wondering how she didn’t recognize my voice or haircut or Melanie’s shirt but then Nancy started talking again. About the moon, the trees, her albergue, her blisters, etc. eventually she asked where we were from. She really didn’t recognize us. I just turned and showed my face in the light. She shrieked, then laughed, then smacked me for saying she couldn’t follow us. It was pretty funny. We ended up walking about 6km with her before another man we see pass us every day got Nancy to walk a bit faster with him.

There aren’t too many places to stop for a second breakfast and the ones that were there were too crowded for us. We did have a toilet break but that was it all the way to the old town portion of Santiago. There we had plans to eat churros in an old churrería that we had stopped in the last time we used this route to arrive. Sadly, particularly for me, the store had closed down and the walls and windows were covered in graffiti.

We continued in to the square in front of the Cathedral. As always, Melanie and I shared a long hug and a kiss and just stared at the Cathedral for a while. It has been undergoing renovations for 10 years so it was beautiful now and no longer covered in scaffolding. As happy as we were to have completed the walk, it was not an extremely emotional arrival for us. It was more like “business as usual”. This was our fourth walk finishing in Santiago so be didn’t have that breakdown moment like many of the pilgrims around us did, and like we had 11, 9 and 6 years ago.

We hung out in the plaza in front of the Cathedral for a while greeting and congratulating friends we had met along the way. With some of these fellow pilgrims, we had walked with many hours over many days, or we shared a meal or many meals with them. Some, to be honest, came up to us and gave us big hugs and heartiest congratulations and neither Melanie nor I could even remember them at all. The Camino is like that. Maybe we just met these pilgrims very briefly, one time during the walk but we somehow made an impression on them. Who knows?

We went down to the Pilgrim’s Office during the noon pilgrim’s mass because that is when the queue is the shortest. Despite having to amend my Compostela, the entire system went very quickly. We guess COVID allowed the office time to breathe and improve their workflow. We were done in there in about 30 minutes. Outside the Pilgrim’s Office e met Maria and Not Maria (another Mia, apparently) who were emotional wrecks.

Finally, a little past 2:30pm, we could check into our rooms at our residence for the next four days. That is when things got a little crazy. Our cats had not been delivered to the new hotel. A quick check of the AirTag on Melanie’s phone revealed at least her bag was still in Amenal. We sent a few enquiries to the driver of the transport company but they weren’t even looked at, much less answered. We tried calling at least 20 times but the call or WhatsApp him but the calls were declined. We called other people in the company and the couldn’t help. We called the hotel 30 times in one hour, trying to get through to the receptionist. She only speaks Spanish but I’m sure she confirmed that they still had our bags in their lobby and I should call back in ten minutes. Another 25 return calls went unanswered before I finally got her again. All she said was “they’ve called a taxi, your bags will arrive in 25 minutes”. Who “they” were I didn’t know. Was I supposed to pay the taxi driver? Would he come into the old town that requires a special taxi? If I had to meet him somewhere, where was that? All these phone calls, incidentally, had to be bade from outside, in the plaza near our hotel because I could not get a good enough signal in our room. Also, my phone battery was dying because, you guessed it, the charger was in one of the bags. Our walk was down but why was this happening now?!?

Once I had that last phone call, I went back to the room to figure things out. But first, I had a stop to make and I therefore have to describe our room to you in the hotel. This place has four stories with three rooms on each floor, all built over a small shop. There is no elevator and we are on level three – that’s the 4th floor to you Yanks. It’s a cool but small room and three of the four walls are the original stone walls. The shop on the first floor owns the hotel and is – get this – an Italian style gelato (ice crean) vendor. What a perfect landlord!! I always say it’s good to support the local economy!!

Anyway, back to the backpack problem, after dealing the last phone call, I promised myself an ice cream treat. I ordered the small cup of some peach / nut flavor and the owner looked at me. I don’t know what he saw but he said “you’re staying upstairs, right? This is on the house”. Okay, that’s when I got emotional. He didn’t just save me 3€, he sensed I was upset and he blessed me in a small way that meant so much more to me. I cried all the way up the four flights of stairs but this time, it wasn’t because of my knee or ankle.

Once again, please forgive the typos, spellcheck errors, bad grammar and missed words. It’s past midnight and even though there is no walking tomorrow, it’s a full day.

Thank each and every one of you that encouraged us, gave us advice or words of comfort, gave us a thumbs up on Facebook or read the blogs even without comments. All of you made our journey easier and / or successful.

Peace y’all. George and Leo, we love you guys and we will talk to you soon. For this one time, Gramps is giving you permission to get up out of bed but only to give your Dad and Mom a great big hug. After that, every bedbug in the house will be running to the door to go away. They won’t ever bite you.