On May 15, 2018, exactly 40 days after leaving Saint Jean Pied de Port, France, I reached the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela by foot.
By some miracle I made it!
And there was a tourist train out front to greet me. Of course!
I’m going to go ride that train later today to make my husband back in Seattle proud.
I walked in with the very loved fellow pilgrim Georgia. Thank you for the wonderful companionship and support, G!
We met up and walked from the edge of town with this fun group of friends, too (photo stolen from Theri):
More photos before reaching the finish line:
Another Templar. I’m going to miss stumbling across these dudes’ statues, artifacts, and building relics. 
Theri cracks me up. Her selfie with my phone (there’s a pirate back home who likes to do this to people at parades, too).
Waiting 90 minutes to get my Compostela. It was like being at the DMV. I didn’t mind, though (but I did run down my battery playing soda crush while I waited). I couldn’t believe how much people were complaining. My God, I just walked 40 days to get here; I can wait another 90 minutes!
Apparently this is my first name in Latin. I think the woman just made it up.
Noon pilgrims mass in the cathedral. They were not swinging the botafumerio today (too bad, I was ready to video it as the Steps to Support SCLS treat):
In line to climb up and hug the St James statue behind the high altar:
The St James reliquary beneath the altar:
Excuse me now: I have a tacky tourist train to ride and I need to find Chantal and Kathleen from Australia before they leave tomorrow.
Otherwise… I’M DONE WALKING!
Camino Jen 
congratulations!
LikeLiked by 1 person