Finally it's happening! Thats for sure everybody thought as we woke up on the last day of our arduous way to Santiago de Compostella. Just a little more than 20 kilometers separated us from the long-awaited finish of this journey, so nobody needed to be motivated. Better and worse days seemed to change now regulary, because after the painless day before I had more problems with my feet and knees again. However that day I didn't really care. I walked my own tempo and enjoyed the foggy morning for the last time. As I was arriving Monto de Gozo, Fernando, Anna and Fran waited for me and Anna came running with a cold beer in her hand. From Monte de Gozo, which means "mountain of pleasure", the pilgrims have seen the towers of the cathedral for the first time in former times, but nowadays multistory buildings cover the sight. So we had to enter the city at least to get the breathtaking view on the cathedral. The first thing we've done was to get our Compostella, the pilgrimage certificate in the pilgrim's office. After a few beer three girls, we just got to know, took Fran and me by car to our a bit out-of-town pilgrim's hostel, while the others spend the night in a hotel in the inner city. Later we met again for the last dinner, while being all together. We asked a couple of native people for a neat place serving local specialities. It took a while, but finally we found an appealing restaurant and ate a delicious selection of tapas. Slowly the time approached when we had to say goodbye. Fernando, Anna and the 2 ladies wanted to take the plane the next morning back to Madrid, only Fran and me would stay another day in Santiago until my train would go, too. After one more drink in a smoky bar finally Fran and me bid farewell to the others and made the way to our outlying hostel by foot.
The next morning we slept late (fist time after nearly 2 weeks). For dinner we went to the Parador (!) near the Cathedral to have a free meal, which is/was an opportunity for pilgrims only. Fortunately I read about it in my guidebook, because my money got less as the time went by. Together with only 2 other guys we had a soup, mussels with potatoes and a dessert (see blurred photo). One of the 2 others, a French guy, Fran already met on the way from O Cebreiro to Samos, so we arranged for the evening to do the rally Paris - Dakar. That describes an alley in Santiago full of bars, where the first one is named Paris and the last Dakar. We knew Ephraim, the guy I met on the way to Portomarín, also would arrive on that day, so we called him for an invitation. In the afternoon Fran and me spend the time with sightseeing, hugging St. James or having some beer in a bar. So the evening came quite fast. We met the other two and started in Paris, after one or two beer, we changed to watch the football game between Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona. As a German I do not really want to refer about how the game ended, but just one thing: At halftime they gave me a handkerchief for whining! ;-)
Even though we didn't finish the rally, I got a few additional stamps of bars in my "credential". After Ephraim and the French had to leave, because their hostel closed at 12 o'clock, Fran and me met other friends of him and our journey through the night continued. As I had drunken enough beer and couldn't stay awake anymore, they called me a taxi and paid the driver. At 3 o'clock I collapsed into bed, not because of this night, but of the exhausting days before.
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