Breakfast 6 km… Death 4 km (Part III)

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León was the first stopover where we stayed for two days to take a break and recharge our batteries. We arrived there after a walk of 180 kilometres where we got ourselves a hotel room with our own bathroom (which was pure luxury after ten days of group showers) and dinner in the evening. After both of us had taken an extensive shower, we got dressed up, which meant that we wore long trousers and slippers instead of shorts and walking boots. The restaurant owners were fortunately used to pilgrims, so we had no problems getting a table in our outfit. Because it was the first meal for ages, we were truly excited when the waiter served our pasta and red wine. Unfortunately, we didn’t even manage to eat half of our dinner and after one glass of wine we both felt so drunk that we decided to go home and sleep. Back at our hotel room it took us not more than five minutes until we fell asleep and didn’t wake up before noon the next day.   

After León, the landscape entirely changed. There were no more burnt-down crop fields but lush meadows, mountains and lots of cows. It seemed like the landscape changed entirely within few kilometres and when we eventually walked past eucalyptus trees, we started questioning our mental condition. The border between Castile and Galicia is marked by the 1300 metres high mountain called O Cebreiro. You’d almost think that original Salzburg hillbillies are used to mountains, especially when the height difference is no more than 700 metres. But this bastard of a Spanish mountain absolutely stretched us to our limit and when we arrived at the village on top of the mountain we probably were the grumpiest pilgrims of the world. Ever.

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The last 160 kilometres were pretty uneventful. We were looking forward to arriving at the end of our trip and every day we were talking about what we would eat back home. But because we could not decide if Viennese Schnitzel or roast pork is the better choice for our welcome-back-home dinner, we decided to discuss this very important matter for several more days. The last few days of our pilgrimage we started to philosophise about things like “what is the difference between normal milk and long-life milk” (did I mention that Galicia has probably more cows than inhabitants?) and “why is there no whole-grain bread in Spain, although we walked for about 10 days alongside crop fields?” Many people think that it is enlightening to undertake a pilgrimage. That is certainly true, but above all it makes you feel hungry. 

After nineteen days of walking we finally arrived in Santiago de Compostela and there we went straight to the Cathedral. Lots of pilgrims were sitting on the ground at the square in front of the cathedral because there were already too many people attending the mass. After the priest had ended his sermon, we went inside to officially end our trip. Tradition holds that pilgrims have to kiss the feet of the Saint James’ sculpture and we literally had to queue up in order to fulfil this very special task. Although I consider it being a nice tradition, it is probably one of the most disgusting and unhygienic in the world. When kissing the saint’s feet you shouldn’t be allergic to anything, because then you would probably drop dead immediately. 

Last but not least we went to the pilgrim’s office in the city centre to receive our certificate saying that we actually managed to end our pilgrimage. It is a really strange feeling holding this certificate in one’s hands after three weeks of isolated walking across the north of Spain. The crowded streets of the city pretty much freaked us out, because we hadn’t had lots of social contacts during our trip. We stayed for two more days in Santiago de Compostela to do some sightseeing. Back home it took us about one week to eventually acclimatise. It is an amazing feeling to consider having a bathroom and own bedroom as the probably most luxurious things in the world. I don’t believe that a trip like that enlightens you, or at least I don’t think it enlightened me. However, it helped me see life from a completely new perspective I will hopefully remember my entire life. 

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