Remy’s 2023 Travel Notebook

It’s really only 2 hours of walking to Santiago. 10km and we will be on the cathedral steps. I am not sure yet how I feel about the destination but I know the journey has been once in a lifetime.

Today was 31km with my dad and the rest of the group. Xavi’s girlfriend joined us for the last 3 days as well, and I am happy to report he is just as funny and goofy with her around.

The thought of finishing the walk today and getting to Santiago this evening crossed our minds. I am glad we stayed in Lavacolla to have one more night in a slow and peaceful town.

The day started at 6:00 am to get ready and get outside to say goodbye to our friend Michela. She was like the mom of our group. She would always call places to make reservations, keep everyone in line, and provide “Michela solutions” left and right.

We started our rainy walk at 6:35. It was only the second or third time we had any amount of rain and it was very light. Enjoyable even.

One of the strange things about finishing the Camino is getting to the end where you see so many people on a trail that used to be almost empty. At this point everyone is the group is quite used to 30-35km per day and we walk well into the afternoon. After lunch, we had an empty trail again.

Today at dinner, between conversations and laughs, I realized how special what I had was. A group of good friends and walking partners, my dad who traveled across the world the world to walk with me, good food and way too many amazing memories. The thought of how I met much of this group on the first and second days of my Camino, and now that I will walk into Santiago with them tomorrow, finally hit me. I am nowhere near ready for all the goodbyes, but it seems that everyone will be going their own ways after a day of celebrating tomorrow.

I have a lot of processing and writing to do. I will plan to stay extra days in Santiago to take my time doing this. For now, I will attach some more pictures and leave it there for the time being. A Santiago post will follow.