Finnisterre, Spain

Here we are at the end of the earth. The bus ride from Santiago is not much more than 90 km, but it takes 3 hours. Sort of winding roads. Beautiful trip, though. We got brilliant sunshine for the trip through Galecian countryside and then along the coast. The coastline is spectacular. I am sure there are some nice photos on Google Earth and they would be well worth a few minutes of your time. I will post some in a few days.

The bus ride was good enough I was thinking how nice it would be to walk or bicycle it! The Compestalla for walking or cycling to Finnisterre is Celtic in appearance and there is another Compestella for walking 30 km up the coast.

I walked to the lighthouse while Patsy was walking the beach looking for shells. I took the route over the mountain, of course. Then, later in the evening, we both walked to the lighthouse along the road. The view from the road is probably better. It is impressive to think that people have been coming to the location of the lighthouse for about 5000 years for spiritual reasons. It is the western most point of earth in Europe. Early people thought the sun was extinguished somewhere out in the ocean and was reborn again in the east the next morning.

I met my friend, Matt, from Denmark while I was at the lighthouse the first time. He had walked from Santiago. He said he had swam in the ocean and allowed the waves to wash over him 9 times and had burned his shirt in the firepit by the lighthouse. Both are ancient pilgrim traditions. Patsy and I dipped our toes in the ocean, at least. Neither of us was interested in burning our shirt.

We have seen many of the pilgrims we met on the route in Santiago or in Finnisterre. We even met the french woman with the donkey named Sherpa at the holy door to the Cathedral. She was there early on Sunday morning, as the donkey might have been a problem with the huge crowds later in the day. I guess she figured he had done the pilgrimage from somewhere in France to Santiago, and he deserved to see the Cathedral. We took our picture with Sherpa. I am pretty sure he can´t get his own Compestella.

Patsy and I celebrated the end of our pilgrimage yesterday with a shellfish feast. We ate things like razor clams and something we think were purple worms. Great meal.

We bus back to Santiago this evening and catch an early flight to Frankfurt.