We´ve Arrived!

It´s Day 30 and we´ve arrived at Santiago!!
We continued across the meseta in Castilla y Leon until we reached the Bierzo and then we climbed another mountain. The conditions changed as we finally got some rain and colder temperatures. But wow!! All so beautiful ... and once at the top of the mountain we reached the province of Galicia which is so very green. We´ve been climbing up and down green hills passing rose gardens through our way across Galicia. The path has narrowed as we came into this Celtic land (yes, Galicia has Celtic roots) ... and we passed instead of poplar forests through majestic oak forests ... and some pine ... and now even eucalpytus. But everything seemed to come narrower and closer, and Galicia itself is so very small and the towns are quaint and small too.
Today we walked the last 20 km into Santiago, but passed so unseen it seemed as the path traversed the forests and away from the towns. It´s the climax of the journey and yet it seems like just another day ... YET TRULY how fantastic to see this very old cathedral! It´s stunning! And the old town of Santiago is charming with its narrow stone streets and big plazas. We´ll post some pics .......

We´ve continued to meet very nice people, and today it has been fun to see those we´ve gotten to know on the path at different stages ... some who strode ahead, some who fell behind but arrived here safely anyway by other means than one´s feet ...

Yesterday we met another Vipassana meditator from US who spent the past 3 months serving at Dhamma Neru outside of Barcelona ... so ... we caught glimpses of what´s ahead as we plan to serve starting in mid June. We plan to continue to walk to Finisterre, to the westernmost point of Europe and to the Atlantic, then perhaps walk some in Portugal before returning to Barcelona and the Center.

One nice thing we got to read today was that this (Santiago) is the end and the beginning ... and the journey continues ... that journey ... the journey of the pilgrim ... is to continue to know oneself, to know others, to get closer to God ... that is the way of the Christian pilgrim.

Tomorrow is Pentecost Sunday in Santiago. I think there will be a lot of festivities as it´s the day 50 days after Easter when though everyone spoke different languages ... there was mutual understanding among all. Certainly we´ve gotten to know people from all over ... perhaps we´ll all easily converse tomorrow, May 31, Sunday!

Best to all!
With love from me and Wes...........