Day 54 - A Coruña and Santiago de Compostela

This morning I awoke with no need to walk. It still has not sunk in and I feel I am trapped in some mental nether world between my previous days of walking and the yet-to-be normality of home life. The fact I will be flying home two days from now is slowly lodging itself into my head but I have no clear plan other than to get the train back to Santiago. I had hoped to visit a museum before departing but it seems Monday is the day when museums are shut throughout the city so I took a wander around the old town and ensconced myself in a cafe for a while before collecting my rucksack, loading it onto my back and making probably my last walk of the trip, the mile and a half through city streets to A Coruña station.

By early afternoon I was again in Santiago de Compostela's cathedral square, sitting watching today's selection of walkers and cyclists arrive, the whole place busy and alive with a buzz of excitement. I can't help but think this square must be one of the happiest places in Europe with its continuous stream of people radiating joy, arms raised in triumph, filled with smiles and buoyed by the satisfaction of a challenge completed while no doubt experiencing that strengthened human bond that the Camino seems to imbue: it is a heady mix. I drifted through the rest of the day, easily filling it with essential and non-essential activities: shopping, cafes, packing for my return, relaxing in my room. Although I am tucked away in a narrow alley it is not far from the cathedral square with its busyness and its hourly chiming of the cathedral bells so I am not expecting a lot of peace, especially tomorrow when, I am told, there is an evening concert in the square behind the cathedral and music in the streets. It should prove a lively end to my two months in Spain.