Stone Shrine for Age at Finsterre

Hugging the edges, along the entire trail, there are stone shrines. These range from haphazard rocks piled against each other, to elaborately manicure stones set perfectly in a tower. Many are left as they are built, where others are added to by anonomous pilgrims as they set thier rocks and stones down. They can be clustered in tiny rock skyscraper villages, or set along the trail on thier own. 

The common theme however, is the intention behind the shrines.  Each have been built to honour or as a reminder of a loved one, often passed on. Many have hand written prayers under the bottom rock. Some have an order of service from the funeral. Others have a photo.

Morgan has carried Adrians memorial dog tags on his neck the entire trail ( bar the last 60 - see the amazing story in another post on how they were lost and then found and returned to us ) 

It was a very special ceremony for us to build a shrine and lay what we feel, is the last piece of our farewell in our grieving process.

We spent time alone staring out at the sea, as Age often did, and as he did last year.

Finisterre and Muxia

Finsterre is the 'official'. 0 km mark, though its a little over 100 km from Santiago. Instead of walking that extra bit, or taking the bus, we hired a car snd spent time exploring the beautiful fishing villages on our way to Finsterre. Next time we do the camino, we will def get a car for a few days and stay in one of the villages, rather than spend time in Santiago.

I've done a seperate post on the laying down of the tags. It was a pretty intense but special moment for us.

We dangled pur feet over the cliff, sat and meditated and then found the pieate seafood place we ate at last year. The pirate cook was still there, looking more like a pirate than ever. Best seafood ever - all fresh and so yum! Totally blew our megre pilgrim budget for the day..

Muxia is an integral part of the pilgrimage as it is believed that one of the early apostles, after being rejected by the locals, wanting nothing to do with Christianity, the virgin Mary floated up the bay in a stone boat and encouraged him. He went on and converted the masses, got a Monestary built and  kept the place her boat came ashore as a sacred spot. 

Its a pleasant sandy little cove which was a perfect paddling spot today.

17.5 km Into Santiago - leaving Pedrouzo

So here it is.. The last leg.

It seems totally unreal.  Here are some shots from our walk into Santiago. Along the way we stopped for fresh fruit, cut up by two kind ex-pilgrims. It was another donation tent with watermelon, fruit juices and the most delicious home made pizzas we had tasted. 

  It was very emotional walking into the square. I filmed us and uploaded it onto facebook - I got kinda emotional. 

 I have photos of us laying in the middle of the square with our feet in the air. It was a shame the Cathedral is under restoration, but you can't get all the breaks I guess. 

We were so hungry on the way in, we stopped for .. yep.. kebabs.. and I gotta say, they were so delicious.

We got into Santiago in time to catch the Pilgrims Office, so were delighted to get our certifications on the day we arrived. 

Pretty tired, so will try and catch up on the blog posts at a later date.. 

I've very proud of the kids and I am certain Age is too.