June 26. Sunday, Guitirez to Santiago - 47 miles

We left early today: BC in our lingo:  before coffee!!  Oh and by the way, coffee became the motto of our VaughanTown experience.  We will not forget that. 

 It is worth commenting that since we left at 8 and the Spanish do not move until 9, the hotel concierge left the key to their storehouse under a rock so we could get our bikes out.  Inside:  their huge stash of wine, beer, alcohol and other commodities.  There is trust here.  And not fear on a daily basis that crimes, petty and otherwise will be committed.  Lots of sunshine today, a big tail wind and some reasonable momentum hills to begin our journey into Santiago.  The sunshine and the winds prevailed but the hills got big ...again.  

"Marilyn get over". That is the sound I hear from Craig as he seeks to keep me alive when my inclination is to ride towards the middle of the road.  

So we arrived in Santiago. Oh yes we did.

And it's all so familiar, this being our third time here. We were tired of course and there is the inevitable asjustment but first let's simply relish the feeling and our beautiful hotel room because the proprietors remember us from the last two times.  Costa Vella or Hotel Moura.

So from Bilbao: 330 miles, 495 kilometers total. 

I wrote this to a friend a day or two ago and it says what I'm feeling:

I too am having many feelings , some ambivalent about our journey coming to an end. Tomorrow we hope to arrive in Santiago, the end of the bicycling , the ritual of pilgrims at the mass and then the travel by bus or tren back to Madrid.

I expressed to Craig just before I left our hotel room to come downstairs and have a glass of wine that I don't want to continue traveling and staying in different places and hotels and eating meals out but I don't know quite how to pick up our lives again.  This becomes a way of living.

I miss our family and our grands so so much always and friends as well.

He agreed. We have no solutions and none are needed. We just move on and through counting our blessings and absorbing all the goodness from being together and affirming our commitment to living as well as we can.  It is the "best revenge " , is it not?  Someone said that:)

And my friend wrote back:

" I imagine you are going to revel in getting back home. The weather here is exquisite. The soul loves contrast."

That settles it.  The soul loves contrast.

And we see all the encouraging posts on FB and from our friends from VaughanTown on What's App and feel so thankful for this life. I am dedicating this trip to those friends in need of an extra bundle of positive thoughts. 

One of many concerts in a square.

We have our Compostelas.