Monday 5th June 2023
Distance – A long Way
Santiago de Compostela – Paris
Packing up for the final time I reflected on what a wonderful experience this had been, though I was stilll having problems comprehending what I had done over the last six weeks. I had stepped out of normal life into a different world. I had been part of a bubble of people, a community with a single destination and a multitude of motivations. I had designated my Camino as a Religious Pilgrimage. It was a journey framed by daily prayer and a ‘serious seeking after God’. Now it was ending, today I would begin my journey home back to real life.
I said Morning Prayer and headed to the Cathedral. I couldn’t go home without paying my respects to Saint James. I arrived during an early morning Mass. I sat quietly appreciating the peace and the rhythms of worship. I don’t suppose I will be experiencing a Roman Catholic Mass again but sharing these times with my brothers and sisters on my Pilgrimage has been an important part of my experience. After the end I had a look round the Cathedral.
I found the entrance to the crypt and the silver casket holding the precious relics of Saint James. It didn’t seem to me to be the pace to take photos so I stood quietly in a niche and prayed for family and for the people of St Albans and St Johns churches. This felt like yet another final act on this journey, ending wasn’t a one off event.
Once I left the Cathedral I was focussed on leaving then. I returned to the Albergue, retrieved my backpack from the left luggage locker and headed to the bus station. I climbed on the bus ready for my 21 hour plus journey to Paris. There were plenty of stops on the way, thankfully but nothing really makes a journey like that pleasant. It was good to gaze out of the window and realise how far I’d walked and how quickly I was returning.
At the border with France, we all had to get off the bus while the French police checked for drugs, I was definitely back in the real world now.