Santiago!

Well, yesterday we walked on our own two (four!) feet into Santiago, right up to the Cathedral.  For my mother, who is 81 (and thouroughly sick of saying or hearing her age stated) this was an amazing accomplishment!  She walked nearly the entire way, and yesterday was a special accomplishment, as she walked 12km, with major climbs and descents, in 8 hours, with only two breaks in the day!  When we started, she took many, many stops along the way.  Her strength has grown with each day of walking; alternating between pushing herself to the limit and resting and gathering strength for the coming days.  As she said, arrival to Santiago is both happy and sad.  We are happy and relieved; it´s almost unbelievable that we have actually arrived to our goal.  We are also sad that our adventure for which we have looked forward to and planned and worked for, for so long, is now at an end.  We have learned so much over the days of walking, meeting other pilgrims on the road, reading, talking, and reflecting.  An amazing experience.  I plan to continue writing this blog for awhile when I get home and to post pictures from our walk, our final and updated itinerary, thoughts on teaching, and so on.  So stay tuned.  As for now, I will go and wander around Santiago!