Soma gets to Santiago today and we want to be there to welcome her. We are in our new lodgings this morning-just a hotel room. No kitchen. No fridge. We had a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast, then headed out to the square about 8:45am to be there in case she came in early. Se told everyone she would be there by 9:30am.
As we approach the square we see Tom and Nicki waiting as well. Soon Lisa and her son arrive. We now have a team of 8 ready to clap her into the square. Tom and Nicki reversed our sign and wrote Soma on the back side to welcome her.
Soon, we saw her approaching on the far side of the tunnel. Her mom and grandma were there. We clapped her into the square. She was thrilled at the welcoming committee (see video link below).
Tom(amazing Tom!) had told Soma weeks earlier that if she made it he would double the number of ratios Soma was getting. Soma wanted one, so he promised he would get two. Today they reaffirmed that promise in front of Soma’s mom and grandmother. They weren’t too happy about the idea, but Soma showed tenacity about getting her tattoo, something her mother appeared not to understand. We think her daughter grew up quite a bit during her Camino hike.
Sally and I left the square and headed for the hospital Emergency Department. Sally’s neck has been incredibly painful ever since landing at Heathrow 6 weeks ago but it has been getting worse these past few days. She is hoping someone can take a look at it and maybe renew her pain meds prescription until she can get home. The hospital is right next to the bus station we visited earlier, we were able to walk there quickly.
We found the entrance and the reception desk. The receptionist called the ED. They said it would cost $275 to look at her and they couldn’t speak English. We decided to skip it. We called the other hospital. An English receptionist spent 20 minutes looking for anyway to helping, but in the end suggested we just go to a pharmacy and try to get more medication. The first pharmacy we stopped in sold us 20 muscle relaxers for €2. This relieved Sally’s fear of getting caught in terrible pain with no way to alleviate it.
It was now about 11:30am. Sally shopped for a dress on the way back through the city to the square, stopping in every shop we encountered. I wrote in my blog on the street while she was inside. On our return into the old part of the town we saw Soma and Tom searching for a tattoo shop.
We stopped inside the museum and bought tickets to tour the roof of the cathedral at 5:30pm, then returned to our room to rest a few minutes. While there I was going back through my photos from early on in the trip to see who we knew early on. There it was. A photo looking back at the city of St Jean Pied de Port just 10 minutes into our walk. And who was in the frame, catching up with us? Tom and Nicki. We met them on day one in the first 10 minutes. 43 days ago. Amazing.
We had a lunch date with Melissa, Cindy and Rose after their attendance at noon mass.
We met them on the east side of the church and had a two hour lunch, comparing Camino experiences and just talking. These are three amazing ladies. We returned to our room, then headed out to the square for our roof of the cathedral tour. It lasted about an hour and was very fun. We were led all over the roof and up into one of the towers.
We walked up town to the donar Kabab place and had dinner. We were going to head back to our room but ran into Tom’s wife’s sister and talked with her for a few minutes. We learned Tom and Nicki were down by the pilgrims office. We knew this was our last time to say goodbye to Tom, so down we went. Everyone was there. John, Fran, Nicki, Tom and his cousins and in-laws. It took us an hour to say goodbye.
It was now about 9:30pm. Back in our room I packed my pack to be ready to go tomorrow. Lights out about 10:30pm. Tomorrow we say goodbye to Santiago. I am taking three days to walk to Muxia. Sally will take the bus tomorrow and have some days of rest while I catch up.
Grandma, Soma and her mother
The whole crew again
Sally, Nicki, ??, Soma, Tom, Me
At the hospital looking into Sally’s neck pain
Up on the roof of the cathedral
Looking down into the main square
Roof top scenes
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