The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is the destination for the Pilgrims from all of the various paths in Europe. Some walk maybe 30 miles, and others hundreds. In addition to some amazingly reflective time on the trails they receive forgiveness for their sins upon completion. The emotions displayed by those just completing their pilgrimage were palpable. I wish I could have captured them in a photo — but that felt like an invasion of privacy. They made so many sacrifices for that moment.

We found that we were very lucky regarding timing. Going through a special door that leads directly to the tomb of Saint James also provides a pardon of all sins. But it is only open every 7 – 10 years, and was open when we visited. The first picture is the tomb of Saint James. The second is the amazingly detailed nave of the Cathedral. I do not recall seeing another so ornate.

This concludes our Postcard from series. Our goal was to share things that either intrigued us or inspired us. Many of you have commented on various postcards, which we appreciate. We hope you enjoyed them — and thanks for listening.

We made it safely home on Wednesday, October 12. Thanks to a lot of washing hands and still wearing our masks whenever in a crowd, even on the ship, we remained healthy. Not even a cold. Six flights, with no delays, no baggage adventures (even our wine suitcase made it unscathed) and good flying weather for all trips. And over seven weeks during the Europe transition from summer to fall we only needed an umbrella while out and about for a total of 2 1/2 hours. Rain was forecasted for a number of days, then the clouds departed and the sun came out instead.

This was a wonderful trip. So many great experiences — about people, the beauty of our world and history. Hard to believe, yet over seven weeks we visited 15 countries. Some of them twice. All of the Continental Europe Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland). All three Baltic countries (Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia). Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands (twice). Then the UK, Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal.

We have heard about the Camino de Santiago – the pilgrimage many make each year to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. There are several routes. On a previous trip we found ourselves in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port France, watching the pilgrims register for the 40 + day journey and reserve their place in the hostels by hanging their backpack on the door.

Oviedo is where the first pilgrimage began in the 9th century, shortly after the discovery of the tomb of Saint James the Apostle and because of the devotion of King Alfonso II. He made the first pilgrimage. Knowing that we would be in Oviedo motivated us to at least try a small bit of the pilgrimage. The starting point is the Cathedral of Oviedo. Bronze shells mark the path, and we followed those shells for almost an hour through Oviedo. While clearly not the experience of a true pilgrim it was still very moving.