Fisterra, The End of the Earth...
A lot of pilgrims arrive in Santiago, get their compostela, and then keep right on walking to Fisterra ("fin de tierra"...."land's end"). After walking across a whole country, there is something very compelling about wanting to walk all the way to the edge of the continent...and to what was the very edge of the known world, back in ancient times. It was from these shores that Christopher Columbus sailed his ships off into the unknown. And thousands of years before Christ and the "discovery" of St. James' tomb, the Celts practiced their pagan sun worship here, at this westernmost point where the sun sank off the edge of the earth, beyond the deep blue sea.
Personally, I didn't feel my journey was complete until my toes touched the Atlantic ocean, and my feet, which had logged so many miles, were finally barefoot and buried in wet sand and sea. While I was there, I saw many familiar faces...several other pilgrims who I met along the way who had either walked the additional 88 kilometers from Santiago, or who had driven or taken the bus to the coast. A lot of them, like me, had planned a couple of days at the coast to rest and take time to sit, stare at the ocean and think about their journey, while sipping a crisp, cold glass of Albariño, the wonderful white wine of Galicia.
I was tempted to walk to Fisterra, but in the end, I accepted the offer of a ride, and was lucky enough to get to stay to watch the sunset at 10 pm, as millions of pilgrims had for centuries.
