May 14, 2012
Santiago de Compostela

Perhaps it is the relief at having arrived where I had for so long hoped, but I slept very, very soundly my first night in Santiago de Compostela.

There were a number of things that needed to be attended to at once: firstly, would I travel to my cousin's and stay there a few days, or see about starting out on the pilgrimage immediately. If I were to go tomorrow, would it be by bicycle or on foot? Would I be able to leave my excess baggage in the hotel? Would I be able to find an inexpensive suitcase nearby into which to transfer what is unnecessary to the pilgrimate, but will return home with me. What are the bus and train schedules to my cousin's, on the one hand; and Sarria, on the other?

I found a store selling low-priced suitcases not far from the hotel: a pair of travelers were busy stuffing their items into a new suitcase, so I am not the first to need new traveling equipment upon arriving here. The new suitcase, a plastic four-wheeler with a leopard trip will be easy to spot on the airport carrousel; and all my non-pilgrimage gear fits in snugly. As a "thank you" for giving me the keys to her apartment in Esteiro by the Ria de Muros y Noya, I will leave the knapsack and the caddy behind at my cousin's: her daughter has said she wants to make a pilgrimage, and the caddy will be useful to my cousin for trips to the grocery store. There is a gradual "unpeeling" going on as the days of my travels wind down: it is pleasurable to handover things still useful after being done with them to those who can appreciate and use them. Stripping the inessential away and holding on to the essential has always appealed, although determining which is which poses problems for me. During my first pilgrimage, the one through Europe, I have acquired books and clothes. On the one from Sarria to Santiago, I hope to acquire something more enduring.

I have emptied the knapsack thoroughly and packed it with the thermal underwear and rain-resistant clothing I anticipated I might need on the Camino de Santiago. I have food stores, too: the free-range chestnut-scented pork sausage from Corsica I bought from the lonely vendor working on a corner in the heights of Cimiez my last Sunday in Nice; the figs and prunes d'Agen I bought in the Monoprix on Avenue Thiers in Nice, on the way to Cimiez; a tightly-wrapped bar of chocolate I bought in Besancon because the foil was the image of the 500 Euro note. They will all have their day in the days to come.

The Euro and the European economy is much on the minds of people here. A Madrid-based bank, Bankia has been taken over by the Spanish government, in consequence of a loss of over 14 billion dollars. Regulators here missed the signs that the bank, which persuaded over 300,000 small depositors to convert them into shares in the bank at what is now a 45% loss.

"The European Central Bank will have to make good the funds necessary, if the Spanish government cannot close the hole", the owner of a small bar not far from the Cathedral tells me. "We are all concerned."