30/06/2024 – In Madrid

Since leaving Santiago, we have both reacted to the end of the Camino in a similar way, by doing nothing.

We returned (by automobile) from Fisterra to Santiago on June 27th. I found myself car-sick, totally unused to the sensation of transportation. The twisty road up and down the mountains didn’t help! I spent the drive with my eyes closed, trying to keep my back straight and my breakfast down (I achieved the latter, thankfully). “Fortunately” (in this context), 22 hours of walking corresponds to only 90 minutes by car.

In Santiago, we re-visited the Cathedral, as “simple” tourists. For the Mass, we squeezed into a corner by the entrance and left by a door a few metres away. We had a wonderful view of the botafumerio, but saw almost nothing of the building. It is worth the second visit.

The interior is surprisingly plain, letting its architecture speak in soaring, dressed limestone. It has sumptuous foci: the ostentatiously gilded High Altar with larger-than-adult size pink and white cherubs suspended from myriad golden curlicues; the double organ with hundreds of pipes in military formation, also studded with rosy-cheeked cherubim. It has a dozen chapels, each with a unique character, and, of course, the apostle’s tomb.

From Santiago we flew to Madrid successfully, only a few hiccoughs along the way. The metro deposited us within metres of our hotel, (on which we have splurged, albeit room only). The Barceló de Torres stands right on the Plaza d’ España. Our room is luxuriously large, with a kettle, fridge, bath, shower and super-king-size bed. We stocked the fridge from a local supermarket; unpacked our suitcases for the first time since May 4th and STOPPED.

We have now been in Madrid for 2 days. Yesterday, we explored for a couple of hours, literally marveling at the wide boulevards, tall and modern buildings and civic amenities. We stared at the outside of many of the monuments and institutions within a 2km radius and walked on. Today, we did the same with those we missed yesterday. We have not yet been into anything. It is as if neither of us has the desire to add a single new thing to our mental inventory. Madrid is an extraordinary town – and not one it will be hard to visit in the future. All of this is contributing to our simply wanting to float in it and unwind.

There is no sadness or anxiety in this. It is not even a “choice”. It is as if we both “know” that this is our time between. We fly to Atlanta and family and friends on 3rd July. We have our new journey to the Maritimes, another self-contained 6-week exploration. Madrid is the place where we are making space for what is to come. I can’t say that I am “sorting through” or “making sense of” what we have experienced, only that I am hoping my body/brain/spirit are doing that while I try not to disturb them.