The end of the World

People have been walking to Santiago, in western Spain, from all over Europe since at least the 12th century.  Their reasons vary, from religious, to political, to personal, but still, they come.  On route we took, the "Portuguese Way", we were preceded by Thomas Becket, who stayed in Caldas De Rais one night in about 1167 during his pilgrimage to Santiago, and got the local church named after him.

For most, at Santiago, their journey is done. They go back home, start a new life, pray, or say good bye to friends made a long the way.

A small number, however, keep going the 55 miles to Finnestra, a little spit of land jutting out into the Atlantic ocean: the end of the world (Columbus wouldn't discover the Americas for another century). So off to Finnestra Mary and I went.

We walked down to a secluded beach, where Mary said her goodbye to our Camino.

Near the end, we ditched the official trail, and walked for over a mile along the beach.

Here we are! The end of the World.  After following Camino "go this way" posts for hundreds of miles, this is the first one: "kilometer 0.0". 

Surely, now we are truly at the end of our journey: there's no where west left to go.

But not Mary. We heard a rumor that there is yet another, even more isolated spit of land, 20 miles North of here that juts into the Atlantic is 30 yards farther than Finnestra: Muxia. Guess where we're walking to tomorrow?