Back

Camino Frances Day 17: Completion, Reflection, and Honoring Love | Day 268 of my 2023 Journal

Cecilie Conrad·Sep 26, 2023· 3 minutes

Camino Frances. Day seventeen.

This is so emotional.

So much so I can not do it. Not for a short thing for social media. We completed. We completed the Camino, and I can not begin to explain how much happened, how important it was, how I mourn the change coming, and how I, at the same time, LOVE the process.

It is so complex.

Instead, I will babble on about the day and how it was, what we did. If I can.

I had a lovely morning office time in the sunrise, as we had decided to leave just in flow - I took out a blanket and my computer and sat on a wall to finish my writing while enjoying my coffee. The final day! Wuau.

The group arrived, my family got ready, and off we went for the final stretch: only ten kilometers, not much.

Some of this last part is truly beautiful. Some trees are covered in moss, some viewpoints and some stretches of planted systematic but silent forest are so beautiful it is hard to grasp. Some are basic, and others are weird. We made a lot of stops and felt we had enough time. Which we also had.

Arriving is chaotic, with too many people, even a tourist train. I think it is - at least for us - too overwhelming to take in the fact we did it in the chaos of the cathedral of Santiago. Cheryl and I went to have the certificates made, and most of us visited the relics in the Cathedral after that. Felt like a sheep, walking in line, but I also felt like the right thing to do.

The most important to me was to light a candle. A candle for love.

Not that love needs a candle.

It is THE candle.

So lighting a candle for love in the cathedral of Santiago after walking the Camino again was more a way for me to honor the fact love is what it is all about, and that I am part of it and it will always shine, no matter what.

The rest is history.

Really.

It is.

With love

Cecilie-Underskrift-300x133

Cecilie Conrad

Thank you for reading
I would love to hear from you. Listen to your thoughts and reflections - or praise :) It is often emotional to share our lives like this, and we get very happy when we get your feedback. So feel free to share a comment below 😋 

See more images on Facebook

Ten years ago, we visited Italy in our first van conversion; we went for one day to Cinque Terre. This time we wanted to come back to walk the trails…Read more
I believe teenage girls need their mothers much more than our society appreciates and that the way we raise children in institutions, pushing them t…Read more
One advantage of living in a van is the number of things that need fixing/maintenance is much smaller compared to living in a house. Another advantag…Read more
This is a general warning for everyone who loves Shakespeare. For everyone who loves literature. Maybe for everyone in general. Do not visit Juliet's…Read more
It is sometimes emotionally complicated to stop. I remember someone said: “Vacation is doing something you are not usually doing.” Now we do not do v…Read more
Personal freedom is about waking up with loads of options, but more importantly, about having the courage to choose between options and knowing what …Read more
Before we went to Venice, I almost booked a place to stay in Murano, not Venice. It looked almost the same. From Venice, you take the public boat and…Read more
Why do we do what we do? It is obvious that traveling is an adventure and from the outside, it looks like a lot of vacation. The first part is right,…Read more
The feel of Venice is closely connected to walking. The experience of walking between houses, alongside canals, over bridges, over piazzas (and repea…Read more