Day 41 - Fast Transit Navigating Home : Santiago de Compostela to Paris

We awoke this morning early and wandered back to the cathedral to spend some time watching excited pilgrims rush into the main square. It was here that the depression began to settled in. Our trek was done and we didn't belong in the flood of new pilgrims who came with their groups to finish their quests. Two days after arriving it is clear the transformation from pilgrim to tourist is complete, and it is time to go home and figure out how to fit the Camino into our lives back in Canada.

With all of this in mind we began our homeward journey. We hired a taxi from our hotel to the small, clean, and modern looking Santiago airport to catch our Air Iberia flight to Madrid.  At first his was a stunning experience, as the taxi was travelling at a much faster speed than we had been for the past 4 - 5 weeks.  However, by the time we arrived at the airport we had already begun to adjust back to the pace of automated world we had left behind. 

 

With few other people in the airport we were quickly checked in and took the time to admire a scale model of Santiago and the Cathedral which was set up in the waiting from. 

We caught our flight to Madrid, where we had a two hour layover before catching a flight back to Paris.  By 8 pm we were back in France, and from the airport we caught a Le Bus Direct to the Ibis Styles Paris Roissy hotel. 

Given our late arrival into Paris we were advised to order dinner before closing time. As such, after rather basic fair in the hotel restaurant, we were back in our room by 10 catching up on our final journals and preparing for our morning flights from Paris to Montreal and then from Montreal to Toronto, and our final shuttle drive back home. 

By the end of the day both of us had sore legs and sore backs - ironically from sitting all day on planes and not being able to get out walking or hiking. How quickly our bodies began to expect certain lifestyles and physical demands. Ultimately today was relatively uninspiring and uneventful, but I suppose that is how you want things to go when you are on a series of plane flights. In the end we are grateful to have been able to safely travel from Santiago to Madrid to Paris without incident and to arrive at our hotel in time for an evening meal.

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Practical information:

Distance: 1,495 km
Max Temperature: 17°C
Accommodations: Ibis Styles Paris Roissy Hotel (95.95 Euro / room)