After arriving in Santiago I spent two and a half days there and felt somewhat ill at ease. For many pilgrims Santiago is a peak experience but I felt aimless. I was done with my Camino. I was perfectly comfortable, and was really happy my hotel had good AC when it got up to 95 degrees. But I guess after 7 weeks of having a destination and purpose and knowing exactly what I wanted and needed to do, I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself. I relaxed, wandered, walked the streets, explored interesting buildings, but I felt like I was killing time before heading home.

Then I decided to bus to Finisterre for a day. Some people walk the final 90K to Finisterre, and at this point I'm kind of sorry I didn't. My experience there far exceeded my expectations and it seemed like such a fitting end to the Camino, completing the journey from the French border to the Atlantic.

Finisterre is located on a narrow peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic. You can walk from one side of the peninsula to the other in about a half hour. The town itself is picturesque, a small port with brightly colored buildings and boats, a bunch of small shops and restaurants and dwellings. I was on the peninsula about 24 hours. On Friday afternoon I wandered the town and the countryside around it and stayed in the hills overlooking the town. On Saturday morning I walked to the "end of the earth" and found out why it's called that. The town is at sea level and the path leads about 4 km straight uphill along the coast, rising higher and higher above the sea, until you reach the tip of the peninsula, way high above the ocean on all sides. It's spectacular, with vertiginous views. For part of the walk up I actually kept my hand on the guard rail because it was dizzying. At the very end it was overwhelmingly beautiful and I felt way more emotional than I had expected, I guess maybe what a lot of folks feel in Santiago. It did feel like the end of the earth.