You will not believe what happened at the airport in Hamburg at my return from Santiago.
I was waiting for my stick Opi to arrive and was just taking off the baggage sticker of my backpack that had arrived already, when a woman working for the airport approached me and told me to leave the sticker on otherwise the border control will have to check my bag. I took the chance to ask her whether a walking stick would arrive at the same baggage claim. She asked for my name and remembered that they had send her a message earlier concerning my stick and that it was left behind in Santiago and will come later tonight with the next flight. I went with her to the counter so they can take my details in order to send me my stick. She asked me what it was and so I told her that it was my walking stick during the camino de santiago and that I had walked 800 km with it. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and told me that Santiago is her name patron and that she is very very catholic and every morning she kisses a picture of the statue of Santiago similar to the one I uploaded. A priest had given it to her and one of her biggest dreams is to do the camino de Santiago one day. I also showed her a video I had taken in the cathedral in Santiago during mass. We both couldn't believe it. What an emotional moment. I gave her the shell of Santiago a spanish guy had given to me on the way. For some reason I still had that shell in my backpack. Now I Know why! And I told her that she absolutely has to do it, that even for me, not beeing catholic, the way had touched me deeply and will always be one of the most intense experiences of my entire life.
And it didn't stop there: in the metro to the main station I met a woman who had finished a part of the French camino de Santiago from Le puy to St. Jean Pied de Port ten days ago!
What a tremendous coincidence again!!!
Still not finished, when I got home, that woman from the airpoirt called and told me crying that she is very sorry but they can't send a wooden stick from Hamburg to Rostock, that it would be too expensive. But she will keep the stick and when she will do the camino, she is going to do it with my stick!
Isn't that great? I guess that stick belongs on the camino and not in a corner somewhere!