Santiago

So, yesterday we walked into Santiago de Compostela and were awarded our 8th Compostela for walking the Camino Frances across Spain.

It was a particularly satisfying accomplishment in that Linda had her 81st birthday in Pamplona 46 days ago and Jim will celebrate his 80th birthday in 27 days. And in many ways, Camino 2026 was no more difficult and even seemed easier much of the time, than previous Caminos.

Today we slept in, having little else to do! We went next door to a bar and had a semi-typical breakfast to begin the transition to the real world.

We spent some time reflecting on how it felt ending our 45 day, 304 miles of walking. We are still processing that. What comes next with respect to the Camino, only time will tell.

Our focus by mid-day had shifted to the trip home over the next two days and making plans that allow for a smooth flow from Santiago hotel to train-to Madrid to Hotel in Madrid to Flight home.

We took a break at 2:00 to visit Linda’s favorite Santiago restaurant, Le Coq, for our main meal.

Crispy chicken on a stick, baby lettuce, goat cheese. cherry tomatoes, walnuts and a light balsamic dressing for Linda. Cajun spiced chicken breast, baby mixed lettuce. mozzarella cheese, avocado, orange, apple and a heavy balsamic vinaigrette. Our red wine (vino tinto) was a very nice house mencía.
For dessert we had a very light, warm chocolate brownie with an ice cream sidebar: chocolate for Jim, hazelnut for Linda.

The rest of the afternoon was dedicated to planning, organizing and repacking our stuff, napping and reducing our snack inventory.

4 thoughts on “Santiago”

  1. Deras Linda and Jim,

    Congratulations for your 8th Compostela. A real achievement. We are jealous. Would like to live your experience.

    I stored all your daily reports to read later quietly because things lately did not go very well for us and I had little time.

    We had a great time in Saint Martin. Believed or not reports are showing a good improvement in safety. Police is working better now because they realized tourism was getting affected. Beach was better too because for some reason now there is a good area without rocks at the end of the umbrellas right in front of the mast for flags. It was only to walk a little to go into the water.

    Problem for us was a couple of days after our arrival to The Villages in Florida. Graciela had a mini stroke in the back of her head. Fortunately it was small and affected only her peripheral vision on the right eye. For a reason doctors are not capable to explain the stroke provoked a serious drop in Sodium and that makes the person very confuse. Because the low sodium, disruptions in her Parkinson medication and the logical effects of the stroke even it was small, things at the beginning looked very bad. She was only one day in IC and 3 in hospital. She improved rapidly and now she is perfectly normal. She had an MRI last July 8 and the doctors were very happy with her condition. It was not serious but the scare was huge.

    It were very complicated few weeks but now we are going back to normal.

    Have a very safe return to home. We keep in touch.

    Oscar

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    1. Oscar, You have had a rough time these past few weeks. We are so grateful to hear that Graciela is recovering from her episode so soon and so quickly. We know you both are relieved that no permanent damage occurred. Our thoughts and prayers go out to you both and we hope you have a wonderful summer at Villages and enjoy a well deserved period of R&R. How long do you plan to stay in the Villages?

      Your friends, Jim & Linda

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  2. Hi Jim and Linda! The time just seemed to fly by. We so looked forward to hearing of your travels every day! Thank you for sharing with us and safe travels back! Ron and Vickie

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