We walked up to the old city to photograph the Catedral. Every time we have been here before the Cathedral has been under some sort of repair both inside and out. Today it was at its finest and the Saturday crowds were taking it all in.
Below are some photographic highlights of what we saw:
We’re enjoying our Camino decompression, but also looking forward to returning home.
Walked Today: 6.9 mi /Camino2022: 348 mi
We left Lavacolla at 6:45 hoping to avoid a long wait in line for our Compostelas once we arrived at the Santiago Catedral.
It was very dark as we walked across the bridge over the legendary stream, but saw no bathers this morning… maybe all pilgrims have warm showers these days.
Only a handful of pilgrims passed us during the 3.5 miles on the way to the Santiago city limits… all in the dark. Also, each of the three bars we had visited for breakfast in previous years along the way to Santiago, and everything else, was not open, by 8:30!
We finally got breakfast in the cafeteria for a huge futbol camp on the edge of a now bustling Santiago, with people on the way to work, cars filling the streets and young, very young pilgrims emerging from everywhere.
The final 3 plus mile walk to the old part of the city and the Catedral was familiar and exhilarating as we were about to reach our destination after 52 days and 348 miles of walking.
We walked past the Catedral and on to the pilgrim’s office which opened at 10:00 but when arrived at 10:15, had only several pilgrims congregating at the entrance. We were given our place-in-line tickets, #111 and #112, got into line only to notice that #86 was now being called to receive their compostela!
We made it!!
We waited in line for about 10 minutes, chatting, smiling, laughing with similarly happy pilgrims, saw our numbers called, submitted our credentials with stamps from points visited across northern Spain since August 15 and just moments later were presented with our 4th Compostela for the Camino de Santiago de Compostela!
We purchased a tube (2€) for carrying our documents home, left the office, gave each other a high five and walked to a nearby bar to celebrate with a cup of hot chocolate.
At 11:00 we decided to return tomorrow to visit the Catedral, take photos and revisit a now familiar old Santiago. Our hotel room not likely to be available til noon or later, we began the 20 minute walk to the train station to purchase tickets for our ride to Madrid, three days from now.
After purchasing our tickets, we made our way back toward the old city, stopping at our hotel and we able to check-in at 11:45.
We got familiar with our room and the Nest Style Hotel for a few minutes. Since our backpacks won’t arrive until around 2pm, we headed out again to get our bearings established for our new base for the next three days … found a nice restaurant for lunch. We had a delicious meal and subsequently identified a good place to return during our next two days in Santiago.
As we were returning to our hotel we spotted the transport van, which probably had our packs. We got to the hotel lobby, took a seat and three minutes later, the van driver walked into the lobby carrying our packs. We flagged him down and he delivered them to where we were sitting!
We returned, with everything we own, in Spain, to our room and began a somewhat bizarre afternoon with nothing we have to do for tomorrow.
So this concludes our blog for today. We’ll return tomorrow and Sunday with photos and reflections, etc.
Life is good!
Walked Today: 3.8 mi /Camino2022: 341 mi
Today was a very short day. By staying at CHE, we picked up the Camino outside of Pedrouzo and joined a large flow of pilgrims that continued all the way to Lavacolla.
We remembered from 2019 that walking from CHE cut some distance off the walk but with the app maps we were using, there was no way to calculate it. When we totaled up the distance after our walk is was nearly two miles shorter than expected because of leaving from CHE and not Pedrouzo.
It was dark when we started at 7:55. We walked uphill continuously, for the first mile, but were surprised because we didn’t need to stop for a breather along the entire stretch. The incline was just enough for a workout, but not enough to get us winded.
As the path leveled out a bit we could see part of a brilliant sunrise through the trees and off to the left, part of a runway of the Santiago airport.
We next began walking along a main highway into Santiago and passed a 11 km mileage sign.
The path continued until we reached San Payo, where we stopped for breakfast.
The hamlet of San Payo and the small church is dedicated to the 14 year old Christian child, who was kidnapped by the invading Muslim troops, taken to Sevilla and ultimately martyred to pieces and tossed into the Rio Guadalquivar, for refusing to convert to Islam.
When we arrived at our destination we were much earlier than expected, but the owner let us into our room after a few minutes wait only because the recently mopped room floor was still drying.
Our backbacks had not been delivered by noon, so we walked to a nearby restaurant and had lunch, then returned to the room to do our afternoon chores, including washing(2€) and drying(3€) our clothes, anticipating that similar facilities might not be so conveniently available in our Santiago hotel tomorrow.
Lavacolla literally means “wash private parts.” Medieval pilgrims seldom if ever bathed along the journey (and “ridiculed Muslim and Jewish enthusiasms for personal hygiene,” so apparently took advantage of the small stream to cleanse themselves for arrival in Santiago.
We skipped the bath in the cold water of the creek and opted instead for a nice, warm shower in our brand new bathroom. Being a pilgrim has come a long way.
1 MORE DAY TO SANTIAGO !
Walked Today: 6.0 mi /Camino2022: 338mi
On our way out this morning we caught Santiago in the breakfast area and wished he and his family good health. He opened his arms and gave Linda a big, emotional hug. As he shook Jim’s hand, with both of his, he wished us and our families good luck and good health. It was a wonderful way to start out the day.
We took the short cut Santiago showed us in 2015 and dove-tailed into the Camino a half-mile later. The scenery today was much like what we have seen the past few days:
Along the way we did spot some different items:
We’re staying at Pencion CHE. It’s located outside of O Pedrouzo and so we checked at the Pensíon Platas in town. The lady at reception suggested we get lunch in town, then return, and they would arrange for transportation to CHE… which we did and they did. While we were in town we stopped at a small mercado for some snacks and then Jim stopped at a feed store and bought some Padron pepper seeds to try to grow back home.
We then checked in at the property and our packs were delivered just as Jim paid for the room. We then took a tour of the property to get our bearings for finding the Camino in the morning, etc.
We stayed here in 2019 as it was opening and it is about the same… somewhat remote, hard to find or get directions to and missing a few things like a full menu and nearby food options, but the room is comfortable and clean and it has laundry options and a pool (nice if here in warm weather).
2 DAYS TO SANTIAGO !!
Walked Today: 7.2 mi / Camino2022: 332 mi
Breakfast, at Bar Teatro, just across the street from Pension Luis, got us off to a good start this morning as we walked out of Arzúa in the perfect-for-walking 54F at 8:30.
There were more pilgrims passing us today but not in an unpleasing way. The majority of these pilgrims seem more serious/mature, more focused and still noticeably happy and excited as we get closer to Santiago. Its a good mixture of 100km walkers and those who have come much longer distances like us. Buen Caminos were exchanged with most every pilgrim that passed us.
The scenery and terrain were also pleasant and distracting from an occasional hard pull up a small hill or cautiously restrained pace of a steep decline.
Most of the time we were walking in forests or in tree shaded paths along farm fences. We spent much less time along roads, either large or small.
We even passed a couple of vendors along the way selling items and offering to stamp credentials… sometimes for a donation. We passed on both but were more amused by the third member of the enterprise, who heehawed us as we passed.
As the sun began to rise, unlike our normal mode of seeking shade to walk in, we steered to the sunny spots to warm us in the high 50-low 60F air. But by mid morning, jackets were off and we were back in short- sleeve shirts again.
The less difficulty in today’s walk led us to be more observant of our surroundings and to compare changes in this part of the Camino compared to what we remember from 2019. The changes included new bars and albergues, new or repaired fences and walls and many more Kilometer-stone distance to Santiago/directional markers at every place a road or path intersects the Camino. This has been a continuing theme throughout our walk throughout Galícia, but was especially apparent today. These are relative changes as compared to our perception of the lesser amount of change in the SJPDP through Castile walk. It’s no surprise that because most, nearly 4 times as many, pilgrims walk only the last 100 km, this is where the keepers of the Camino would put the most effort into upgrades in infrastructure and services.
We arrived in Salceda and at Albergue Turistico Salceda around noon and had lunch in the restaurant while waiting to check-in at 1:00. This us our fourth visit to this property and we have a special affection for the owner, who helped us when Linda was struggling with some spider bites in 2015. His name, appropriately, is Santiago.
During lunch we had a nice chat with a pilgrim couple from Colombia. He is a retired dairy farmer and he and his wife are walking from Sarria to Santiago.
We had several nice exchanges with Santiago and his daughter, Liudmila, reminiscing about our previous 3 visits. It was a very special reunion.
3 MORE DAYS TO SANTIAGO
Walked Today: 5.6 mi / Camino 2022: 324 mi
As we left Boente we stopped at the Iglesia Parroquia Santiago de Boente. A young priest, seated just inside the church stamped our credentials and explained that during the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic, Santiago was closed, so this small church became the end of the Camino until the epidemic was over.
The walk today had a lot of ups and downs but they pretty much balanced out. The finish into Arzúa was a nice flat dirt path separated from the road by a hedge. Overall it was a good workout, but not too much.
We took a short break for OJ at Albergue Santiago in Castañeda, We’ve stayed here twice before, but the husband and wife owners were not to be seen and we didn’t ask. In the outside terrace were thick overhead vines with a plentiful fruit. A closer look revealed them to be kiwis. We asked a local pilgrim who said kiwis grow very well in the Glacian climate and soil.
4 MORE DAYS TO SANTIAGO!
