PostScript - Getting to Santiago de Compostela

As I wrote yesterday, we managed to walk into Santiago for the last stage of our Portuguese Camino.

We started the day early as we had decided to try to walk the whole way from Padron into Santiago in one go. We'd been uncertain right up to yesterday morning about that stage. It's quite long, over 20kms, and gets increasingly hilly as you get closer to Santiago which makes it even more difficult. However, we decided to go for it. If we hadn't, we would probably have lost contact with a number of people that we met, and got friendly with, who we knew were definitely aiming to walk in yesterday.

We'd both had a interrupted sleep at the hotel. It was an interesting building and looked impressive, but it was also noisy. It seemed that anytime anyone in the building moved it created creaks and bumps that echoed all around the house, very strange, but meaning that both of us had awakened several times during the night. We also awoke at about 6:30 to see that it was raining, and raining quite heavily. We'd had a little rain yesterday afternoon, but only slight, this morning it was serious looking. We left the hotel at 7:00am, creeping out as everyone else seemed to be still asleep, we'd paid our bill yesterday as we knew that we would be leaving early, out to a cafe we knew would be open. There we had a good breakfast and we hit the road at 7:30.

 It was raining enough to require ponchos from the start, this was the first rain ever that we'd had in Galicia. We have had none at all on our previous visits, and Galicia is renowned for its rain.

The rain continued for the rest of the day. Our walking was initially along the main road but then we turned off into more country areas with a mixture of small roads and tracks. At our first rest/snack stop a whole gang of familiar faces showed up, including Jean and Colette, Bernard and one of two others that we were familiar with by sight. As this was the last day out it was all very matey.

Onwards, a few slopes and small hills. Barbara's lower back was beginning to ache somewhat, she'd had some foot trouble previously due to a twisted ankle but that was now fine. On to the next rest break where some people ordered sandwiches for lunch which, when they arrived, were enormous.

Onwards again, but this time the hills were getting steeper and more fiendish and seemed to be never ending, Barbara's back was aching even more.

All along the way we'd been passing distance marker stones and these were steadily counting down the distance. We'd got down to one showing about 6.4 kms when, suddenly, the distance plates were no longer there.

We initially though that they may have been taken as "souvenirs" but later came to the conclusion that the route had been changed and the original distance scale didn't apply now. Coinciding with this lack of distance markers came a total loss of any refreshment places. The signing had also become less reliable, in some places signs were missing, or were just plain confusing.

Which way now?

We went for many kms, more than the 5 or so that we were expecting, before we eventually found a rather scruffy looking cafe that provided us with the most delicious tasting cheese and bacon sandwich and some drinks. At that point we thought we must be near to the end but checking the map showed that there was still about another 5kms to go. By this time we were definitely in the city suburbs but the hills continued and the final drag into the centre was really hard work.

We met Daniel, the German guy that Barbara had "rescued" way back in Ponte de Lima. We couldn't understand how he had passed us, as we'd passed him many kilometres back when he was having a break. He confessed to catching a bus part of the way. We all walked the final kilometre or so into Santiago centre. Just before we arrived at the cathedral we made a small diversion to check into a hotel for the night and then, finally, we arrived in front of the cathedral.

It was then 4:30pm, and it had taken nine hours, including breaks, to do the walk.  It had been a very hard, and wet. We'd never really taken off our ponchos all day, we folded them back from time to time but had needed them virtually the whole time.

As we arrived in front of the cathedral we were greeted by a hearty French couple who we had seen fairly often before but never got to know as such, but they gave us a great welcome.  It was still raining, and being so late in the day not many other pilgrims were arriving so we returned to the hotel to get showered changed and have a good rest. Later, we went out for something to eat and then returned for a long sleep.

No more walking tomorrow.


All of the above refers to Friday, it's now Sunday and time to catch up. 

Since Friday we've had time to rest, catch up with friends; say goodbye to most of them as they've now left Santiago on their way home, and we've made our arrangements for our journey home. We're heading out for a couple of nights at the coast in Baiona before flying back to Manchester on Wednesday. We've also been to the pilgrim office to claim or certificates.

This afternoon I went on a fascinating guided tour of the rooftop of the cathedral, in the rain of course, it's still not stopped for very long.

It's a real shame for the city as this weekend is a festival time in Santiago; for the Feast of the Ascension. There have been concerts, exhibitions and markets arranged for the whole weekend, all of which must have been affected by the constant rain and low temperatures. Currently, as I write this, there is the sound of a large firework display nearby, and it's still raining hard. Shame.

By the way, Barbara's back is now much improved having had time to rest it.

Overall it's been a very good Camino, and much different from our previous "Camino Frances" one. We've walked just about 600kms in 31days, from April 6th to May 6th, through two countries, Portugal and Spain.

This, the Camino Portuguese, was along, what felt like, a much less established route than the Camino Frances. The lack of suitable pilgrim accommodation, at reasonable distances, in many places was sometimes a problem. The constant cobbled roads and main road walking sections, particularly in Portugal were also very tiring, and sometimes rather scary.

But, the wonderful countryside and places, the cheerful and very friendly people, again particularly in Portugal, made it very enjoyable. Above all the fantastic pilgrims that you meet and get to know, if only for a very brief time, or in more depth, make the Camino a most memorable experience.

We've had a great, and most memorable, time.

Thanks for reading this blog and thanks for the comments either here on the blog or sent directly to me as emails.

Bye for now!

Tony and Barbara