Santiago!

I arrived in Santiago de Compostela on Saturday. What a great feeling to make it here after five weeks of walking, and how very odd it was to arrive in a strange city I have never been to before and see so many people I know or at least recognize. I walked into the city with Emily and the first thing we did after arriving was head to the Pilgrim's Office to register and receive our certificates. We drank lots of wine and ate tapas all afternoon, then after a short rest, we went to dinner. On Sunday after breakfast we went to the cathedral to complete the pilgrimage by hugging the statue of St. James, saying a prayer at his tomb and attending the pilgrim's mass. The afternoon was spent walking around and looking in shops. We took the tour on the roof of the cathedral and it was great to see the church and the city below from that perspective. At night we went to a bar, ate dinner and watched as Spain won the Euro Cup. What a great atmosphere and what a great time to be in Spain.

Last days before we achieve our goal

Day 33: Portomarín --> San Xulián (28.3 km)...

This was a difficult day of walking: not physically, but mentally. From Sarria the camino begins to get crowded because Sarria is the easiest place to get to by bus that is just within the requirement that the pilgrim office demands in order for a pilgrim to obtain a compostela, the certificate of proof that you have walked the camino. A pilgrim must walk 100 km ...or bike (or go by horse) for 200km... to Santiago de Compostela to qualify for the compostela. As a result, there is a large influx of new arrivals to the camino in Sarria, largely school-age kids who often walk at the end of their school year. Being the end of June, this is exactly what happened and there was noticeably a lot more people on the road, mostly kids... and they talk a lot, goof around and play music on the way. Not that there is anything wrong with that...they are just doing what comes naturally to teenagers of all countries...but I did spend a large part of the day trying to get away from the sounds of their voices and music, either by slowing down, speeding up or taking breaks. Mostly I was unsuccessful in my attempts but that just gave me new opportunities to be patient and tolerant. (sigh!) However, while I may want to walk the camino quietly and with reflection, that is not everyone´s way, and the camino is for all. Besides which, as pilgrims, we must always remember that this is their country and we are guests in Spain. Still, it was a challenging day. Happily, this was the worst day in that respect... the next two were not as bad... and I was able to ameliorate the situation by starting earlier than usual. After all, teenagers are not known for being early risers. :-)

The day´s end, according to most of the guidebooks, should have been in the town of Palas do Rei, however it was not a very friendly or attractive town and most of those I have met decided, as did I, to continue a little further. I was very glad I did because as a result I stayed in a small hamlet called San Xulián which had a population of 12 people and six cows, some chickens and a few cats. The albergue was charming and the hospitalleros were very nice and welcoming. They also cooked dinner for us, which was delicious. Their hospitality was uplifting, and it was a very good end to a long and trying day.


Day 34: San Xulián --> Arzúa (25.4 km)...

Another nice walking day, in part because of the lovely eucalyptus forest through which we needed to walk. The light through the trees was delightful! Arzúa itself is a rather haphazard town, with no discernible main square and little to recommend it in terms of architecture. We had a fun time though as the semi-finals of soccer were playing this night (Germany vs. Italy) and we were in the company of some of the German pilgrims we have met along the way. Unfortunately for them, Germany lost the match. However that will make our pilgrim friend Alberto very happy! I sent an email to Alberto and to Gary (mentioned earlier as the fellow who needed an electrical adaptor in Moratinos a few weeks ago) and asked them to meet us in Santiago on Saturday which they both replied that they are able to do. On Sunday it will be the final championship game of the Eurpoean cup and it will be Spain vs. Italy playing for the cup...sorry Alberto, but we feel obliged to root for Spain!


Day 35: Arzúa --> Arco do Pino (19.0 km)...

Not much to report on today. It was a nice walk...not long (only 19 km!)...and through eucalyptus forest again. The most memorable thing to report on today is that this is the last day before we reach our arrival in Santiago. I had planned to arrive there today but changed my plans to wait in Sarria for Mike, Nari & Emily to catch up with me. I will be going out with my camino friends shortly and, as promised, I will raise a glass of wine (and ask my friends to do likewise) to toast my cousin Yvonne whose birthday it is today. Happy birthday Yvonne!

In the home stretch now

Day 30: Fonfría --> Sarria (27.7 km)...

Today was fiesta day in Spain ...like when is it not?...but it was Saint-John-the-Baptist´s Day, which is a big deal. I got to Sarria fairly early and hung around the town. There was not much to do because of the fiesta day, but I made my own kind of fun. I walked down to the riverside where there were a lot of sidewalk cafés and ordered myself a pizza. It was very good...thin crust, cooked well done, and spicy (and the food I have had in Spain has really not been very spicy) ...just as I like it. I ordered some red wine to go with that. The waitress asked if I wanted a glass or a bottle and I told her that I thought a bottle was too much for just me alone. But as soon as she went inside I ran into the restaurant and told her I had changed my mind and would have the bottle! :-) That was a good decision! I ate most of the pizza but not all of it...and I did drink the whole bottle of wine! I enjoyed my meal but it wasn´t so much fun to sit on my own all night. While I sat there and watched the world pass by, I decided that I would stay an extra day in Sarria so that my friends could catch up with me. I figured it didn´t matter if I had extra days after I got to Santiago or before, but it was a good idea to wait for them and I could have some simpatico people to sit around in the evenings and with whom I could enjoy life. After eating, I went to mass. I figured if the guy at the front was going to have some wine, there was no reason why I should deprive myself. It was a pilgrim mass, i.e. they have a special blessing for pilgrims at the end of the service. Then I got my pilgrim passport stamped and said goodbye to my Texan friends who were also attending the mass. Back to the albergue I went and went to bed early. At 11:30pm the fireworks started and man-oh-man I swear they sounded like they were happening right in my room!!! Boom! Boom! Boom!!! Thankfully that lasted only half an hour and I could go back to sleep after that.


Day 31: Sarria

Sat around waiting for my friends to arrive, which they did a little after lunchtime. They were really glad to see me and I, to see them. After settling into a new albergue, Mike, Nari & I went down by the riverside and ate lunch of patatas bravas, hamburgers (what a taste of home!) and sangría. Then it was time for an afternoon nap. After the nap we met with Claude, a fellow Canadian, and had a few drinks. Nari didn´t feel that well though so she went back to rest and the three of us men had a dinner which was not memorable except it was one of the most mediocre meals I have had here. Oh well, they can´t all be good. We went to bed early and thankfully there were no more fireworks to spoil our sleep.


Day 32: Sarria --> Portomarín (22.4 km) ...

I left the albergue about an hour after Mike and Nari and slowly made my way down the path. After about two hours, one of our other camino friends came by and asked if I had seen Nari. I hadn´t. Then a few minutes later Mike came by in the other direction with no backpack and asked the same thing. It seemed she had disappeared. 

Nari is not as fast a walker as Mike and he had walked on ahead for a little bit, but after awhile, she never showed up. The next thing we knew there was a search and rescue party underway. We ended up walking back about an extra 45 minutes each...and to make a long story short, she somehow did manage to walk ahead and pass Mike without him seeing.

Well...all was well in the end and nobody was actually lost...but Mike and Nari decided that in the future they would bring cell phones for emergencies. :-) I actually have a Spanish cell phone for just such things, but nobody else could call me. lol So the rest of the day we walked on to our final destination, Portomarín, and it has been very hot day (about 35 degress Celsius). All is well that ends well...and now we ware going out for dinner to celebrate a safe arrival by all. Hey... at least it was a little drama outside of the ordinary!

Galicia

First two corrections from my last post:

1. Many of the trees and plants are the same, but this place doesn´t look like any part of Canada I know. But that is only because of the big rolling hills always in the distance. Otherwise, yes, it has a similar look to it.
2. I have not entered into another province by crossing from Castilla y León into Galicia. Galicia is not a province but is a nation (for lack of a better word), which itself has four provinces. The best correlation I can think of is the UK, as the United Kingdom is the name of the country which is comprised of several nations within it (e.g. England & Scotland), which are then divided into counties (e.g. Cornwall) which correspond to the provinces here.

Galicia

Galicia is in the northwest corner of Spain and is the first place that the clouds find land after crossing the Atlantic Ocean. As a result, it is very green here and it rains a lot. It has a history of Celtic settlers living here and the local music does in fact include bagpipes. The country is reminiscent of other Celtic lands such as the west coast of Ireland, with small fields and pastures where grazing cattles, sheep and pigs can find a home. There are other similarities,such as that the countryside is poor and many of the young men leave here to find work elsewhere. According to the Brierly guidebook, there is a strong Catholic faith which is overlaid by elements of an earthy spirituality.


Day 29: Ruitelán --> Fonfría (21.7 km)...

The day´s walk today was not as bad as it looked in the guidebooks. There was a long climb at the start, but it wasn´t too bad. When you reach the top, you arrive in the village of O Cebreiro which is like a time warp with small round, stone huts topped by thatched roofs. Most of these are housing tourist shops but I guess the locals need to make money wherever they can.

Typical dwelling in O Cebreiro (obviously not taken by me as there is no snow here at the moment):

Here in Fonfría the albergue is quite large (about 75 beds all in one room) but it is clean and the people are friendly. This is great, because there is nothing else here of interest, just a few houses, the albergue and a tiny bar. I walked to the edge of town and got back in about 5 minutes. :-)

On the edge of Castilla y Léon, heading into Galicia

Day 26:  Foncebadón --> Ponferrada (28.2 km)...

In the first hour of the day I came to Cruz de Ferro. As I wrote last time, this is an important stop along the way, where pilgrims bring a stone from their hometown and place it on the pile as a symbolic gesture that we are leaving our burdens behind and continuing on the journey. I brought my stone and found enough quiet time between the endless stream of other pilgrims to get some meaningful time here at this mystical place. I left my stone. I felt the magic. Thank you, universe.

Cruz de Ferro:

The rest of the day was a long and tiring one but I made it to Ponferrada. Here there is a very interesting castle built partly by the Knights Templar and I got to visit for free because it was Wednesday. Perhaps that makes up for my missing out on the museum/palace I wanted to visit on Monday but could not because it was closed?  I treated myself to a room in a hotel, had a bath and an early night. I slept in until 8:00am and had a nice breakfast buffet before starting my next day. It was a well deserved rest. 

Day 27: Ponferrada --> Cacabelos (16.9 km)...

I had a much shorter walking day today as I encountered Emily again after about a week without having seen her. She seemed a little blue (or more likely she was just tired!) and so I asked her if she wished to walk together which she did. [Note: Emily later confirmed that she was just tired at that moment.] This was the first day that I really sought to walk with anyone else and it was good for me too. When we got to Cacabelos, where she planned to stay, she asked if I was going to continue on as planned or if I would stay there with her. I decided to act on the feeling and stayed in this town, and we had a nice day together. We ate paella, drank some of the local wine and walked about town a bit. We walked back to the albergue where she wanted to lie down a little, but then I went to the grocery store and bought another bottle of wine and knocked on her cubicle. She was up for it and we drank that before heading out to dinner with some other pilgims we had arranged earlier to meet. I have had a lot of alone time and I think it was a good  to break out of that routine.

Day 28: Cacabelos --> Ruitelán (30.2 km)...

Today will be my last day in the province of Castilla y León. It is a very big province, but fairly sparsely populated. Tomorrow I will enter into the next and last province of the camino: Galicia. The vegetation is changing yet again and it is much more green, the trees are bigger and I think this was the first time I noticed ferns along the way. In many ways it reminds me of Canada. The day´s walking today was very difficult for the spirit as the last, several long kilometres were along the bust highway. At more than one time I thought "are they kidding me, am I still on the right road?" but I was, fortunately! 

Here in Ruitelán I am staying at an albergue that I had read about previously to good report. So far all the recommendations have been spot on. This is a lovely place, run by a delightful man named Carlos. He made a meal for all of us: carrot soup, salad, spaghetti carbonara and pudding for dessert...with the usual wine, water and bread of course. Tomorrow, he told us, the music will start at 6:00 am (I already know it will be Ave Maria, but I am not sure which version) and we have strict instructions that nobody is to get up before then. I wish more places had rules like that because I sure had had more than a few mornings´sleep disturbed by early risers. We are all starting to feel a little tired of walking. Go figure! This time next week I will be in Santiago and I will have completed my pilgrimage. Looking back at the places I have been... Roncesvalles, Pamplona, Logoño, Burgos, León, Ponferrada (to name only the largest)...well it just seems like lifetimes ago. I feel like I have lived a thousand lives these last four weeks and I am starting to look forward to coming back to the one I know and love the best.

The scenery has changed again...

Day 24: Villar de Mazarife --> Astorga (31.2 km)...

This was a lovely day for walking and the scenery is changing now from the more-or-less flatness of the meseta to more hilly ground. In fact, the next couple days will see the biggest elevations I will have to climb along the route, even including the walk over the Pyrenées. I got to Astorga in the early afternoon but was a little disappointed to learn that all the interesting sites are closed on Mondays. And Astorga has a few interesting sites, such as the cathedral, the chocolate museum, and the Episcopal Palace.

The Episcopal Palace was designed by Antonio Gaudí, the Catalan architect of whom I have previously written. Finished in 1915, it was not actually completed by Gaudí because he had fallen out of favour with the local bishop before the building was completed, but it still looks very much like one of his buildings. In fact, the building itself is a little misnamed because it never was the home of the bishop. During the civil war it was used as barracks for the nationist government.

The Episcopal Palace:

I had dinner in the Plaza Mayor with some other pilgrims. It was very loud (but fum) because the Spanish were playing soccer an it was being televised on televisions facing the main square. Everyone was out to watch the game. Not caring for soccer particularly  I sat with my back to the TV so that my other pilgrim friends could watch the match. I enjoyed myself but then went back to the albergue immediately after eating. That was a good thing because it was getting dark and my laundry was still hanging outside. :-)


Day 25: Astorga --> Foncebadón (27.2 km)...

This was a great walk again today and I am now in the tiny pueblo of Foncebadón. In 1990, the last person left this village and it was abandoned... but this ancient place now has a population of about 40 people, thanks entirely to the recent popularity of the camino. It is a magical place overlooking the mountains, and it looks like a village straight out of an Asterix and Obelisk comic book.

Tomorrow will be one of the most meaningful of all the days I expect.. my first stop out of this village is to the Cruz de Ferro, where by tradition pilgrims bring a stone from their hometown as a symbol of the burdens they wish to leave behind. I too have brought my stone which came from a special beach in Victoria where we scattered my mom's ashes. I think of her every day, and no more so than here. Yet, although I miss her all the time, she is everywhere around me: in the plants and trees, in the rocks and fields, in the birds that sing and the lizards that scurry out of my path. (She would have appreciated the lizard comment as that was her preferred computer user name...Lizzzard! lol )

I love the comments that some of you are posting, and the emails you have sent. I am able to access my usual email address and my travel email from my phone. It is a little hit and miss depending on where I am and if there is wifi, but I do get your messages and appreciate hearing news from home. I have walked over 500km so far and am now in the home stretch. I should reach Santiago a week from Friday. From there I will be going to Finisterre and then I will be spending a few days by the beach before heading home. I look forward to seeing everyone and sharing some vino tinto with you all! Take care!

Map of the Route

Below is a map of the route I have been taking. There are several different routes which all end in Santiago de Compostela. The route I have taken is known as the Camino Francés (the French Way) as it is the road from France. This is the most popular of the caminos and as a result there are more amenities for pilgrims along this way.

Some call this the "real" Camino, but that is not really true. For most of its history, the pilgrims who walked the camino started from their hometown and wherever they would find a road to Santiago could be considered the real camino. For sure, pilgrims of the past didn´t fly to Europe and take the train to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France to start walking!