Well, we made it. Yesterdays walk of 25 km was hugely enjoyable for a number of reasons. Undulating forest paths without any serious hills to climb. My feet have eventually stopped aching. The weather was perfect for walking… but the most compelling reason was that we knew we were only a modest days walk from Santiago. There were not crowds of pilgrims that we had been told to expect. With that said, we spotted a few peculiar looking pilgrims. In some cases, it was easy to see which of them had walked 100 kms and which had walked 800+ kms.
We spent last night at Monte do Gozo overlooking Santiago. It is operated by the municipality. Our guidebook described it as soulless! How wrong it was. I met a Japanese grandfather of 5, a very courteous South Korean woman. A politically aware American and a humerous Swede amongst others. The lesson must be, don’t judge a book by its cover.
We got up at 6am to watch the sun rise over Santiago before casually walking the 5 kms through the suburbs in to the city. Sheila treated herself to chocolata y chorros (doughnuts dipped in hot choculate) for breakfast. I conservatively went for coffee and toast.
After breakfast we walked through the old town in to the Praza do Obradoiro to get our first up close view of Santiago’s magnificent cathedral.
There were only a handful of people in the plaza, justifying our decision to stop 5K short the previous night and walk in to the city early. As you can imagine, our spirits were high. Sheila and I both felt euphoric.
We took photos to record the moment and wandered around the large plaza taking some time to savour the moment before scuttling off to claim our certificates. We had been told that there are normally long queues. We were in and out in 30 minutes clutching our certificates. The woman who served me asked me if I had walked all the way from Irun. I replied “every step”. If she had challenged me further I could have evidenced it by taking off my shoes and socks. I promise you my feet look like they have walked 500 miles.
The day got even better when we met up with Finn who flew in to Santiago at 9am for a two week holiday with us.
We are already planning the next adventure and I will keep my very modest readership updated.
Wandering Boomers 