Going home tomorrow

Because of a couple of changes I had to make in the middle of my camino (splitting a stage or two that turned out to be longer and harder than anticipated), I wound up walking into Santiago without enough days to walk to Finisterre and Muxia. That means that I am essentially "stuck" in Santiago for more days than usual. I could have taken a bus or train somewhere for a day trip but on each of the days I had a friend/friends coming into town and we had plans for an evening meetup. 

So I did the usual post camino routine. Pilgrims mass, cathedral visit, trip to the park, etc etc. Lots of time to think and process. 

It's not every year that the intense personal connections are made but the last two weeks on this camino were extraordinary. In our group were two young guys --a 16 year old from the Canaries and a 19 year old from near Bilbao. Maybe it's because I was the oldest and they were the youngest, but for some reason we had a very tight connection. One of them would inevitably show up when I was dragging, and I was always there to stop their complaining --if I can do this, surely you can too. These photos were taken as we were saying our goodbyes. 

No concrete thoughts yet on next year's camino -- I leave that to the grey dreary months of Illinois winters. But I do have a few  ideas starting to percolate.  🤗

Home tomorrow. 

In Santiago

I am here. Today our group of 15 all waited for each other at the entrance to Santiago. 

Some left at 4:15, some at 5:30, some at 6:00. I went with the 5:30 group.

And we all walked into Santiago together. 

I will be here for a few more days than usual but I am glad I will not be walking  another step in my boots for now. 

This has been an extraordinary Camino. 

20 kms from Santiago

This was not a particularly beautiful walk today. Lots of asphalt, lots of eucalyptus trees, and lots and lots of people. But hey, we are now 20 km from Santiago. 

The 15 of us had lunch together and are in an albergue together. 

We will all hobble in together and that will be that. Crazy. 

Getting close to the end

Today, the Camino Primitivo joined up with the Camino francés.  We are now part of what my pal Reb calls the moving sidewalk. It's pretty incredible to see the numbers of people walking -- some looking fresh and spiffy (mainly those who started a day or two ago at the 100 km mark -- the minimum to qualify for the compostela), some of the walking wounded who look like they've been through the ringer, and then bedraggled pilgrims like the 15 of us. 

We have fallen into a comfortable routine. Everyone eats breakfast together and then we all walk at our own pace until we see that the ones at the front have stopped for a coffee. Then we all regroup and move on to the next stop. 

Today when we hit the Camino Francés, I had to look to see if one of my favorite little Romanesque churches was open, in the tiny town of Furelos. In this church, built in the 12th C, there are some beautiful 14 C murals. 

But what I like most is the 12th C metalwork, just beautiful. Whenever I see it I am reminded that there is absolutely nothing that I will ever make or do that others will admire 1000 years from now. 

My feet are fed up, my body is tired, but I 

am very content.  I would have to say that this camino ranks right up there with the best of them. 

From Lugo to Ponte Ferreira.

Today was a fine day except for all the asphalt. And except for the tick. We have become a group of fifteen and that makes the post-walking time a lot of fun. And since one is a nurse, the tick removal process was quite professional. 

I left Lugo very early in the mist:

The day out of Lugo has always been hard on the feet but even more so now with all the hard gravel paths. It just defies belief to see what the government of Galicia has done with these trails. If it's not on pavement, it's on bulldozed and leveled gravel paths. I just don't get it. There is virtually no camino left. 

But anyway, the countryside is quite bucolic and we are in a brand new albergue so life is good. 

I'm learning how to play a Spanish card game and seem to generally be the loser. When I lose everyone sings the Star Spangled Banner -- pretty amazing that all 14 know the melody perfectly! I guess that is some kind of a political statement but I'm not sure what. 

One of the owners of the Albergue is Juanma, a wonderful very helpful guy whom I've finally gotten to meet in person. He has helped me many times on the Internet with my obscure camino questions.  It takes a very special kind of person to do this job well --7 days a week, from the crack of dawn ( breakfast at 6) till the place shuts down at 10 or so. 

Just a few days to Santiago!  All is well. Love to you guys. 

Lugo -- Sunshine, Roman walls, and a short day

I was kind of dragging today, not sure why except maybe my body has had enough of this. So many people have asked me how many kms I have walked and so yesterday I did a rough estimate. Turns out that in Santiago it will be between 1100 and 1200, which surprised me. So I guess it's no surprise my body is dragging. 

Though the walk wasn't spectacular and was a lot on asphalt (grrrrr), we did go through a lot of nice little old hamlets --a few houses, some garden plots, and cows. Lots of cows. 

While walking today, I was singing the song September (which was played at my mom's memorial service) and thinking a lot about her and the rest of the family. I am walking this camino in her memory and my compostela will be inscribed with her name "vicarie pro". Some days it is so hard to realize she is gone. 

I'm still coughing and I think I still have a sinus infection so I've decided to skip the albergue tonight, and I'm in a little pension. My window looks out on the Roman walls--not bad for 25 €!!

Off to meet my amigos for lunch and then some tourism time! 

Long day to Castroverde

The choice for these two days is to do a short day today and a long one tomorrow into Lugo or to do the long one today and have smooth sailing into Lugo tomorrow. I picked the latter option, but at 2:15 as I was saying goodbye to my friends (who took the first option) and starting up a 2 km climb, I had my doubts. 

What a beautiful day. Better than my words are these pics:  

There was a great coffee stop after a couple of pretty hard ascents. 

And then a few more ups and downs through some abandoned hamlets. 

Then through the little town of A Lastra, which now has two bars as opposed to none four years ago. 

The Camino Primitivo Is having a huge surge in popularity. Sometimes I wonder if the government is rushing to pave paradise in its eagerness to make the trail accessible to more people. This is NOT an improvement over the dirt path that was there the last time, I can assure you. 

And since we've entered Galicia, there have been many kms of this -- bulldozed broad spaces covered with gravel and interspersed with granite indented boulders for drainage. 

I am really not sure where the Xunta de Galicia gets its Camino advice!

Tomorrow to Lugo, only city in the world I believe with in tact Roman walls. And then I'll be just a hop, skip, and a jump from Santiago!

28 km to A Fonsagrada

Either I'm getting weaker or these 28 kms were harder than I remembered. 

I left the very nice albergue at about 6:45. 

A perfect walking day-- cool, sunny, totally clear skies. BUT a lot of ups and downs. We crossed a mountain pass and there we were in Galicia. 

The first bar that was open was at km 18 so a lot of pilgrims were chomping at the bit to get a coffee. Not everyone carries an electric coil, it seems. :-)

I have a persistent cough that I just can't shake so I'm staying in private rooms for a while. Seems to me it's bad pilgrim etiquette to sleep in a room with 8 or 10 and keep them all awake with your cough. Now I realize that may sound like a rationalization but I think it's the best course for now. I've bought some cough medicine in the farmacia so fingers crossed that it goes away soon. 

Down to the dam and then back up

Today's walk was on the very short side--around 20+- kms but it seemed much longer. Very little of the walk was on anything resembling flat ground. It was all up or down but very pretty.  So many wow moments. 

And here we are in the town of Grandas de Salime, whose 12 C church is very unusual. 

 

My knees, which had me a little worried all last year, performed more or less beautifully and I have no complaints. 

There are seven of us that have fallen into a comfortable group. We may or may not walk together but we always wind up at the same pre-arranged place and enjoy a good meal together. There's the Dutch-Spanish couple, a Venezuelan couple, a Basque father-son pair (for whom "joder, macho" is the currency of the realm, a wonderful twosome) and me. 

It's so funny how the camino throws together such different people, mixes us all up, and turns us into a congenial group who like each other very much. I am very lucky to have coincided with them and gelled with them, but I have to say that I'm not surprised.  This is just what happens on the camino. 

The other real joy of these walks is the chance to talk with the people who live here. Today we spent time with a couple of benches of the town's señoras, who ranged from about 45 to 95. The two on the right, friends since childhood and now both in wheel chairs, were the first to vote in today's national elections. 

One of them told me that the working class in Spain is just like some tree whose English name I don't know. The more you prune back the tree, the more it grows. The workers, she said, the more you abuse them, the harder they work and the more they produce. Her version had a few words not fit for polite company, so you can probably guess which side of the political spectrum she falls on. We heard a lot of local gossip and enjoyed ourselves immensely. 

Tomorrow we'll have a long stage, but nothing that these old feet of mine should have trouble with. Getting closer and closer every day!!

Great day to Berducedo.

I'm safe I think there were about 2300' ascent today, most of it through the woods alongside a beautiful stream, made more beautiful by the huge amount of rain that had fallen. 

It was a great walk to the pass, called Puerta de Palo. 

And the view from the top was great! 

Then a steep descent to a pretty abandoned little town, 

four more kms to a bar, and finally into Berducedo. 

Our little group of 7 all decided to stay in private rooms today. We're all in the same little place. The last time I was through here, it was a bar/cafe. Things have gone well so they added rooms. I remember the young guy telling us during my first visita that he had lost his job and had opted to take his unemployment in a lump sum payout and bought the bar. He started Sade:/up in the middle of the recession and was kind of nervous the last time I saw him. I was so glad to see how well things had gone for him. 

They now have plans to add a small albergue but the bureaucracy is killing them. Small town politics seem to be the same everywhere! 

First rainy day -- to Pola de Allande

There wasn't much rain yesterday so even though it was cloudy, it was obvious how beautiful this area is. 

I walked around town, where the main attraction for me was the iron grating on the door of the 13 C church. 

A few pretty houses here and there but all in all, Tineo has seen better days. 

Last night, feast of San Juan, the town had its traditional bonfire at midnight with a lot of merrymaking before and after. I was sorry not to be able to go, but the time really didn't fit with the pilgrim walking schedule. But we did gather for a copa and to say goodbye to Matt and Joel, who've been with me off and on since Leon. 

Today's walk was a little longer than I've had lately. Lots of ups and downs and lots of mud. And after about the first 15kms, there were several hours of precipitation ranging from mist to drizzle to light rain but thankfully never anything worse than that. 

The weather does make the coffee breaks much more appealing

though. 

So I'm in a little hotel whose restaurant gets tons of awards for its version of Asturias' best known dish -- fabada. And the one real benefit of walking seven hours on a day like today is that the white bean stew was tremendously appealing!