Today we awoke early in Azua and started walking and, as Forrest Gump would say, once we started walking, we just kept on walking until there was no where else to walk.
Down went the 30km mile marker. Down went the 20km mile marker. Down went the 10km ... no we could not find that one.
We got to Rua, where we were supposed to stay today before 9am and passed straight on without even trying to find our hotel.
The walking was great and we saw very few people on the road until we reached Monte de Gozo which is some 4km from the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
After that point there were a cast of thousands but we also had plenty to look at with the monument at Monte de Gozo and statues and monuments peppered along the way to the Cathedral. I especially liked the statue of the Templar Pilgrim above.
Some 38km after we started walking this morning at 5:30am, we were at the steps of the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela and it was still only 1:30pm.
The Cathedral is breathtaking from afar, from up close and from within.
While briefly inside the Cathedral, we ran in to Father John, a Ugandan priest living in Sydney who was walking the Camino at the same time as us. Late last week Father John decided that he wanted to do mass on Sunday and therefore did the last 3 days at +40km/day. He looked very refreshed after a few days in Santiago de Compostela.
We then went to the Pilgrim's Office to get the final stamps for our passports and to receive the Compostela, the certificate given on completion of the Camino.
We then had a welcome lunch of bread, deep fried calamari and Chirizo cooked in wine to recharge the batteries after today's long walk.
This was our longest one day walk on the Camino. Not only was it long but we also had many hills and, in total did 680m of ascent.
Vicki has been sitting in the bath the last hour writing out her shopping list and after I finish the blog, we will head out to do shopping and more sight seeing and to stand in line at the Cathedral to visit the tomb of St James.
The benefit of arriving today, instead of tomorrow as originally planned, is that we have an extra 24 hours to do all the above before we fly out on Thursday morning at 9am.
In Santiago, we are staying at the Parador Santiago de Compostela and have a fantastic, extra large room, more akin to what Martin Sheen enjoyed in the movie, The Way.
We will blog once more, tomorrow, with sightseeing shots of Santiago de Compostela and to reflect on our journey over the past five weeks.
The church below which we encountered about 8km from Santiago de Compostela was interesting as the guy in the bell tower appeared to ring the bell every time a pilgrim went by. We need to research this to determine whether it is tradition or coincidence.
Today was our last scheduled long day - 29.9km.
It was an easy days walk as we broke the trip with an extended stop at the half way point - Melide where we had a traditional lunch of "pulpo", which is octopus in oil and spice with bread washed down with white wine.
We then visited the church and the museum.
The museum was very nice with a wonderful collection of, among other things, coins and lace.
The white wine at lunch made the last part of the journey seem to pass quite quickly.
The crowds that we experienced on Saturday and Sunday did down a little today. We are not sure why but maybe some of the locals are walking the Camino in increments on the weekends and today are back at work.
We see quite a few Spanish family groups with quite small children and at breakfast today there was a table of at least 12 children. Good to see.
We were impressed with our hotel in Palas de Rei last night, Hotel La Cabana and our hotel tonight is also good. Overall the quality of hotels is improving the closer we get to Santiago de Compostela.
The weather continues to be fine but there is a threat of cloud. We have not had to walk in the rain the past 32 days, and it would be a shame if we got rain in the last two days.
We have seen many romances blossom during the Camino which is good to see. Today we met a girl from Romania who started walking the Camino Norte and then from merged with the Camino Frances at Leon.
She was in a hurry to finish the Camino to then go to Barcelona to be with a boy she met on the Camino.
Today we passed the 60, 50 and 40km milestones to Santiago de Compostela and we now have only two days of walking remaining.
Both the remaining days are easy and only total 37km. If we were young and silly, we would wake up tomorrow morning and do the whole 37km in one day.
We had really bad internet last night in Palas de Rei as our hotel was on the outskirts of town and was a bungalow style set up.
I am sure that if we had have ventured from our room to the bar, the internet would have been fine, but we had one too many ciders on arrival in town and thought it best not to venture to the bar again.
The day was a really pleasant day. Easy walking and great temperature.
If anything, the temperature, especially first thing in the morning, was a little chilly.
As we left Portomarin, there was a mist/fog over the river/lake, and it was not until we had scaled the neighbouring hills that we saw the blue sky and sunshine.
The crowds were still fairly large but after 90 minutes of walking we had managed to get in front of the majority of the crowd.
During the day we walked past the 80km and 70km milestones marking the distance remaining until Santiago de Compostela and at the end of the day had only 66km remaining.
We had many stops during the day for the three Cs. Coffee, Coke and Church. The problem with stopping is that you then had to continually pass the same people again 5-10 mins later.
This was actually positive as the majority of the people on the road are new Camino walkers having joined the Camino in Sarria or towns immediately before Sarria.
By passing these people several times, we became familiar to each other and the new people became friendlier. We were already friendly!!
Most of the walk was through shady forests or pastureland which made it very nice.
We saw some interesting sights, including some large things that looked like large cane baskets with a lid, some raised buildings that could have been storage facilities and some ant sculptures. All very interesting.
In Portomarin, in the restaurant at dinner, which was very nice (with the best desert in Spain so far), we met some new people who joined the Camino in Sarria. two women from Ohio, and a couple from New Zealand.
Both groups were very nice.
Once they heard us talking about the Camino, they all approached our table to ask a bunch of questions.
We have seen the two ladies from Ohio since but the older couple from New Zealand are on a slower program.
The walk from Portomarin to our hotel at Palas de Rei was about 24km.
The hotel was on the outskirts of town as we approached Palas de Rei and at that time we were walking with our friends from Germany/Netherlands. Therefore, we continued walking into Palas de Rei to their hotel for a beer. One beer turned into five ciders after which the 1km walk uphill back to our hotel seemed a long way.
We then had a restful afternoon during which we took advantage of the fact that the hotel had a laundry that we could use. Our laundry is now up to date and, if we need to, we do not need to do laundry again until we are back in Australia. Yeh!
Tomorrow, we walk 29km to Arzua after which we only have two days of walking remaining before we reach Santiago de Compostela.
We passed the 110, 100 and 90km markers to Santiago de Compostela today.
We now have 89.5km remaining on our journey from St Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago de Compostela in NW Spain.
This last 110km section of the Camino Frances from Sarria is the most popular as it is the minimum that you can do to receive the compostela, the certificate of accomplishment given to pilgrims on completing the Way once they arrive in Santiago de Compostela.
In Spain it is important for people to have the compostela on their CVs and therefore many people walk the Camino from Sarria.
As a result the number of pilgrims on the road today swelled significantly. At most times today there were countless people in front of us and countless people behind us.
Moving quickly was difficult as large groups were walking very casually at up to 4 abreast.
Commensurately, the competition for coffee, toilets, meals and beds/hotels has increased significantly.
Worse you can't get any quiet time to water the flowers along the route.
Nevertheless we had an enjoyable day with lots of interesting scenery, some bridges, goats, and yes, more cows.
The weather was cool and we generally went with the flow, adopting a slower pace than normal.
This suited Vicki as her ankle is not getting better and she is limping along like a one legged person.
If this keeps up we will have to make a decision on weather to put her in a taxi or put her down.
Vicki objects to both options and is adamant that she will limp all the way to Santiago de Compostela, provided that I maintain a constant supply of ibuprofen and paracetamol.
We enjoyed our time in Sarra last night. It was a cold night, and although we initially tried to have a drink outside at a bar alongside the river, we quickly had to retreat inside to the warmth.
We then had a pilgrims meal at our hotel. clams, monk fish, cheese cake and Crianza. Probably the best Pilgrims meal we have had so far.
We stayed late at the hotel this morning and had breakfast, which was also very good, and then got a late start at 8:30am.
Tonight, in Portomarin, we are staying at the Pousada de Portomarin with a very nice room with balcony.
Portomarin is a nice town alongside a significant river/lake. When we arrived, many children were boating on the lake.
The principal notable building in the town is the Church. An interesting feature is the door which has an angel sitting above the right hand side and a devil sitting on the left hand side. The idea being, you choose the angel or the devil depending on weather you want the path to heaven or hell. Consequently the right hand door step is well worn.
The following are the trip statistics to Day 30:
We are now in Sarria having successfully completed the seventh stage of our eight stage journey from St Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago de Compostela in NW Spain.
We now have only 111km remaining until we reach Santiago de Compostela.
We stayed the previous evening in Triacastela at, a small hotel, the Casa David. It was one of the more enjoyable rooms we have stayed in as we had a little terrace on which we could sit and rest in the afternoon. Very nice.
We then spent the evening with friends and ended up eating dinner quite late.
A very good night.
Today we were up and walking reasonably early, but not until the sun was up.
There were two choices for today's walk, a longer walk that went past a Monastery and a shorter walk which went through mountain country side with more ascents and descents.
We opted for the mountain countryside and are glad we did.
The scenery was, once again, spectacular and we spent most of the day on winding mountain paths through lots of woodlands and farms.
There were a number of small hamlets but no towns large enough for a coffee shop until the 10km mark and it was VERY busy. I waited in line for coffee for about 10min, which is worse than Gloria Jeans. Lucky we had breakfast at Triacastela.
Soon after this we got our first view of our destination, Sarria, and then spent the rest of the day descending, initially through woodlands and farms, and then through the outskirts of Sarria.
Our walk today was only 18km and therefore, after checking into our hotel, the Hotel Anfonso IX, we went sightseeing and then had an early lunch. Fresh pasta. Wonderful.
Tomorrow we star the last stage of our journey to Santiago de Compostela.
Most of our remeaining walks are planned to be short:
Saturday - 22km to Portomarin
Sunday - 23 km to Palas do Rei
Monday - 29km to Arzua
Tuesday - 18km to Rua
Wednesday - 19km to Santiago de Compostela
Vicki has been sitting in the bath the last hour writing out her shopping list and after I finish the blog, we will head out to do shopping and more sight seeing and to stand in line at the Cathedral to visit the tomb of St James.
