Santiago de Compostella Day 3

Slept in till 7.45 today. Feels a bit decadent not to be up and out at first light. But I will find the strength to bear it.

After nice breakfast in the bar attached I went exploring, first to the main bus station to get timetables, then through a couple of the city's beautiful parks. One was a cemetery in the 19th century, a powerfully atmospheric place. Next was the Museum of Galicia, a great collection of artifacts and photos, but as with many cultural institutions world wide, the guide leaflet was completely useless as a navigational tool. I might or might not have seen all the collections on display. It did have a great little maritime collection.

I continued my sweep through the parks, passing two black Australian swans paddling along an ornamental pond,  and two massive gum trees, bigger round the trunk than just about any I've seen in Australia. The climate obviously agrees with them. To round out the day I visited the Cathedral museo,  which has some very beautiful, and some very strange, pieces of medieval sculpture. Bumped into a few more people from the early days. Some, a real hard core, are heading onto Finisterre. While I was standing waiting in the tourist office I was looking at a map of the camino, and all the places I've walked through. I am afraid, try as I might, i just couldn't conjure up any mental image of quite a few. So I think definitely time to slow down and digest a bit. I am a bit envious of the Finisterrians - walking actually makes everything simpler in a way - but I think I've made a good call for me.

Tomorrow i plan to walk to an exhibition on the Camino in a fancy newish building the Cidade da Cultura de Galicia, which sits up on one of the hills surrounding the city, about 10k walk there and back.

Santiago de Compostella Day 2

Slept in till at least 7.30 this morning then after a classic Spanish breakfast of churros and coffee in a little bar round the corner I packed my pack and headed onto my next lodging, which is outside the old town, past the university campus. The people are lovely, it is comfortable and a pleasant walk into town. I will prop here till I go if I can.
Having shed my back pack I headed in for the midday pilgrim's mass. It was a nice service, and my spanish must be improving as I sort of understood the gospel reading - Peter denying Christ three times. The priest read it very slowly and dramatically, and it helps when you know the story. No botifumerio but I came away feeling blessed.
In the afternoon I went searching for a laundromat. After exploring a good part of the town, bumping into various people, accidentally ordering and so having to drink a large glass of whisky, and generally getting fairly befuddled, I was directed to The Pilgrim support office, where the kind and gracious young women who volunteer to work there took my clothes and for 5 euros donation washed and dried them. My faith in a benificent universe restored, i had a cerveza in the sun om the Praza de Quintana Ventos, a sustaining pasta with a fellow co pilgrim from my first albergue back in st jean, and traded news about mutual friends from along the way.

All in all a really good day. I did call in at Galician Tourist Office to get the map and info sheet for the walk to Finisterre, but I feel like I have walked enough for a while, and that it is time to stay in one place for a while. So, tomorrow, Santiago de Compostella.

Santiago de Compostella

Got on the road early and enjoyed the crisp start to what was a glorious day. I was thinking as I was walking, what will I miss about the Camino, and concluded the top thing will be the early mornings, watching the dawn turn into day across the countryside, up to the glorious moment when the sun hits you and you throw an enormously long shadow on the trail ahead.

The way out of Arzua is very pretty without being spectacular. In the bar in the first village was a Canadian lady who had fallen face first a short while before, with a painful looking graze on her nose and forehead. One wrong step or moment of inattention and things can come unstuck, even on the last days. I was extra attentive for the rest of the day.
My plan was to get to Lavacolla for lunch, and see how I felt. Lavacolla is around 9 k to go. I thought I could either find somewhere round there, or head onto Monte de Gozo , but I knew it would be hard to stop so close, and so it proved to be. So I kept going and got here round 3.30, to be greeted by the three Korean girls who started the same day as I did, back in St Jean, 30 days ago. They were really nice - I could not have asked for a better welcome.

A couple of senoras with habitacions to rent were hovering in the wings of the square and I got a nice room a few minutes from the square for 25 Euros which is an alright deal I think. The main challenge is finding the building as it is located down a little street off a little street and the old town is a bewildering maze of little streets.

Had a cerveza sitting in the sun in the square then queued for a ridiculously long time to get my Compostella at the Officina de peregrinos. The queue stretched out into the street, but the office had only 3 of a possible 9 service desks operating. But I got it, then had a slightly up market dinner to celebrate safe completion of this phase of the trip, then managed to find my way back to my room.

So tomorrow, sleep in!

Arzua

The street through the little village where I stayed last night was like Bourke Street at rush hour this morning when I ventured forth after breakfast. A whole new cast of faces, and some lovely people to chat to to help while away the not super interesting or scenic kilometres. There are some nice bits and some plantations of eucalypts to kick off some olfactory nostalgia. Speaking of matters olfactory, the incidence of patches of overpoweringly bad smells seems much higher in Galicia this time round. I guess it is the animal husbandry practices. I fell sorry for the people with houses down wind.

Just outside Melide it started to drizzle so I ducked into a lovely cafe just before the medieval bridge that leads into the town and watched the new pilgrims struggling into their ponchos while I enjoyed second breakfast.

The Sarria starters seem full of energy, and perhaps unworthily I find myself eyeing people like the overweight guy with the pack the size of a small fridge who bounds past me as I trudge up yet another hill. Did he just pop out of a taxi round the last corner? Yesterday, on the quiet rural  roads before Palas de Rei, taxis were more than half of the motor traffic, with the pack transport services making up a good part of the rest.

Anyway, to each their own. Today another milestone, passed the 50 k to go mark, though I couldn't actually spot the stone itself. 49.5 K to go will have to do.

Tomorrow I might push on to Monte de Gozo, about 35 k from Azura where I am tonight, and stay in the industrial scale albergue there, to see what it is like. It is only 4.5 k into Santiago so I should be able to saunter in Friday morning, all going well.

San Xulian

A cold grey morning but I was on the trail out of Portomarin by 7. Seemed to be rush hour, but eventually the pack thinned out a bit and by walking quickly I managed to get out of earshot of the spanish man yelling importantly into his mobile. The countryside is a bit dull after some of the splendid stretches before. So today into Palas de Rei was about engaging autopilot and getting the kilometres down. Had a nice lunch in Palas de Rei, then pottered on through some pretty tree lined paths to the little village of San Xulian where I got the last bed in the nice little albergue.

Tomorrow about 26.5 into Azura.

Portomarin

Perhaps a little too much wine last night, as I felt about as foggy as the countryside around Sarria this morning as I set out. It was chilly, damp and not much of a view. It was like that last time as well. So I have walked out of Sarria twice and I still have no idea what it looks like. I do like Sarria though.

The trail was a lot busier today. Some big groups perhaps Koreans, Spanish family groups, and young Spanish guys with enormous back packs and wearing running shoes.

I guess you have to have a not so great day every now and then, and today was that day for me. But I've advanced to 88 ks to go, which means I've walked around 700 k - certainly more, given my propensity for wandering off the trail.

At the church in Sarria there is a notice to the effect it is recommended that one should get a minimum of two stamps from here on. They even give a leaflet with preferred sello locations. It is supposed to prevent people bussing or taxiing between towns.   When they guy who stamped my credencial stopped yacking to his colleague, I protested:"that (the two stamp thing)is silly". "Yes yes" he replied, the archetypical beaucratic response.  I got three stamps today, but one from a bar and it is upside down as a protest. Not really, i just couldn't work out the right way.

Portomarin is unlike the other towns the Camino passes through. The original town was flooded by the reservoir in  the valley below, and the fortified church of St Nicolas was dismantled and reassembled where it stands today in the new town's main square.  With the exception of the church and the steep stairs at the entrance, all the buildings are relatively recent, so you don't get the mix of collapsed collapsing fixed up that you get in other towns.

Tomorrow onto Palas del Rey, another shortish day.

Sarria

Another beautiful morning and I was feeling ok after a good night's sleep so I turned left at the end of town for the longer option via Samos. The first part was along a valley which shadowed the morning sun. It was chilly but good for some brisk early kilometres.

The path winds through a couple of stone villages that look like not much has changed since medieval times. Not much maintenance done since either. One was enlivened by two signs using little human figures. One conveyed the message "no littering", the other "no pooing." Fair enough I suppose.  Lots of the walk was beside beautiful rivers. It seems to make it easier to walk when you can see or hear running water. Nothing like that for the last stretch onto Sarria, dry and dusty. The street signs and street names are in Galician which confused me and google maps  so i wound up walking a few extra k around town at the end of the day looling for the place i had booked.

Today to Portomarin. cross the 100 k to go mark today