Portomarín

As we headed out of Sarria, we joined a crowd of people just starting out on their Caminos. In order to qualify as a Camino and get a Compostela certificate, you have to walk at least the last 100 kilometers. Sarria is a good sized small city that is just over 100 km. limit. So LOTS of people from all over Spain join the Camino there. It’s a week or less hike that is encouraged and supported in Spain. Which is a good and even admirable thing. But to us, after wandering across the vast lonely stretches of the Meseta, it’s suddenly like trying to get out of Seattle on the Friday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend.

We did cross an actual milestone today. We passed the 100.000 km. milepost from Santiago de Compostela (Europeans use commas instead of decimal points , and mileposts are measured to 3 decimal places). It’s so surprising that within a week we will be done walking across Spain.

So we got to Portomarín, which is a pretty town on a hillside but along a river. Did laundry, got our dinner, started to wind up the day, and all of a sudden some really loud blues music starts up. Turns out it’s Saturday evening and the local arts commission”music in the square” program is on! Left a short video clip below. I went up and listened for a while and they weren’t bad at all. It was a really nice setting on the square next to the church.Read more