Day 9 - Santiago de Compostela

Woke up at 3am to find my airbed deflated so that my back was uncomfortably now on the floor, but my head and feet were in the air on air pockets. I pumped the airbed, but it slowly deflated again whilst I tried to get back to sleep. Not a great start to our first night camping.

We awoke again around 9am to the sound of the forecast rain lashing down on our tent. Our bladders forced us out of bed and to the shower block. We then had a coffee in the on site cafe, then headed out for Santiago de Compostela an hours drive away or walking on a 4 day pilgrimage. We drove.

An hour later we arrived in Santiago de Compostela, the final stop on the epic Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail. Santiago is a unique city imbued with the aura of a millennium’s worth of journeys. Today some 300,000 Camino Pilgrims and many thousands of others venture here each year. I also read that most people consider Santiago de Compostela to be at it’s most beautiful when the stone streets are glistening in the rain. This was lucky for us because it was still blooming raining.

We parked up in a tight spaced town centre multi storey car park, then headed into the pedestrianised Old Town. The magnificent Santiago de Compostela dominated the skyline & we headed towards it without a clear walking route planned.

As we walked towards the cathedral, we found a very ornate church to visit & peruse the decor. We then continued towards the cathedral & located Praza do Obradoira, known as Workshop Square. This grand square is in front of the cathedral’s west facade & appears to be where the modern day pilgrims were congregating presumably following the completion of their trails. It is known as Workshop Square because this was where the stonemasons set up their workshops when the cathedral was being built.

We entered the Cathedral & felt lucky to discover that a service was in progress, we found a suitable spot & sat & listened for about 30 minutes, which included a small section in English. It was still hard to follow what the vicar was saying, but he repeated the word ‘salvation’ on numerous occasions. We got the impression we were not allowed to take photos during the service, so I attempted to discreetly take short video clip on my phone with hopeless results.

We then aimlessly wandered around the narrow stone streets & popped into the odd church for an enjoyable, but damp hour or so. It was an attractive old town full of interesting architecture with a constant soundtrack of bagpipes from the pipers located at sheltered vantage points to trap the tourists.

Sufficiently pummelled with religion and the rain, we retreated to our car to return to the campsite. We stopped at a local Eroski Center supermarket & purchased provisions, mainly wine, but some food. The campsite was bathed in sunshine upon our return & we rearranged our gear to make the most of our pitch. Jackie then knocked up steak & salad, whilst I set up our solar lights around our tent & windbreak.

We had an early night with Jackie offering to sleep on the deflating airbed, because she was lighter!!

Song of the Day : Sweet Salvation by The Cult.Read more