Day 21 - Leon to Santiago by Train

We said our farewells to Arved before he left at 7:30 am. He is interrupting his camino to visit Madrid and will also visit a friend he met on the camino. He will return to Leon in over a week so we won't see him again. :(

We will miss this young German who was so cultured for a 19 year old. He was also a devoted Catholic and showed great reverence at the cathedrals we visited. He wants to be a professor and with his intelligence, easy nature, and integrity, I have no doubts he will be. We will miss him as a person and as our Spanish interpreter!

After he left, I had breakfast with Dan and Tobias before they left at 8 am and said our temporary goodbyes. While they hike the rest of the Camino Frances, I will start the Camino Finisterre and Camino Muxia which should take 4-5 days and starts in Santiago de Compostela and goes to Finisterre and Muxia on the coast of Spain. After I've completed it, I will reunite with my friends on November 26th to complete the last stage of the Camino Frances by November 29th and fly to Paris on November 30 for my return home. I am looking forward to some hiking in relative solitude for some much needed self-reflection.

I have been browsing the shops since checking out of our apartment at 11am and will kill some time at a cafe before my 5pm train to Santiago. I also visited a park west of the city before heading to the train station nearby.

Update:

The train was delayed for an hour and after only an hour or so the train stopped and someone came by the carriage to give an update in Spanish. No one seems to speak English to translate but I finally found a younger Spanish girl who used her app to translate. It appears one of the tracks is damaged and we'll need to wait for them to repair it. This means my original late arrival time of 11 pm will be pushed back closer to 1 am. Ugh, it will be a challenge to walk tomorrow with so little sleep 😮‍💨Read more