Day 11 to Padron

We started today with an hour long boat ride that supposedly follows the route taken by two of St. James's disciples with his remains on the way to give him a proper burial in Santiago. Our first stop on the water was at a mussel farm. I'll be honest, I had no idea that mussel farms even existed until a few days ago, and I had no idea how they were harvested. This is my lame attempt at how it works. The mussels grow for 16 months on thick ropes. Workers then raise the ropes up and pull the mussels through a strainer into a basket. The basket is hoisted up, and then someone else sifts through the mussels. It was actually really cool to watch. The bay we went through had over 2,000 platforms.

Our next stops were at a series of 13 crosses along the route. Each cross has Jesus, Mary, and St. James (and occasionally a seagull as the topper). Some were on islands, others were on the shore. We also saw a viking ship from Danish conquests from long ago. Apparently, they have a festival every year. Our boat operator made sure to tell us it was a pagan festival, not a Christian one. Very thankful for the clarification. :)

Once we landed, we only had a short walk to our hotel (maybe 2km). We couldn't check in right away, so we went to a local laundromat. Never have I been so happy to smell clean socks! Washing them by hand in hotel sinks just doesn't give you the same level of satisfaction. The worst part is our bags are getting pretty funky from the shoulder and waist straps and will need a good cleaning when we can hang them up for a day to dry.

After check-in, we rested, had an amazing meal, and then did some sightseeing in Padron. The town of Padron is an area where St James preached after Jesus sent him out to Evangelize. There is an area on the hill where James supposedly preached, hid from Roman authorities, and also created a water spring from rock. There are several sites to view and scenes in the church of St James. There is a cool Monestary and some statues around the town.

We are geared up for the last 16 miles tomorrow into Santiago. We hit the grocery store to make breakfast and lunch so we can get going right away. Yesterday, 3,600 pilgrims finished their trek, so the town will likely be busy. We are excited to finish and complete our journey. Our legs and feet are doing OK and pray they will take us the rest of the way. About everything is tired and sore, so it just depends on the day, what is causing the most pain. We are thankful for ibuprofen, Voltaren, compeed, toe protectors, and Vaseline.

Love you all and will post when we hit the Cathedral.

Jack and TaraLeia mais