El Camino de Santiago

Well, we ended up walking over 30 kilometers today. Not really sure how far exactly. But I can say without a doubt, that I have never walked more in one day in my life.

The last half of the walk, Lisa, Dani and I were together. Several times we asked each other, "Do you still want to walk or do you want to get a cab?" Of course, we wanted to walk.

We kept walking, even the third time the question was posed, we kept walking. At one point, we made a decision to exit the Camino trail and use Google maps to get to the hotel...

We still had another 10 km to go, even though it felt like we had already walked 20 or 22... because we had.

We walked along a creek bed and then through downtown Vigo, which seemed to go on forever. Both Lisa and Dani were checking their maps for directions.

I'm not sure how, but it seemed like Google had us on a wild goose chase circling around the city but never quite finding the hotel. I kept hearing multiple times, "It's just 2 more kilometers."

We turn a corner, and Lisa exclains, "This is the street that our hotel is on, I think".... yeah, nah.

It was a steep hill street lined with orange trees on both sides. The oranges from last season remained, and the orange blossoms were fragrant. Orange blosson is my absolute favorite scent. I grew up with this scent as orange groves were prolific around my hometown. They had just pruned the trees, and large limbs full of green leaves, large oranges, and orange blossoms lay on the ground as we passed. I picked an orange blossom to smell and attempted to collect oranges, but I could tell by the way they felt they were spoiled.

Well, by the time we were turned around again and it was still 2 km away, Lisa posed the question again, "Do you want to take a cab or keep walking?" Well, I had no guarantee that Google maps would not have us walking all night long, so I voted for taxi. We had to walk another half kilometer at least to get a taxi. The taxi driver was so nice. He said, "Don't worry, you're safe with me. I've got you." After a 10 minute taxi ride, including getting on the interstate, we arrived and somehow drug ourselves out of the car and into the hotel. Whole bodies aching, legs like noodles, and feet painful yet numb at the same time, leaving us wondering what we would find when we removed our boots... all is well. We arrived.

Today was the big day. Tomorrow, the weather is just as bad and even more windy. But we only have 13 km to hike tomorrow.

The question is... is it really only 13 kilometers??? Dani says that kilometers are longer in Spain than they are in Australia. We are roommates tonight.Read more