Three days to go!

We just finished walking 20 miles!! That leaves us just about 60 kilometers — 37 miles — to go to Santiago. We’ll arrive in three more days, on Tuesday, and the weather looks great — very different from our arrival last year, when it was pouring rain and we lost our way in the last 1-1/2 miles through the city.

We left the mountains early in the week, misty, drizzly days of walking through forests of eucalyptus, pine and fern. That’s Galicia! But wonderful walking weather in the 60’s. On Thursday we finally saw the sun again, a welcome sight!

The countryside is rolling green hills with small farms of corn, vegetables and oats. The homes are of stone, stucco or brick, often clustered together in small hamlets. This is dairy and beef country; Galicia accounts for 40% of Spain’s total dairy production.

Now we see crosses to mark the way of St. James, many of them quite old, with Mary on one side and Jesus on the cross on the other. And mysterious, mossy stone walls lining the paths, walls that would be right at home in Ireland. The local style is to group thin flat stones vertically instead of horizontally, cut so that they reinforce each other.

We’ve also crossed bridges built hundreds of years ago. It’s a gentle, green countryside of soft paths and not a few pilgrims — more than we expected to see.

Almost forgot — we also finally saw two storks’ nests!

Here are pictures from the last few days.Read more