Padrón to Santiago de Compostela

Well, the day has arrived. We walk into Santiago today. We walked through small villages today in a parade of pilgrims. It was fun to ferl the excitement among us as we leap-frogged each other along the way.

As usual, the Camino maps lied. Our 15 mile walk was really 18 miles. No wonder it seemed so long. Sue and I were so excited when we started recognizing the streets and memories from our last Camino. As we entered the old town, we stopped at Alameda Park to see the statue of Las Marías, sisters who were famous for flirting with the university students. We also took in the great view of the cathedral from the park. We made our way, by memory, through the ancient streets to the cathedral and rejoiced that we made it.

After taking a bunch of pictures, we headed to the Pilgrim Office, to collect our Compostelas. The office is very efficient but it's missing warmth. I guess they have so many people going through there that it just becomes transactional.

We met up a bit later for dinner at an Italian restaurant Pat and I enjoyed three years ago and it was still very good.

At 10pm, we listened to La Tuna de Santiago perform. "Tunas" are bands formed by university students who perform for tips. Members stay in the band long after graduation. They were great and encouraged audience participation.Read more