There were also many more pilgrims on the walk after Sarria. Most albergues and cafes were double crowded, which made things take longer. These pilgrims didn't seem as friendly and were usually in large groups. I still saw the solo pilgrim here and there and a few people I recognized from my Camino, but those were few and far between since I had to take so many rest days.
Sep 29 - Las Herrerias
Sep 30 - Biduedo
Oct 1 - Sarria
Oct 2 - Portomarin
Oct 3 - Palas de Rei
Oct 4 - Arzua
Oct 5 - Amenal
Oct 6 - Santiago de Compostela
On the morning I left Villafranca, I was feeling pretty terrible again. This cold just see-sawed back and forth until it was finally over (which took another two days). I was well enough to keep walking, but resolved to only walk to the foot of the mountain climbing up to O'Cebreiro. I did enjoy walking through Villafranca in the morning, it was almost deserted except for pilgrims getting an early start.
There were two alternate routes this day, but I chose to go with the normal route because it was flattest and I didn't need any additional challenges. The road mainly paralleled the highway as shown in the picture below. We were privy to some spectacular views as the trees opened up to the cliff drop-offs showing us how high up we really were. I walked with four ladies from the Seattle area - Jan, Mary, Anya, and Charlene.
Once we ended walking parallel to the roads we began to pass through a series of tiny little hamlets. I loved seeing the baby cows nursing on their mothers, the two troll statues that were still following me around, and signs for horse rides up to O'Cebreiro. I was tempted to call them just to ride the horses up, walk down and then walk up again (I love me some horseback riding). But I didn't have the time and didn't end up calling them. A woman I walked with the following day told me she did call the horse service and they were booked solid for a few days. I will tell you it was a rather wicked climb, but manageable.
I even saw a cloud that looked like Nessie! I knew I'd see her at some point in my travels. :)
I stayed in the small hamlet of Las Herrerias which was a horseshoe-shaped village around a wide pasture. I checked into my pension and then took a walk around the quiet village snapping some photos.
The morning walk was straight up hill. I was prepared for it and took stops at intervals. It was a quiet walk, not many people were talking, and so it was very peaceful. The mist hung over the mountains as I walked and seemed to almost blanket the floor of the forest at a few bends in the road. I started to understand what those big spiky balls were on the trees and on the ground - chestnuts!
Stopped for breakfast near the top of the mountain at this great place in La Faba - they had all types of juices and customized breakfasts. This wasn't very common, normally you have the option of a packaged croissant and maybe an omelette if you are lucky. They were also playing American oldie music in the background and so our mouths and our ears were happy!
I continued walking uphill, the views growing more spectacular with every step and every turn. I walked with a Canadian couple and a girl from Denmark - very nice people. The husband in the couple is a doctor in Canada, so I talked with him a little about the medicines the Spanish doctor had given me and what he thought about our healthcare system.
When we reached O'Cebreiro, everyone kind of split up. I went to one of the restaurants for a drink and a bathroom and found two of my friends (one from Seattle), Britt and Bobbie. Then I wandered over to the church peaked my head in. I really loved its charm and simplicity.
Pulperias are everywhere in Galicia. Pulpo means octopus in Gallego (a dialect of Spanish in Galicia). Galicians like to grill their pulpo and sprinkle it with paprika. It's quite delicious, but I waited until I got to Santiago to try it since my stomach was still a bit sensitive from the antibiotics. I saw Liz from Seattle on my way out of town. She was holed up for an extra day because of her shin splints, but I would see her later in Santiago.
After O'Cebreiro the guidebook said it was all downhill to the next few towns. The guidebook lied. It was a steady up and down for the rest of the afternoon followed by some insane little uphill jaunts that almost had me crawling on all fours. But eventually it evened out and started to decline slowly.
I arrived in Biduedo which is nothing more than three buildings (one of which is a pension with a restaurant/bar attached) and a tiny little unused church. So those of us staying at the pension didn't have much to do or see once we checked in. I sat outside with two women from Michigan and had a great conversation about their families in Michigan and the trips they had taken together in the past (their husbands are first cousins). I found out one of the women's sons is a junior at the University of Michigan studying aerospace engineering! Small world indeed.
Our dinner was another pilgrim's meal, but we did get offered the Galician soup for a first course and the tarta de Santiago for dessert (an almond cake, quite delicious). The tarta de Santiago was a big thing in Galicia and we had just started seeing it on menus in the last few days.
The next morning I walked past the Biduedo church which is apparently from the 8th or 9th century, something incredible like that. It was so tiny, the door would barely fit my short head. Another incredible sunrise, I'll let the pictures tell that story.
Breakfast was incredible. Once we all made it down the hill, the first restaurant was offering an "English breakfast" with fried eggs, bacon, bread, and a coffee. I inhaled the entire thing and it sustained me until dinner. It was so nice to have all that fuel running through me throughout the day.
The rest of the mid-day walk was through little towns and one larger town - Triacastela (the city of three castles). I stopped by their church as well as their pilgrim's monument on the way out of town. Again the road split to go towards Sarria, or an alternate route to Sarria by way of an old monastary. I chose the more direct route as I was trying to catch up with Campbell that day in order to celebrate her birthday that evening.
I walked by an 800 year old chestnut tree in one of the villages. It was so big around it would probably take three or four Sarahs holding hands to circle it.
I started checking all the albergues coming into Sarria for room and kept getting turned away. So I went to a restaurant and ordered a drink (so I could use their free WiFi) and found a hostel on booking.com (which was the website most of us pilgrims used in times like these). I checked into the hostel and went downstairs for wine and sunflower seeds (common snack bartenders give out in Spain). I hadn't had alcohol since Astorga so one glass was quite relaxing! I wandered around town and found birthday candles and some madelines that could substitute as a cake and then met up with Campbell at her hotel more towards the middle of the city. We walked through the old town and selected a restaurant to have dinner at. Instead of the normal pilgrim's meal, we ordered a meat and cheese plate and just snacked on that. After dinner the waiters helped me surprise Campbell with a birthday treat and song!
I had agreed to meet up with Campbell the following day at some point, but I wanted to get an earlier start than her. I met a group of three women on my way out of town - Virginia, her daughter Kelly, and her friend Maria. They had just started in Sarria, like a lot of pilgrims. The Pilgrim's Office requires pilgrims to walk at least 100 kilometers in order to receive a compostela, and Sarria falls right about at that point. So people without the time to walk the whole Camino, usually start in Sarria for a 4-5 day trip. I loved meeting this group because their energy was infectious!
I passed by a cemetery on my way out of town and couldn't help but peak in through the doors. The mist was covering the tops of all the crosses and vaults making it a bit eerie. I also saw my friend Susan from the Villafranca albergue. I would continue to run into her throughout the next two days.
Breakfast that morning was a rude awakening to me. I hadn't really noticed the influx of pilgrims until I got to this cafe which also ran a gift shop on the side. The place was packed with pilgrims, something most of us were not used to. People were buying all these kitchy little trinketes and my first thought was - wait for Santiago! Don't add weight to your pack! But these people were only walking for a few days and wanted to make the most of their memories. I met up with Eva agian and she introduced me to her stick Falkor (from the Neverending Story) and her friend Daniel from Austria.
Eva, the animal lover extraordinaire, kept feeding the horses apples from the road which made them return her love and trot alongside her when she kept walking. We pilgrims were also picking up undamaged apples that we could eat later on, shining them on our shirts to get off the dirt.
Every morning I looked forward to seeing the spider webs dripping with dew and thus visible to the naked eye. It also reaffirmed my decision to not sleep outside in the fields once I saw how many spider webs there actually were.
Once we arrived at the beginning of the town, I realized I had to cross a ridiculous bridge before entering the city and there was no way around it. Yes, I am afraid of heights, not nearly as bad as some people, but they can make me freeze in place. So I took a few breaths and charged ahead. I didn't look over or up, but at the ground the entire way across that ridiculously high bridge and surprisingly I got across in one piece! The sunset over the water was beautiful with all the rain clouds turning pink and purple with the setting sun.
The walk out of Portomarin the next morning was covered in mist yet again - full on Galicia. The forests reminded me so much of Seattle, the moss, the trees, the wetness in the air. More rain today, had to put on the rain jacket although the sprinkle was on and off. Once the mist burned off we saw more farms, more cows, more waning harvest.
I asked Campbell to stop at the church in the beginning of Palas de Rei. It's customary for pilgrims to visit churches in the towns, either for a quick visit or prayer, or for mass, or even just to receive a stamp in their passport. After Sarria, we were told that we had to have two stamps per day on the Camino (instead of just one per night), in order to prove we had walked and not bused the Camino. But I usually got my second stamp at a cafe. I really liked to go into the churches for a quick prayer, to light some candles for my loved ones, and to just see how different they all were from one another.
We checked into our albergue and found Janine! We had been separated from her for a few days and just happen to be staying at the same place! We all agreed to meet up in the morning and walk together again. Campbell and I shared a room with Rita and Sonya, a mother daughter duo from Canada (who I would randomly see again on the bus from Finesterre to SdC).
Walking out of Palas de Rei was quiet and pretty - the paths were lined with purple and yellow flowers and there were fall leaves on the ground. I loved seeing the ivy turning red on all of the brick walls of brick houses and farm fences.
We stopped in Melide for lunch where Campbell and Janine decided to stay, so we said goodbye and I kept walking. This is a famous town for pulpo, but instead I had another slice of tarta de Santiago and an Aquarius and kept walking in the rain. Eucalyptus trees were everywhere at this point. The smell was glorious as you walk through it, sometimes I would go snip off a leaf from the bottom part of the trunk and rub it between my fingers as I walked, breathing in the fragrance.
At some point I met up with Stefano, the ginger Italian. He had been walking the Camino Primitivo and it had just met the Camino Frances. We mainly talked about sailing catamarans and how different the primitivo route was than the frances route. It was fun to meet his primitivo friends on the way - they had all been walking with the same eight strangers most of their walk because the primitivo route is less traveled.
Stefano and I walked to Arzua and stayed at an albergue that was almost deserted. We had dinner with one of Stefano's friends that had the biggest pack I had seen on the Camino. I have no idea how this guy stayed upright but somehow he was making it. They kept mentioning this large Canadian guy they had walked with whom they called "The Bear" and who farted so loudly at night it kept people awake. It was a fun dinner, laundry was a bit more of a chore because the rain made it impossible for anything to dry. Thankfully there were lots of empty bunks to lay my clothes on!
The next day it rained all day. I found shelter in a few barns along with some French and German folks. The cows were confused but didn't seem to really care. My morning cafe con leche was just what the doctor ordered. The whole cafe was fogged over with so many pilgrims trying to get out of the rain.
I stopped for lunch at a cool little cafe with hundreds of T-shirts left by pilgrims hanging from the ceiling like flags. I actually ran into a Danish couple I met in Pamplona and hadn't seen since. They had been lost wandering around (like me) and I was able to help them find their albergue. I didin't even recognize them until the guy looked at me and dropped his spoon, pointed at me, and exclaimed, "It's YOU!" It was a joyful reunion.
I passed through Pedrouzo which is the usual spot for pilgrims to stay before Santiago. I decided to walk another 4 kilometers to Amenal. That last few kilometers I walked completely alone in the woods which was pretty creepy. I decided to listen to music (for the first time) on the Camino to distract me but realized I only had one song available offline - a nice techno remix. So I untz-untz-untzed all the way to Amenal with my hands up high reaching for the roof. I'm sure that was a site. The only place to stay in Amenal was a nice hotel but I had already told myself that whatever was available in Amenal, I would take (the next albergue was 10 kilometers away). I decided to treat myself (treat yo-self 2015) the night before Santiago instead of the day I reached Santiago.
The last day on the Camino! I was nervous and excited to get to the cathedral and didn't take too many breaks (although I caught another purple pilgrim from Amsterdam at a breakfast cafe). Most pilgrims were pretty quiet today, we were all anxious to get to SdC.
It actually takes awhile to walk through Santiago, but each milestone I reached was brought with cheers from other pilgrims (for all of us). I walked with a large Italian family that wanted to take pictures at almost every statue along the way. It was like being a member of their extended family.
The moment I saw the top of the cathedral through the winding streets was an emotional one for me. Pilgrims that were walking with me kept stopping to say hello to old friends and look for places to stay for the night, so I left them behind because I just wanted to get to that cathedral.
And then... finally... I made it! I walked through the arch to the sound of bagpipe music and came upon that scaffold-shrouded cathedral and... just stared at it. I didn't cry and I didn't break down, I just stood there and looked around. And then... I wondered, what next?
Thankfully I found Kelly and her friends (one of which was from Santiago). We went to get our compostelas at the tourist office. I had heard from friends who had already finished that it might take a few hours waiting in line, but because we were "in a group" we bumped the line and got them in about twenty minutes.
I split up from Kelly and group to find a place to stay for the night. I figured some of the cafes might have Internet, so I popped in one close to the tourist office, ordered a glass of wine, and searched booking.com for some options. My waiter was incredible, spoke perfect English and brought over all these free snacks for me. And then, right before I left, Britt and Bobbie stumbled into the cafe, drenched, and looking for a place to sit down out of the rain. We sat together for awhile talking about how we were feeling having finally reached our destination.
After checking into my last albergue, smartly called The Last Stamp Albergue, I did laundry and then just breathed in the smell of clean laundry (for a bit too long to be considered normal). After four days of straight rain my clothes had a weird funk to them. And now they were so clean it brought tears to my eyes (not really, just an expression).
Kelly checked into the same albergue and then we went and got drinks and food and wandered around Santiago for a bit. We then met up with Sanneke and Elvira (who I had last seen in Pamplona). Randomly Sanneke was even my new bunk mate at the albergue. Sanneke, Elvi, and I went out for more tapas and drinks before they left to go to bed. And then I went out for a bit on my own and made some new friends!
I was so excited to get to Santiago and also at a bit of a loss. What to do next? I couldn't decide if I wanted to walk 3-4 days to Finisterre or take Kelly up on her offer of riding with her, Virginia, and Maria down the coast of Spain to Finisterre. Part of me wanted to keep walking because that feels normal after so many days on the road. I was also a bit apprehensive of all the forecasted rain over the next week and I knew the path ahead wasn't an easy one (but more on that in the next post).
Most pilgrims shared with me that they were relieved to be done but also sad that their walk was over. The Camino lifestyle is fun - you meet new people everyday and see such beautiful countryside - but it is also hard - your body aches and you ache for a day of rest. Being idle is a new feeling to us pilgrims once you reach the end. Many people have friends and family meet them in SdC and begin new travels throughout Spain and Portugal. I knew I was meeting Elisa in Portugal in a little over a week, so I knew my Camino was not yet over.
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