1st June 2024 O Pedrouzo to Santiago de Compestela

The final day!

First – breakfast!   Down to the kitchen and toast on, tomatoes and cheese sliced and the jamon unwrapped.  The tetilla cheese is mild and delicious and the perfect accompaniment to the toast this morning. 

Breakfast finished and bags finalized we headed downstairs with Steve realizing as soon as the door closed that he had left his poles inside but we were lucky as the owners were only five minutes away.  As we hadn’t had coffee we headed back to the little bar on the corner for a caffeine hit before hitting the track for the last 20km.

Through the forest once again, with the wind often raising dust willy’s and the crowd was subdued maybe lost in their own thoughts and not being the noisy crowd we have had on occasions since Sarria. The sounds of aircraft became prominent as we got closer to the airport and skirted its perimeter and we started to notice a lot of cars parked in the streets.  We knew there was a music festival happening and this was the first evidence.

As we headed closer we could see that the site is huge with a lot of campervans, 2 massive stages, hundreds of tents and lots of people.  Apparently people fly here even from the USA as the tickets are very reasonable and they can see many great bands much more cheaply than in the States.

The route now doesn’t go past the massive sculptures as it did last time and I found that to be quite upsetting as these sculptures really made you feel like you were arriving and the entrance to Santiago is now, in my opinion, quite dull and boring.  About 3km from the Cathedral my right pole suddenly felt unsupportive and I realised that the silicon-type connector inside it had broken.  The poles had survived almost two Caminos and a lot of other bush walking so I shouldn’t have been too upset but for some reason it really got to me for a little while. 

Walking without poles felt very strange as it changes your centre of gravity from what was familiar for weeks and I found it harder climbing stairs etc but the masses of people that appeared as we got to the historic part of town made it the last thing on my mind.  We missed the signs and started heading in a different direction until we stopped, re-grouped and headed back the correct way before coming towards the archway above the steps where the piper was and we enjoyed her playing until we came into the square with the non-scaffolded Cathedral to our left.

There were a lot of people in the square including a large group of bike riders that took up a lot of space but we were lucky that someone offered to take our picture and we willingly accepted before heading across to the Parador to check in for two nights of luxury!

Three of the four parcels we had posted were there but the only one sent from France which had Steve’s original backpack and the covers had not arrived.  This was quite disappointing and when in our room I checked the tracking number and it said that delivery had been rejected so it was heading back to its origin – the Central Hotel in Saint Jean Pied de Port!!!!!!  I rang them and the lovely lady there said that she had received a number of calls from people who have experienced the same thing.  Sounds a bit suspicious to me.  I have put a query into the contact centre for the post and will wait to hear from them. 

Anyway – first world problems!  The room was lovely and the bath was deep and delicious.  Soon though the bathroom looked like a Chinese laundry with our washing done before we headed out to grab a bite to eat.  It was very difficult to find a restaurant open but there were many bars. We didn’t want bar food so we walked further away from the more touristy part and found a great place where the server was very knowledgeable and we had the most delicious meal of padron peppers and scallops for entrée and a single serve of the beef that came with fries and salad.  It was a perfect size for us both.

Back to the room and into the comfy bed – looking forward to sleeping in and having a restful day tomorrow.  Thanks for following our trip – we have had fun!