Camino de Santiago (Santiago de Compostela)

I decided today was interesting enough to write a little. 

We stayed up later than we have all Camino last night, so it’s no surprise we all slept in until at least 7:00 (some of us—Andy—slept until 8:00. After leaving the apartment, we got some breakfast at a small cafe and began exploring Fisterra a little. We quickly ran into Nina, Maura, and Maura’s boyfriend Dustin (who has been with them for a while now) at another cafe, before we took a walk down to the water. The tide was low, so there were many exposed rocks. We took a moment to touch the water. (It’s cold.)

Then we walked along a pathway beside the water and discovered another beach, much nicer looking than the first but harder to access at high tide. Fortunately, we were able to get down to the sand, leaving our backpacks and shoes on the rocks, and stand in the ocean. It was freezing—or at least really uncomfortably cold. 

None of us felt like spending a lot more time in town, so we caught the bus back to Santiago. It took a longer route than the one out, but that meant we got to see a lot of pretty coastline. Back in Santiago, we checked into our hotel (amazing! Such a nice place!), took our backpacks off for the last time until we fly home, and set out to find lunch. We found Carly and Carolyn from Centerville and Dianne from Perth while we hunted. I still love running into people we’ve met along the Camino. 

After lunch, we went back to the hotel for showers (towels big enough to wrap around you! Free soap and shampoo!) and to just rest for a bit. We stayed inside lazing until dinner, when we ventured out for sandwiches and hamburgers. Then we wandered the streets a bit, catching two traveling groups of musicians playing bagpipes (and other instruments). As Andy put it, it was “the least annoying bagpipe music I’ve ever heard.”

The Spanish evening was just getting started at 9:30 with street entertainers and preparations for a concert of some sort, but we’re still acclimated to the pilgrim schedule, so it was back to the hotel for us.