7am Wakeup call
7:30 Breakfast in the albergue
8:17am Back on the trail
8:37am Santiago de Compostela
9:32am We reach the Cathedral
10:01am Picking up our credentials
10:19am Exploring Santiago
10:37am José explores the Cathedral
11:27am Formal breakfast at Milonga’s
3:45pm Lunch at the albergue
6pm Back to explore Santiago more
8:12pm Dinner in the mall
9:30pm Bedtime

Distance covered: 5.31km/3.3mi

Staying the night in a municipal albergue means a new set of rules. Everyone has to be out of here by 8:30am and no one is cleaning up after you. We stripped the paper sheets and pillowcases off the bunks and put them in the canister up front. I made breakfast in the kitchen, toast and chocolate milk. We cleaned up after ourselves and were back out on the trail fairly early. There was light enough to see and the skies were overcast but no rain. It didn’t take us very long to reach the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela. We stopped for the token pictures in front of the sign and then pushed on. It took us another hour to cross town and reach the Cathedral where the Apostle James is said to be entombed.

Once we reached the main square, we took the obligatory “holding your backpack proudly above your head” photo. Then we walked around trying to find the pilgrim’s office where you show your credential and pick up your certificate. We finally found it but there was very little signage indicating where it was. There was a guard at the front gate and he searched our backpacks before we could enter. Thankfully we were early enough so there were only a couple waiting ahead of us. When you register, the clerk asked you what was your motivation for walking the Camino. The options were religious, spiritual, or athletic. Everyone else chose spiritual except for me and I picked athletic. I felt nothing during this journey that I could relate to a higher power. It was about setting a goal and achieving it. José and I will return to walk it in its entirety sometime in the future, this I know.

Another fun Spanish breakfast of hot drinks and toast with marmalade. It was roughly a loaf of white bread and a toaster. The backtrack to the trail this morning went faster than last night. The first hours of the day weren’t too wet. A bunch of assholes went past us on horseback, one of them was running his horse so hard that it was foaming at the mouth. Someone had written the lyrics to the John Lennon song Imagine on the trash cans that are beside the trail. That prompted me to look up his story on my phone and discuss him with Mia.

We were making good time when we happened upon a restaurant for lunch. Mia tied up her horse “Marshmallow”and we went inside. It was quite busy but we squished into a table in the corner. More hamburgers for us. The café was getting crowded and then JEJ showed up right before the rain started to pour down. They managed to squish in the corner with us, more hamburgers and a tortilla for Mom.

Then it was back out into the rain and mud. The wind was blowing really hard through the eucalyptus grove. Most of the day was spent walking in the pouring rain blowing sideways in the wind. The shoes were soaking wet with cold toes sloshing around and gloves so wet I had to wring them out. When we reached Pedrouzo, we had a devil of a time in our search for an albergue. The albergues didn’t have any private rooms so we kept looking. We had to walk around and go to many albergues trying to find a room for 6. Finally we returned to one that had a triple room for 65€. It was actually in a separate residential building. There were two other rooms sharing one bathroom so that was interesting later on. While we were waiting for JEJ, we went to explore and left Mia in the room. We went to find food for the evening meal. The office offers laundry service so we had to bag up everything and drop it off ASAP. We were returning from staking out a restaurant when JEJ arrived in town. They settled into the room and stayed put for the rest of the night. José and I dropped off two bags of clothes to be washed, 8€ each. We picked up some things up at the Día market. We saw the Canadians walk by, José told them where to head for food. We got snacks for the family and waited for everyone to get hungry. Mia found a channel playing Ella Enchanted  in English. José and I wandered around town in our flip flops and spare clothes.

The restaurant we found was also a bakery full of delicious looking pastries.We ordered meals to go for everyone else and took their dinner back to the room along with a variety of the pastries. José and I then returned to sit down and enjoy our meal at the restaurant. The Canadians were dining on the opposite side from us so I don’t think they noticed us. We picked up our clean laundry after diner and headed back to the room. The other two rooms were now full with loud, smoking Spaniards. Justin walked into the shared bathroom and found a naked man sitting on the toilet. We all took showers except for Mom and Justin who haven’t bathed so far this journey.

Breakfast today was an easy stop. As you step out of the albergue, there is a cafe directly to our left, the same one that José and I visited last night. Once again, it was orange juice, hot beverage, and toast except here we only had to pay 3,50€ each which is more reasonable in my opinion. It was still dry as we headed out of town and I wanted to get some distance in before the rain caught up with us. As we wandered our way out of town, I came across a food truck that was just gorgeous. It was a Citroën H or similar and it was done in a beautiful color palette. I wonder if I could import one of those back home. It would make a swell campervan. We were once again in our groups of three and three, JKM and JEJ. We are in A Coruña territory now. We happened upon a roadside stand selling fruit and cakes so I stopped for Mia. JEJ caught up with us along with an older gentleman from the Basque country. He has run into them a couple times before and even gave Justin some kind of patch the last time they met up. It’s funny what happens out here considering the language barrier. The girls each picked out a pear to eat and got another stamp in their credential. 

We had some lovely hills again today. When we found a place to stop for lunch, I was sweating to death inside my hoodie and rain jacket. We had just come down a hill and crossed a valley when I spied the restaurant on the top of the other side. We ran across the highway and up across the lawn where we parked ourselves at a table outside on the veranda under an umbrella. Here we had a view of the whole valley and we could see all the pilgrims descending and then passing on the trail right below us. This way I could make sure that JEJ didn’t pass us somehow. I did see the Canadians as they passed on their way.

We all ordered the menu special which was a drink, pork chops, French fries, egg over easy, and dessert for 9€. The sopa fideo was served in a large bowl and José served us individually. It was delicious but then again, everything is when you’re hungry. We stayed and waited for JEJ to catch up with us. I pulled out Mia’s monocular and we watched the tiny pilgrims across the valley and we could pick them out as they crested the top. We waited long enough to help them order and get their food before we headed out. They also ordered the same meal with the exception of Mom who got a whole tortilla de patata (8€). After this Camino, she’ll probably never want to see one again!

The rest of the afternoon went by with no events. It was very windy with an almost constant rain so we were mostly focused on getting to our hostel for the night. I had picked out one that was about 19km even though Mom doesn’t want to walk that much. We are dependent on how often the albergues come up. The one I picked on the list had a little note next to it (FR .7KM). We learned that this meant that we actually had to detour from the route and walk 700 meters to this albergue. We had been walking with no idea exactly how far we had gone or where we were. All of the markers have “complementario” written on it so we have no idea if there is another route that we missed somehow. We finally found the road leading to the left and a simple wooden sign with the name of the albergue on it. The albergue was sitting right beside the highway so it was easy to find once we walked down the side road. I had called ahead to make sure there were six beds available for us as it was several kilometers down the Camino before we might run into another one.