Padrón to Santiago de Compostela – 24.8km, 5.75 hours, Saturday, 28 September

It was a very chilly morning for a stroll.  41ºF / 5ºC and I was wearing shorts and a light shirt. One thing the chill did for us though was to make us walk fast to stay warm. Part of the day, we were actually walking through a cloud – a very low cloud – but a cloud rather than just a patch of fog.  It made my bones feel damp.  Our first 5km, 10km, 15km and 20km was faster than any other similar distance this year. It was only as we got to Santiago’s suburbs that we started to have to wait at traffic light, deal with crowds of people, etc.  The crowds were usually tolerable and for long stretches we were not within earshot of other pilgrims.  That changed at times and drastically so once we entered Santiago’s old town. We could nearly move there due to narrow streets, huge groups of pilgrims waiting to enter the plaza outside the Cathedral together, and many tourists wanting to get pictures of, well, pilgrims.  We are the the big show until, at least, the botafumeiro flies after the mass.   

Before I forget, we had a few stories from yesterday that I forgot to tell.  The first was from our dinner.  We shared an “ensalada mixta” and a “paella mixta” – I guess because we are always mixta uppa. Anyway, an ensalada mixta is usually just lettuce, tomato slices, olives, corn, onions, lots of olive oil & salt as well as a bit of balsamic vinegar.  The paella mixta is a lovely rive dish with both seafood and chicken. The seafood we had was tiny clams, fish meat, squid, prawns, crab pieces and maybe some stuff I could not recognize.  It was outstanding. Just as we were finishing though, the couple at the next table was served their paella mixta. The woman let out a small shriek when she saw it and asked the waiter what the dish was. He confirmed it was the paella mixta and walked away.  The woman, who I have to admit was American, turned out to be vegetarian. She said to her husband that since ensalada mixta only had vegetables, she thought paella mixta must be only vegetables too.  Oh my.

Another story comes from yesterday, but at lunchtime.  We had a table of four ladies next to us with rather distinct accents.  Maggie, an Aussie friend of ours, had told us to keep an eye out for her friend, Susie, who was walking the same Camino we were and at the same time.  We had been asking every Aussie we met either “are you Susie?” (which pissed off most of the guys) or “Do you know Maggie?”.  We never met Susie but I sure pissed off the ladies at the table next to us.  I’ll give you some life saving advice that could come in handy one day.  Never say “you’re all Aussie, right?” to a gaggle of Kiwi ladies. The error I made  almost cost me my life.  The grief they heaped upon me over the next five minutes shredded me to bits.   It didn’t help things when the first time they finally all stopped abusing me for a few seconds, I explained that I was looking for a friend of a friend but casually asked “oh, if you’re Kiwi, you must know Trevor, righti??  (Trevor is a Kiwi friend in Singapore).

[edited to add: here is where I fell asleep in the chair while writing the blog last night]

The trails on the last day to Santiago only have a few kilometers of natural paths but I loved almost the whole route.  There were tiny roads that wound their way through ancient villages, old farms roads, and very occasional main roads but with the support services they bring to the tables like cafes and toilets. The natural paths were definitely the best part though and walking on those times always reminded me to take a photo. 

Now, what is a Camino without a gripe or two? (Actually, what is one of my blog posts about without a gripe or two?).  I am still learning to be patient with pilgrims on bicycles. I really am trying but I’m not completely there yet. The new sub-section of cyclists that I doubt I’ll ever accept though are the ones on battery-powered e-bikes. They cycle a bit going downhill to charge the battery then coast uphills. What is next, motorcycles?

A related issue involves when we arrive in front of the Cathedral in Santiago. At the Plaza de Obradoiro, all pilgrims pose for photos in front of the church. A surprising common pose is to lift your backpack high above your head for a photo. I don’t know why but lots of pilgrims do that, maybe to show their strength since they carried the bag so far. More surprising though are the cyclists who raise their bikes above their head for a photo.  I think it would be more appropriate that the bike raise the rider high up for a photo because the bike carried the cyclist so far already and should be demonstrating its strength. This year, their was a large group of cyclists posing with their bikes, singing and dancing louder than any other group, celebrating their achievement. That was bad enough but then I noticed they all had e-bikes. I was just waiting to see if they were going to raise the bike’s battery above their heads for a photo.

We are off in the morning (Monday) for at least four more days of walking to the coast. The forecast is for rain for at least the next three days. Wish us luck. 

Peace y’all.

Good night George & Leo. I’m sorry I missed you last night but I was awful tired.