Grandpa's on the Camino

Boarding the Delta plane already felt a little like being home. Unfortunately while taxiing to the runway for takeoff, there was an alert in the cockpit of a possible engine issue. It took 3 1/2 hours to physically check the engine and complete all the necessary testing and paperwork. We finally got airborne and made it back to Atlanta and home with no problems.

My heartfelt thanks to all of you for your kind and generous support of our pilgrimage. May God bless you!

Today we flew to Madrid for the first leg of our trip home. Up early to catch the airport bus, then check in and through security at the airport. The directions to our hostel in Madrid seemed complicated and involved a couple of changes on the metro and a fair amount of walking, so we took a taxi. The old central part of Madrid is a real maze of narrow streets with poor signage – I don’t think the driver could have found the place without his GPS.  We did quite a bit of walking around just to take things in. This place is so very different from where we spent the last few weeks – it is busy and noisy and everyone is in a hurry. And we are so ready to head home in the morning. No photos today. Nothing special caught my eye.

Day #36

Madrid 

Population over 3,000,000

Hostel – Ok Hostel Madrid 

Weather warm early (Santiago), very warm later (Madrid).

Today we were tourists. We took a full-day bus tour with stops at five sites along the Costa da Morte – called the coast of death due to the huge number of shipwrecks caused by bad weather and difficult navigation. The number one attraction, of course, is Finisterra – so named by the Romans who thought it was the end of the world. This is a frequent additional destination for pilgrims after they reach Santiago. The other top destination was Muxía, to me a most amazingly beautiful coastal site. This is the location at the end of Martin Sheen’s movie, The Way, where he scatters his son’s ashes in the sea. After our return to Santiago, we went back to see the cathedral for one last time. Tomorrow we start our trip home.

Day #35

Santiago de Compostela 

Weather absolutely beautiful 

The weather has been a bit of a nuisance for most of our time in Santiago – cool and humid with scattered rain, mostly pretty light. However, it has produced some amazingly beautiful evening skies! These photos were taken from my window in our albergue.

Day #34

Santiago de Compostela 

Weather overcast and chilly with an occasional light sprinkle.

Another quiet day for rest and relaxation. We spent some time again at the cathedral plaza, and again reconnected with another Camino friend, a chemistry teacher from Indiana. We finished our souvenir shopping and called it a day.

Day #33

Santiago de Compostela 

Weather overcast and cool with an occasional light sprinkle.

We spent the first half of the day at the cathedral plaza people watching. We reconnected with a number of the Camino friends that we made earlier in the pilgrimage – people from Australia, Denmark, and various U.S. states. We enjoyed seeing individuals as well as large groups come into the plaza and celebrate and pose for pictures. Of course there was also time for a little more souvenir shopping. In the afternoon we got drenched with rain, the perfect excuse to go ahead and shower, do laundry, nap, and watch some World Cup soccer.

Day #32

Santiago de Compostela 

Weather overcast and chilly early, scattered showers later, some heavy.

A great day to just kick back and relax. We slept in late, then headed to the cathedral area. We explored the cathedral some including climbing the stairs behind the high altar to hug the apostle and going down the steps to his crypt in the reliquary chapel below the altar. We must have visited dozens of souvenir shops and stalls, mostly just looking, but actually buying a few things. We kept coming back to the cathedral plaza for people watching and to take in the festive atmosphere.

Ambient sounds:

Day #31

Santiago de Compostela 

Weather overcast and mild, some light rain.

We made it. We started walking this morning just as the day was dawning bright and clear. We made good time, arriving at the cathedral in Santiago with enough time to look around a bit, find and register at our albergue, and still get back to the cathedral early enough to claim a pew fairly close to the front for the pilgrim mass. Then we waited in line for a little over an hour at the pilgrim office to obtain our compostelas. Now back to the albergue to relax and think about food. There will be plenty of time for other things tomorrow . . .

Day #30

Santiago de Compostela 

Population 96,000 / Elevation 260 meters

Albergue Seminario Menor (approximately 1 kilometer from the cathedral)

Distance walked today 10.6 km to the cathedral, plus several kilometers around the area.

Weather sunny and mild.

It was a mostly quiet day on the Camino this morning with occasional stretches filled with boisterous youth groups. As further evidence of how close we are to Santiago, the path winds around the airport and crosses more than one busy highway. A visit to a chapel in San Paio is a welcome break. We pass through more eucalyptus groves and open fields on our way to Lavacolla where we will spend our last night before walking to Santiago tomorrow.

Day #29

Lavacolla 

Population 150 / Elevation 300 meters

Albergue Lavacolla

Distance walked today 9.5 km 

Weather chilly and mostly cloudy.

Today we walked to Pedrouzo, a fairly good size town, basically a suburb of Santiago which is only another 20 kilometers. This was our shortest walk yet, less than 10 kilometers. It was a pleasant enough of a walk, just sort of boring with the usual sendas along busy highways, paths through eucalyptus groves, and roads through villages and farmland, and now the occasional sound of an airplane overhead. Again we arrived at our destination well before our albergue opened so we had some extra downtime for relaxing. While we were waiting, a small flock of sheep came up the street before being led out to the nearby pasture. I’m going through something of a culture shock – this is a modern albergue that accommodates large youth groups, and the noise level is intense, a real contrast to what we’ve become accustomed to.

Day #28

Pedrouzo 

Population 5,000 / Elevation 300 meters

Albergue Turístico Cruceiro de Pedrouzo

Distance walked today 9.6 km 

Weather chilly and overcast, not quite as humid.