Finishing the Camino in Santiago - we visited the shrine of St. James, and gave the saint a hug before taking in the pilgrim's mass; then on to Porto!

Camino Day 12 - Padron to Santiago - a day that started off great, but was derailed a bit by dehydration, but then finished at our goal - Santiago!

Camino Day 11 - Caldas des Reies to Padrón - a beautiful day with a little rain, a friendly church, a laundromat victory, and a feast of Galician cheeses!

Camino Day 10 - Pontevedra to Calda des Reies - a day of sun and showers, and highs and lows, and beautiful healing hot springs.

7.5 hours walking, 23.4 km walked A little later than everyone else in the hostel, we got up and hoisted urpacks on our backs for 7:30am, two bleary-eyed peregrinas making a stop at the lovely O Cafe a Vila, for a coffee and whatever that cakey thing is. I wish we could’ve stayed longer, but the road was calling, and so after about 20 minutes in the nicest cafe, we got on our way. The top middle picture is a lavanderia, spots built in every village so that women could gather to wash clothes in the time before most houses locally had running water. They’re mostly deserted now, except for…

6 hours walking, 17.6 km walked(Walking times includes stops for meals and breaks) Because we both got a pretty good night’s sleep for a change, we had a bit of a slow start, stopping a block away from the albergue for a quick coffee and croissant at Restaurante Paso a Nivel, a place whose main recommendation was that it was open, but which turned out to be pretty good. Getting on the road around 8am, we’d only been walking about an hour when we hit another milestone – the Camino waymarker that tell you you have less than 100 km to go before Santiago. The next stages are the most…

5 hours walking, 19.8 km walked(Walking times includes stops for meals and breaks) Getting up as dawn was breaking over Tui, we took a few minutes as we were gathering our (mostly dry) laundry and getting ready to go back on the road to take in the beauty of this albergue and the views around it. I really love this little courtyard; we’d sat on the stone bench the night before, watching the barn swallows swoop and dive in and out of their nests in the eves of the neighbouring cathedral. As we set out, the sunrise over the Minho lit everything in a golden glow. Breakfast – coffee, fresh-squeezed…

6 hours walking (there’s a time change between Portugal and Spain, so you lose an hour when you cross the border), 22.5 km walked(Walking times includes meals and breaks) After an okay night’s sleep, we got up and back over to Café São Sebastião (where we’d had our beer the night before) for “breakfast” – two pain au chocolate and coffee. It’s such a lovely spot, and so cheerful, and so convenient, that we were glad to spend a little time there again. But before long, the road was calling us, and we hitched on our packs and got moving. Right past Rubiaes, we crossed a Roman bridge, Pont Romana…

7.5 hours walking (part of it over a goddamned mountain), 21.9 km walked(Waling time includes meals and breaks) We’d had such a good day on the road to Ponte de Lima, and liked the albergue so much, that we’d gone to bed in a great mood and had anticipated a good night’s sleep. But once again, it was memorably bad. The beautiful wooden floors creaked, and someone got up in the night about every twenty minutes. We were sharing the room with a tour group who were walking together, and they got up before dawn, having conversations, packing, and generally making too much noise. After twenty minutes of that, one…

15-minute train ride from Barcelos to Tamel train station 7.5 hours walking, 26.2 km walkedThe walking hours are above from 7:30am, when we finished our coffee at the cafe near the Tamel train station, to 3pm, when we arrived in Ponte de Lima, and include stops for a rest and for lunch. It was just before dawn when we woke up to start our day; we were the first ones up, and crept out of the room with our gear to get ready in the common rooms (which is the decent thing to do when you’re sleeping in a room of ten or more). We were rushing a bit, worried…

5 hours walking, 20.3 km walked(Walking time includes breaks, breakfast/lunch, etc) With two full days of walking under our belt, and not much sleep the first night, you’d think we’d be ready to sleep through anything. One of our roommates – half of a really lovely Irish couple – warned everyone in advance that he was a loud snorer, and offered ear plugs. But I don’t think anyone was prepared for this kind of snoring – sort of a sound like a dragon fighting with and then consuming a passenger jet as it was taking off. I’d declined the ear plugs, but Sammi had some spares, and so I did…