Days 31 - 35 - Thursday, September 26 to Monday, September 30, Four nights in Madrid

We were up early and down to the bus station (again) to catch a mid morning bus to the airport. Our flight from Santiago to Madrid was about 1:30, so there was no need to rush. We got up and showered, packed up and walked the 15-20 minutes to the bus station. We had asked the days before and knew we only needed to show up at the bus, pay the driver €2 each and ride the 20-25 minutes to the airport.

Quite a crowd was waiting for the bus when it finally arrived, and it was quite full upon arrival. There are no yellow lines on the floor near the driver. We all crammed onto the bus, standing right up to and blocking the front door. The driver got it closed and we were off. Sally had to stand, which is quite uncomfortable for her, but she found she could brace and lean against a pole enough to ease the ride a little. Once at the airport I threw my knife in the garbage before we entered the terminal then proceeded to security. Sally had forgotten to empty her water bottle. The woman running the xray machine was kind and gave us the option of throwing it away or chugging it. I chugged it. 

The flight was uneventful and we soon back at Terminal 4 at Madrid. We found our way to the subways under the train station. It would take three separate rides to get to Plaza de Porto de Sol, the main square in the town. I had downloaded the metro app for Madrid and with it we had charted our course. As with every major city, the subways are a dream. It quickly and efficiently had us to the square by a little after 4.  As is true every time one is in a new city, when one emerges from the subway it takes a minute to figure out which way is which and what direction to walk to get to your destination. With the amazing map apps on phones now it is much easier and we soon crossed the square and were on track to our “Cheap Sleeps” we had reserved a week ago from Santiago.

Sally had been feeling overheated and hungry as we left the subway and tried to reach the surface streets, so we stopped in Plaza de Carmen, right outside our place and had pizza before continuing.

Now came the big question. What had we rented? It was the cheapest room Rick Steves recommended, under €50 a night (we didn’t even know what the cost was). Sally had been counting on a great place to relax after all our walking and albergue nights, but since AirB&B had cancelled our place and everything else was well over €300 a night, this was our only option without going way over budget or staying miles outside the city. We picked up our bags and walked across the square and into the building. We did not know what floor it was on, so we walked up the stairs looking at signs and rooms. On the top floor (6 up) we found our door. We rang the bell. No one answered. We rang it again. No answer. Some one stepped off the elevator and knowingly rang the bell for us. This time a kind looking lady in her late 70’s opened the door with a welcoming smile. No English. With my broken Spanish we got introduced and she showed us the room. As she was unlocking the door with her skeleton key I was wondering what was on the other side. There were only 5 reviews on the web, two terrible, two great and one middleing. It earned an average of 3.5 out of 5.

The door swung open to reveal a bedroom sized room with a double bed, a bath room with nice shower and a window. At first glance it looked clean. I looked to Sally. Could she handle this for tonight? For the next four nights. I think the kind woman had an influence and Sally said it would be fine. We discussed money. €40 a night. All four nights would be cheaper than any alternative. We took the key, closed the door and looked around.

This woman’s family had been renting this room and two others since 1936. She had lived here her whole life. The bed looked like it was from 1936. It felt hard and lumpy. Were those springs we felt? The walls were filthy. Painted a nice grey, but cleaned last in 1970? A coat of paint and a new bed and this would be a great place. So what did it have going for it? The price, the bathroom and the location, location, location. It was on Plaze de Carmen and two small blocks from the center square, Plaze de Porto de Sol.

As is our custom upon entering a new city, we plugged into Rick Steves podcast of a walk in the city to orient ourselves and out the door we went. We followed Rick’s audio tour for the next couple of hours and discovered the layout and high points of the town. What really amazed us was the number of people out on a Thursday night. Thousands and thousands. Madrid moved all the traffic in the central core of the city underground so the whole city is a pedestrian mall. It is wonderful, and the people of Madrid must think so, because they were out in force. We found this to be not a one night phenomenon. It was packed every night we were in the city.

We got back to our room about 9:30pm and went to bed. Sally had not been feeling at the top of her game during the whole walk, really since the subway. At 2:30 she was violently sick, vomiting into the toilet. Once we got everything cleaned up, it was back to bed. Our early start on the city for the morning was out the window. If she could sleep, I was certainly not going to wake her.

On Friday we got out the door about 10:30am. Sally was weak, but thought she could make it to the Prado Museum of Art if we went slow and took long rests. 

We enjoyed the Prado immensely. I love the classic painters, Durër, Fra Angèlico, Botticelli, Raphael, Rubens, Goya. I’m okay with the impressionist and really not a fan of the modern stuff (sorry Picasso).

We stopped at a tapas bar for lunch. Sally was doing surprisingly well and suggested we do the Thyssen while in the neighborhood. We did, starting on the top floor and working our way through history as we descended the floors. 

Back on the streets, we returned to the Puerto de Sol and enjoyed the live music on stage, the people and the street vendors before calling it a day. I made a quick trip to the grocery store for a bite for dinner and then we returned to our room. We entered it to find she had cleaned while we were gone, but the bathroom smelled like puke. It was the rag I had cleaned up with. I had rinsed it, but not good enough and it was stinking up the room. Into the shower with it and all was made right. Sally took a nap and I ran around town for an hour and a half, just seeing the town and visiting the Apple Store.

Saturday we were off to the Royal Palace. It did not open until 10, so we slept in and lazily made our way walking there, finding pastries along the way. The line was quite long for tickets and it took us about an hour to get in. This palace was built by Louis the IVX’s grandson. He grew up at Versailles, and it shows. This palace is a near copy. We really enjoyed the interior, using Rick Steves written tour as our guide. Again, we found what the Spanish did with all the gold they looted from the Aztecs. It was on full display throughout the palace.

We did some shopping in the afternoon and again enjoyed the live music in the square. We called it early and were in bed by 9:30

Tonight it was my turn. My stomach started to hurt about 11. It was enough to keep me awake. By 3 I had slept a little, but now it was full on pain management. I was not going to let myself throw up. So much for that. About 4:15 it happened. 

Sunday? Sally went to the Sophia museum by herself while I slept and rested. We had bought tickets to see the movie Downton Abbey for 2:45 in the afternoon. It was my goal to make it to that. I was not recovering as quickly as Sally did, and it was a real trial to make it the 0.4 miles across Puerto de Sol to the theatre. But with about 4 rest breaks I made it to the theatre.  It was a good activity, because it required no activity for about 3 hours. We enjoyed the movie, and I felt better coming out than I did going in. I returned to the room to rest. 

My concern was having the strength for the flight to London the next morning. We had to be on the subway when it opened at 6am to catch our 10:30 flight. 

We were up at 5:15 the next morning and out the building by 5:55. There were still tons of people in the street, but the nature of the crowd had changed. Now it was all young people, 16-30, mostly drunk or high or just incredibly tired. The police presence was still very noticible. As we entered Puerto de Sol we could see a group of kids having a run in with the police. It looked ugly, our first bad impression of Spain.

The subway was brightly lit and the trains were running. Two changes of trains and we were back at Terminal 4 for the third time, for our flight to London. We breakfasted on a muffin and vegetable stuffed pastry, then boarded our Iberian airlines flight for London.

And so our Spain adventure came to an end. Three weeks of walking and meeting people. A week of exploring Santiago, Finisterra, Muxia and Madrid. We found it inviting, interesting and a must return to place. Great memories.

Riding the subways from the Madrid airport to downtown Madrid

Our room in Madrid just off the Plaza de Puerto de Sol

Cathedral in Madrid

Downtown Madrid is car free-all pedestrian streets. 1000s of people in the streets every night

Royal Palace in Madrid-very similar to Versailles

One of the ceilings in the palace

Statue of bear and tree the symbol of Madrid in Puerto de Sol

Crowds in streets having fun in Madrid

Days 29 & 30 - September 25 & 26 - Two travel days - Muxía to Santiago (bus) and Santiago to Madrid (plane)

Our bus to Santiago from Muxia didn’t leave until 2:45. This gave us the morning to further explore Muxia. The weather was nice today. After breakfast of Sally’s delicious potato soup, we walked downtown, then over to the northern shore and sat to watch the surf pound. It was quite windy and the surf put on a good show. We walked out to the point again, then back to our albergue where we cooked lunch. We had purchased some “boob” cheese. I sliced it up for use in Santiago. Because we were flying from Santiago to Madrid I would have to give up my €3 pocket knife and would not be able to slice things anymore. We walked down to near the bus stop about 1:00 and just sat by the quay for the next hour and a half enjoying the sun and talking. D’Anne came by to say goodbye about 2:15. 

We boarded the bus, paid the driver as we did, and found seats where we could watch the scenery roll by on the drive back. The drive was uneventful, and soon we were back in the bus station at Santiago. A quick walk and we were back at Hospeja Mera again. This time we got the other room. It was ont he back side of the building and hide a sizable deck with a table and chairs. We ate cheese sandwiches before heading into town. We had a mission to accomplish. The SIMM card in my phone only lasted 28 days and those had expired yesterday. There was an Orange store on the other side of town. We walked there to renew the card. When we got to the store, they said to renew it we needed to go to a supermarket and pay, then bring the receipt to them and their tech guy would get me hooked up. This was a head scratcher. But, we did as we were told and the clerk at the market acted like this was a normal thing, took our money and gave us a receipt. Back at the Orange store the tech dude was busy with someone else, so I stood for half an hour waiting my turn. To quote Indigo Montoya, “I hate waiting!” Sally went shopping while I impatiently waited. Finally, I finished, then I had to wait anther 10 minutes for Sally to return.  

By now it was 6:45pm. We were now on a mission to find gifts for Cindy for her birthday and for John, just because. I found a cool gift for Andy right off, and Sally got lucky for Cindy. John’s took a while, but we finally found an establishment willing to part with the desired item and all was secured.

We made one last walk to the square in front of the cathedral, met a couple from Moscow, took their picture, then headed out to search for a beer for Sally. We wandered through about 4 places, but none felt right, so we settled for a pop from the grocery store across the street and called it a night.

Days 26 & 27 - September 24 & 25, 2019 - Hanging in Muxía - no miles

We slept in this morning. The municipal albergue wants everyone out by 8:00 am. That is when we woke up. We didn’t rush to pack as the manager didn’t seem bothered by our presence. About 8:30 we headed ou the door and downtown to a restaurant. Christina from Germany was as tardy as we were and joined us at a cafe to while away a few hours before we could move into our next albergue. We had a breakfast of eggs and bacon while we chatted. Juergen joined us after an hour, wandering in from another albergue. During our talks we learned he was a police officer in Hamburg. 

About 11:00 we found our way to Bella Muxía, our home for the next two nights. The weather forecast was particularly bad with heavy rain and high winds coming in the afternoon. We felt the first drops of rain as we entered the building. We had reserved a private room for two nights, hoping to relax and be lazy. That is exactly what we did. 

The storm arrived as advertised. Sheets of rain driven by the wind on this tiny exposed peninsula on the Atlantic. 

We put on our rain gear about 1:30 and staggered through the rain and wind to the grocery store and stocked up for a few days stay. 

Cabin fever and a strong desire to experience the storm had me don my rain gear and sandal and walk to the end of the peninsula.  I found what I was looking for; a fierce wind pelting me with rain, huge Atlantic waves pounding the rocks and a stone church anchored to the point of rock like a mussel clinging to the seabed. 

Back in the room and hour later I marveled at the effectiveness of my rain gear at keeping me dry. Sally and I had a repeat dinner from last night. 

On the 25th we again slept in, had yogurt with added granola. Yum. The sun was supposed to show they today, so we headed out after breakfast, walking the town and returning to the church on the point. As we walked downtown, Danny from Barcelona waved us in to the restaurant he was having lunch at. We had a coke and a beer and sat talking for nearly two hours. In that time D’Anne from Dallas texted that she was in town. We invited her to join us and soon she was sharing her “pulpo” and drinking red wine. We agreed to have a celebratory dinner that night and made reservations for 8, when the restaurant reopened. We walked town and returned to the albergue where Sally Andre two batches of potato soup, one for lunch and one for tomorrow mornings breakfast. 

On our way out to dinner I realized I had left my phone in the room. When I ran back in to get it, I recognized Sophie sitting in the reception area. We had not seen her since La Faba.  I went back to the street to get Sally so she could say hi as well. Sophie has been in the hospital for four days with food poisoning or stomach flu, but was well now. 

We were a tiny bit late to the restaurant to meet D’Anne. We had a meal of seafood. Excellent. Danny joined us about 9:15. We broke up about 10:30, saying our goodbyes, although Danny was riding the same afternoon bus as us the next day. Danny is an actor and does commercials. Check out this one: https://youtu.be/kKhdxz2WsAE

Two great rest day/dodge the weather days!!

Kitchen in our albergue 

Church right on the point

Selfie with Muxía behind. This is on the sheltered side. 

The Atlantic side of the peninsula. 

The church at the end of the peninsula

Danny from Barcelona having lunch in Muxia

D'Anne, Sally, Chuck and Danny at restaurant

Day 25 - Sunday, September 23, 2019 - Finisterra to Muxia - Dodging the rain - 17.4 miles - Total Miles to date - 296.18 miles

It is amazing what an effect weather has on a trip, especially when the trip is focused on being outdoors. When hiking or climbing, there is no escape from the weather, be it sunny and hot or stormy and cold, you are in it and have to deal with it. On this Camino, the weather is again an issue, but each night is a reprieve from dealing with it. During the day while walking it assaults or caresses you. You can hide from it temporarily by stopping in at a cafe, but to progress forward you have to encounter it. At night, enclosed in an albergue, the weather can do its worst, or best and you are ignorant of it. That can be viewed as good or bad, depending on the experiences you are seeking.

Up until a few days ago, the weather has been mostly dry; sunny skies, low humidity and gentle winds. As we approached Santiago and entered the region known as Galicia, the humidity has risen and just yesterday clouds covered the sky in that Seattlesk slate grey of winter. The most noticeable effect was on our laundry. It doesn’t dry.  Wash it in the evening, hang it up and it is still wet in the morning. No room in the air for the moisture to leave the cloth and become airborne. Everything has become “clammy”.

As told in yesterday’s blog, it poured rain all morning long. We hid in a bus and then albergue until it passed then walked to visit the “end of the earth”. The forecast today was for intermittent light rain during the morning followed by sunnier skies between 10 and 3, then a chance of rain again. But, the forecast for Monday was not good at all, especially after 11 in the morning when the rain and wind were forecast to visit us in full force.  We decided we would try to dodge the rain and hike the whole 18 miles to Muxia on Sunday to avoid getting caught in Mondays storm. We could suffer a little rain this morning if the sun were to shine later.

I woke at 4:30 this morning to the sound of water spilling out of gutters and splattering on the cobblestone streets. “Well, only one morning of walking in the rain. We can do that.” I thought. I dozed until my alarm woke me at 5, then slipped out of my upper bunk and woke Sally. We snuck into the common area, ate breakfast and finished packing. I stuck my head out the door to check on the weather. Did we need to start out in our rain gear? I didn’t hear any sign of rain.

We slipped out the door and started walking north through town. The street was wet and puddles abounded, but a look skyward showed the waning half moon and stars. Could we be this lucky?

We followed the beach on a nice slate paved walkway for nearly a mile, then turned off the beach and followed roads, heading north toward Muxía. The moon and stars continued to show. It was warm, in the low 60s. We packed our fleece and enjoyed our windy, but warm walk in the dark.

As the sun began to light the eastern horizon we could see the sky was totally clear. That was unexpected! The way was mostly single lane roads, some paved, some gravel through forests and fields. It was beautiful. We did not see another person for the first three hours, something that had never happened on the Camino before. During the whole of this time we could hear the crashing of the ocean on shore, first behind us back in Finisterra, then to our left as we paralleled the coast, inland less than a mile. The way had two moderate hills to climb across our 17 mile distance

Sally had purchased two real Pepsis in Finisterra yesterday at the grocery store. She knew today we would not be passing any cafes or stores, so she planned to have me carry one for a mid morning caffeine hit. Being kind, I put it in the freezer when I woke up so it would be icy cold when she got around to drinking it later in the morning. Being stupid, I walked out the door and forgot it in the freezer. When she found out, she was very disappointed. Luckily, we passed a sawmill operation at about mile 4 this morning and the owner had a Coke machine out for his workers. Two euros and we had two bottles of coke to energize our morning stroll.

Windmills have been visible everyday of these past 4 weeks and today was no exception, accept whereas before they were off in the distance, today we walked very near them, close enough to hear the sound peculiar to them.

We came to the town of Lires at mile 8 and found the albergue/cafe. We stopped in for a Coke and a potty break, although we both wished we had asked for hot tea. We got up to leave and headed out of town, finding a stone picnic table on the outskirts. We stopped to eat some bread and cheese, nectarines and bananas. We started out again. About 150’ up the road Sally realized she had forgotten her walking sticks at the cafe back in town. I offered to run back and get them, but she reasoned she would just leave them. She would have to leave them in Santiago anyway, because she couldn’t board the airplane with them and she wasn’t really using them that much anyway.

We started to see a few more people, passing us and coming the other way. That was a first. People walk from Finisterra to Muxia and Muxia to Finisterra.

At the top of the last rise we were in heather with the windmills towering above us. We stopped for a few minutes to sit and have a few crackers, then we started down the slope to the seashore and the mile flat walk into Muxía.

We found the municipal albergue on the other side of the peninsula and registered. It was a concrete building, reminiscent of the Huxley buildings on the Western Campus. Lots of wasted space. 

We had shipped Sally’s pack to this albergue, but I had gotten a call earlier in the day from the transport company while walking that said they had dropped it off at one of the local businesses. While Sally rested, I hiked down to the waterfront and found my pack.

The kitchen downstairs was spartan, no refrigerator, few dishes or utensils, but enough for us to cook and eat some soup. With dinner done, we headed down to town and entered the same cafe Sally’s pack was at. In there we met Mike and Judy. We had met Judy earlier, but this was the first time we met Mike. Sally and Judy hit it off and Mike and I talked for the next 90 minutes, ranging from literature, writing, economics, climbing, hiking, Free Solo, favorite books and more. We finally headed out the door to walk the waterfront quay. We got 300 feet down the shoreline where a bus was unloading and saw Jergen getting off the bus. What?!? It is so strange to be in a foreign country and yet run into people you know at every turn. We chatted for a minute, then he had to run to check in to his albergue. We returned to ours, and settled into bed. 

Chuck enjoys his yogurt before stepping out into the dark morning to walk

Sally travels the streets of Finisterra with the aid of her headlamp

The stone pillars mark the way

Chuck satiates Sally’s caffeine needs at the Coke machine

The way passed near many amazing and nearly uninhabited beaches

Through forests

Lunch in Lires, about 8 miles from Finisterra

The stone buildings for keeping maize dry are held up with stone mushrooms.

Up amongst the windmills and heather. Very windy.

A beautiful beach about a mile from Muxia.

Sometimes the “way” is no more than the shoulder of what looks like a very busy highway. 4 cars passed us in half an hour.  Pretty safe walking.

Day 24 - Saturday, September 21, 2019 - Santiago to Fisterra by bus - A day of Rain - 0.00 Miles - Total Miles Walking - 278.78 miles

For the most part, we are done walking. Our built in extra days are too few to allow us to walk to Finisterre, but too many to just sit on our butts waiting for our flight to Madrid on Thursday. We ran into a similar fortunate situation when we biked the length of the Rhine in 2015. It is hard to know how fast you will move, what delays might occur and what circumstances you will meet along the way. You build in extra day “just in case”. 

Today, we are off to Finisterra by bus, will spend a night after seeing the town, then hike to Muxia (pronounce moo-she-a - the Galcianians pronounce the “x” as “sh”- and “c” as “th”) tomorrow. 

We slept in a bit today, waking at 6:30am and starting our walk to the bus station about 7:30am. Our bus to Finisterra is at 9:00am and we wanted to arrive early enough to get our tickets and leave a little time to overcome any obstacles that might arrive. Our walk to the bus station was about 15-20 minutes. The pavement shone wet in the street lights.  It had be raining during the night, but spared us during our walk.  The bus station was open, but not the ticket booth or the cafe. As we walked in we saw a man’s face light up in a smile as we glanced his direction. It was one of those moments when you are not sure if he is looking at you or someone behind you. He rose and walked to us exclaiming “Chuck and Sally”; it was us he was looking at. It took a moment to recognize Milan of Serbia whom we had met a couple days before. He is a very sweet man and we exchanged greeting and found he was on the bus to Finisterra as well. We left him to seek out the bathroom and a meal at the cafe, now that it had opened. 

We purchased our tickets when the booth opened at abut 8:15am and wandered downstairs to the bus platforms. There were a number of people millling around, wondering which of the 20 slots our bus would pull into. Milan was still in the waiting room.

Our bus turned out to be a two story bus with huge windows for viewing. We knew the route was along the coast for much of the way, we plotted to get an upper seat on the left side of the bus for optimal viewing. Sally would enter the bus first while I loaded our packs in the storage space underneath, then join her inside in the seat she saved for me. Since it was a double decker bus, the only luggage area was over the rear wheels. By the time I got to it, it appeared full and I had to stuff my pack in by pushing others aside. I got both our packs in, then went back to enter the bus and was the last person to board. Sally had two seats on the left side up top. Perfect.

The bus was super comfortable and only about 1/3 full. The ride did not disappoint. The first part was through town and the countryside, then the road hugged the winding shoreline for an hour and a half. The view would have been spectacular, but the heavy rain was streaking our window, obscuring the view a little bit. Even the streaking and the mist outside could not hide a spectacular shoreline. Sally slept the first half hour until I woke her to see the ocean view. I wrote yesterday’s blog entry as we rode along. It is the first blog of the trip I have written with my thumbs on my phone, rather than using the keyboard. I read through it when done and noticed more errors than normal.

We arrived in Fisterra in the pouring rain. Our rain gear was in the pack under the bus. A crowd stood outside the storage area trying to get to their packs which were now a jumbled and topsy turvy mess. It took a few minutes standing there to get my turn at the pile, and I extracted both our packs. We scurried under the small covered area and put our rain gear on. There were a lot of people (25-25) standing around, some waiting for the bus, others waiting for the albergue to open. Our albergue was up the road a few blocks. We shouldered our packs and headed up the street. We noticed a large grocery store (large by comparison to what we had been shopping in, smaller than Toledo’s Red Apple) and a bakery. We stopped in and saw what looked like apple pie. We bought two pieces and ate them while walking to the albergue. Oh man, they were spectacular!

We arrived at the alburgue. It was downstairs and quite small. Two sleeping rooms with 8 bunk beds in each and a small room that served as registration, common room and kitchen. There were also two bathrooms and three showers. 

Once registered and assigned bunks, we headed down the street to the grocery store, stopping on the way at a restaurant for a couple hamburgers. 

The grocery store had more vegetables than we had seen. We bought two carrots, a box of mushrooms and a leek for our soup tonight.

We returned to the albergue and each took naps until 3:30pm. The rain had stopped and the sun was out. Yahoo!!  We walked to the true “end of the earth”, 2 miles out to the end of the point where the lighthouse is and FaceTimed Robby and family from there. We walked back and sat on the beach for a few minutes enjoying the nice, cool weather, then went inside to cook dinner.

During our cooking and eating Milan came in and we got into a discussion of Serbia and the US influence in the world, especially Serbia. Milan was excited that Donald Trump had gotten elected. He called Hillary Clinton “the pure essence of evil”. We asked him why. He was in Kosovo when President Clinton bombed Kosovo, holding his young kids and trying to calm them as the bombs rained down. That’s a pretty good reason to hate the Clintons. He said that Serbia can do nothing economically that is not approved by the US or face retaliation. He was very emphatic about his political views, yet was open to hearing another point of view. He thought Trump’s wall was a great idea to keep the immigrants out. He hated the immigrants and wanted all immigration to stop. He was convinced the Muslims were sending only their men in an attempt to infiltrate Europe for an eventual takeover of the continent. He often exclaimed he was not a racist and would then say he did not want blacks coming to Europe from Africa and Muslims from Arabia.

It was getting late, 9:20ish, so we ended our interesting discussion, packed our gear for morning, stuffing Sally’s pack with the things we would not need during our walk for shipping, and climbed into our bunks. Sally turned the lights off about 9:40pm after asking the 3 other people in the room if that was okay. They all liked the idea. 3 minutes later a woman walked in, turned on the light, asked if 10:00 was the time for the quiet to begin and sat on her bunk writing a postcard. I was amazed at her rudeness. 5 people in bed with the lights out. She walks in, turns them on, tells us lights out at 10 and then does something that could be done in the common room. Despite the lights, I fell asleep and woke 40 minutes later to see that they were off. Ahh, life in the albergue . . . 

Ran in as we get off the bus in Finisterra.

Sally and our “ride” from Santiago. Fisterra is a bigger town than we expected.

Registering for our bunks in Albergue Ara Solis in Finisterra

A statue of a wind swept pilgrim on our hike to the lighthouse at the end of the earth. Lots of clouds now, but no rain on the walk out.

At the “End of the Earth”. Before the earth was perceived as round, sailing west of here was sailing off the edge of the earth. Notice the distance on the marker.

Selfie at the end of the earth.

We are never alone.  We ran into Ren as we walked back into town. We walked with her two weeks ago. How can we be in Spain and be surrounded by friends? It is a small world after all!

Access to the beach from our albergue. Narrow street! No danger of getting hit by a car.

Sally picks a couple of rocks to bring home to Bob from the End of the Earth

Finisterra, the town, as seen from above.

The “End of the Earth” with Finisterra seen in the background.

Bunks in our albergue. We had sheets and blankets and towels. I guess that is why it was 12€ instead of the usual 6€.

Day 23 - Friday, September 20, 2019 - Zero Day in Santiago - A Day of Rest? - Total Miles to Date - 278.78

When we laid out our plans to do this hike in the beginning of August we looked on the web and found that the walk is divided into “stages”, with one stage per day. I’m still not sure of the rational for the stages other than them seem to be about 10 to 15 miles a day  and make each night in a town of some size. These towns have sprouted abundant albergues, cafes and restaurants to support the throngs of pilgrims trekking through. We adopted the stages as advertised and stayed with them most of the time, although some were too long for our tastes (19.5 miles). We divided theses longer stages up into smaller, bite sized chunks to fit our needs, sleeping in some of the smaller, but no less comfortable villages. 

Drawing on our PCT experiences, we gave ourselves 6 or 7 extra days to be spent on zero days, injury healing days or sightseeing days. However, since we usually finished walking by noon or one, we got ample rest in the afternoons to power us through the following day. Plus, it is awkward to take a zero. Unless you get a more expensive private room, you must vacate the albergues by eight in the morning and are not allowed in until noon or sometimes as late as two. These circumstances caused us to end our trip with 6 extra days upon reaching Santiago. One of those days, today, is to be spent resting. 

We woke up at about 8:00am lounges in bed reading the news on our phones and generally enjoying doing nothing.  While Sally was in showering I checked my email, noticing a reminder from AirB&B about our upcoming stay in Madrid. I also noticed another email from AirB&B sent about an hour later informing us our reservation for Madrid had been cancelled. What?  It went on to say they were really sorry and they would give us $36 to ease our pain. 

I told Sally of our plight when she returned from the shower. A mild panic ensued for the next hour as we searched for four nights accommodations in Madrid. With only a week’s notice, all the less expensive places were booked. Our $75.00 a night place now lost couldnonly be replaced by $350 a night places. Not in our budget. Calling a few places confirmed the lack of rooms. hmmmmm . . .

Sally, ever resourceful, turned to Rick Steve’s guide to Spain. In it, he mentioned a “hole in the wall” quaint place right on the Plaza Mayor. He ranks his room with dollar signs to give a clue as to their relative price, $$$, $$, $ or ¢. This one was a ¢. He cautioned that the owners, an elderly couple, only spoke Spanish. What the heck, I’ll give it a shot. I called and expressed my need “Yo necessito un reserva para dos personese para Septembre Viente seis a treinta.”  The woman on the other end started asking me questions I could not answer. I apologized, hung up and sought out the lady who ran our hotel. She was next door cleaning a room. She knew enough English to understand our plight and called for us. They did indeed have a room for the nights we needed and she got them reserved. Woohoo!  Problem solved. Only thing we don’t know is how much do they cost?  Also, how dirty, cramped and smelly are they. We are trusting to Rick Steves for four decent nights. We will know in a week. 

It was now nearing 11:00 and we were ready to get back on the streets. First stop. Catholic Mass for the pilgrims at noon. It is usually held in the big Cathedral, but with the renovation clogging the interior, it is moved to the Iglesia San Francisco, directly below our room about a block. We knew to arrive a half hour early if we wanted a seat, so we arrived at the door at 11:30. I had my pack with me, lunch water and rain coats inside. A security guard manned the door. No packs allowed. For a pilgrims mass? A mass for people that just walked 100’s of miles with a pack on their back, no packs? Sally went inside to get us a seat near the back. I walked back up the hill to our room, left the pack and walked back down. I was seated by 11:40. We close the last pew in the back so we could indiscreetly leave early. While waiting we reconnected with two Irish ladies we had been sharing the way with. 

By noon the church was packed. All the pews were full, 14 people to a row, 25 rows. Another 100-200 were standing in the back or on the sides. The organ played, mass started, people chanted and we got up to leave. We snapped a few photos before we left. 

Back up to the room to grab the pack, then over to the bus station, a 20 minute walk away, to check on bus tickets to Fisterra tomorrow. We joked and laughed with the lady at the info window and found we did not need advanced tickets, we could buy them tomorrow morning right here at the station.

On our way back we took another route that led us to the Camino, the same route we took yesterday into the plaza.  It was fun to walk it again and watch the anticipation on the people’s faces walking it for the first time.  We stopped at many of those souvenir shops we passed yesterday, Sally on the prowl for a few trinkets. 

We had a lunch of crackers, cheese and a banana, seated on the stone benches on the side of the cathedral. I went inside to check out the holy door now that I had read a description of it. 

We returned to the Italian restaurant of yesterday for a shared dinner of Spaghetti. Sally has been texting  Dana during the day and arranged to have drinks with them after dinner. I had been texting with Annamarie about the same. Annamarie had invited us to dinner with some friends but we declined, telling her we would join them during their meal for a few minutes. 

As we completed our meal, Sally texted Dana we would meet them in 5 minutes in the main plaza. We probably took 15 to pay the check and walk. On the walk we passed Annamarie and Colton busking on a street corner and stopped to say hi, then on our way again. We found John and Dana waiting for us.  

We had a nice time chatting with Dana and John over wine and soda. The ladies decided to seek out Colton and ask for a song. We hoped he was still busking. We walked to the corner where we last saw him, but he was gone. We returned to the square for a group photo. As we walked to the middle of the square, there stood Colton, all alone. He was waiting for Annamarie, who was late. 

We asked for a song and Colton happily removed his guitar from its case and sang for us as we sat on the cobblestones of the square. After his song he packed up and headed for where he thought the girls might be. We walked with Dana and Hohn back through the tunnel and up the stairs. We were stopped in our tracks by a beautiful acapella  voice echoing from the tunnel. This beautiful voice had replaced the bagpipes. We stood and listened for a few minutes, then continued on. We parted with John and Dana and returned to our room for the night. 

We had wondered how many people we would see today. Did all the people walking with us leave, or did some stay on. Turns out most have left, but we still saw at least 20 people we knew. What a great day!

A crowed mass for pilgrims 

Chuck and the giant feet of santiago 

We find RaLuca and Juergen in the square. 

The cathedral 

Dana and John

Colton Ort sings for us