Howdy, Pilgrim
I have absolutely no clue how I managed to talk my travel coordinator into this (or perhaps more accurately, why I said I would do it to look manly assuming no one would ever take me up on it and now can’t back but) but today we’re on a 7:00 AM flight to Santiago de Compostela to spend five days of our precious vacation walking some 56 miles through Galicia to Finisterre, which the Romans considered the “end of the earth”. There are so many things in things in that sentence that don’t sound like her I wouldn’t even know where to begin.
Before I try though, a quick shout out to Madrid. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there and, unlike most big cities where we try to quickly tick off the key attractions and move on, there one feels a lot more like us and we can even see spending an extended period of time here somewhere down the road. That’s pretty high praise.
We’ve got a lot of moving around to do this trip and while there is a great high-speed train network here, sometimes the distances are just too far to make skipping the airport worth it. This is one of those times, as a 4+ hours train ride is only 90 minutes on a plane, albeit a little more tightly packed.
Santiago de Compostela is the end point for the Camino de Santiago, a kind of catch all for several routes covered by pilgrims making their way to worship at a shrine said to contain the relics of Saint James. Thousands of people each year hike these trails starting as much as 500 miles away in France (although most only cover the obligatory 60 miles to qualify for the official pilgrim certificate). We’re doing things a bit differently though, starting our hike here and continuing west.
Other than repositioning, we really have no set agenda for the day and take advantage of the down time to catch up on a few emails, post a blog or two, and then wander around town. The cathedral is the big attraction here as it is most people’s ultimate destination and the hub of activity. We don’t make it inside this time around but maybe when we get back in a few days.
In the meantime, my trusty sidekick, AKA T-Gran, has gotten hooked on café con leche. Never saw that coming.
