June 8 Arcos do Pino to Santiago de Compestela 12 miles

I wrestled a lot with the song of the day.  Should it be about completing the epic journey.  Songs like "I Would Walk 500 miles"  by the Proclaimers or perhaps given that we will be arriving in Santiago, something a little more spiritual like "Tryin' to Get to Heaven" by Bob Dylan (best version is sung by Lucinda Williams) or perhaps in a tribute to Spain  "Boots of Spanish Leather" by Bob Dylan?  When we left the hotel this morning, Linda said, "how about that Steve Earle song "Jerusalem"?

"But I believe there'll come a day when the lion and the lamb 

Will lie down in peace together in Jerusalem 

And there'll be no barricades then 

There'll be no wire or walls 

And we can wash all this blood from our hands 

And all this hatred from our souls"

About 7 miles into our hike today, I came upon a beautiful dog laying down with a black cat resting on it.  See the picture below.  And it dawned on me that Linda's choice for song of the day was absolutely perfect.  The cat and the dog are a great  analog for the lion and the lamb!

When we left the hotel around 8, it was a cool, overcast day.  Perfect hiking weather.  For the first 5 miles or so, we walked through a stunning dense forest of eucalyptus and oak trees.  It was relatively quiet, and we wondered where everybody had gone.  "Did we take a wrong turn?  Are we lost?" Then we turned a corner, and all of a sudden there were probably 100 people behind us!  Turns out, they take bus loads of tourists and drop them off 7 miles from the end so they can experience the walk.   Each group had a different color t-shirt on!

All in all, the walk today was quite a nice way to end our hike.   We arrived at the Cathedral in Santiago around 1:00.  Amazingly, it started raining about 5 minutes after we arrived, and hasn't stopped since.  I think this is more the normal weather for this area, and it makes us appreciate how fortunate we were this past week to experience the sunny weather. 

After an outstanding lunch at an Italian restaurant, we went to get our "Compestela"- basically our graduation certificate for completing the hike.  We waited in line for about 20 minutes and then each of us had to go to a separate desk for the interrogation process. They examined our credentials to make sure we had sufficient stamps, asked a series of question, and then we were issued our Compestela.  So, we are now official!  

On Saturday evening, we attended a mass at the Cathedral.  It was all in Spanish and Latin, so we didn't really understand it that well. They did not do the botafumeiro, which is the large swinging smokey  container over the alter.  Apparently the historical significance of this ceremony is that it was used to fumigate the pestilence of the arriving pilgrims.  If you saw the movie the Way, there was a segment where the monks performed this ceremony.

We are told that they have reduced the number of "official" times this ceremony is performed, as it requires 6 priests.  However, we were also told that for 500 euros (about $700), they will perform the ceremony.  Apparently many tourist groups promise this to their customers and  pay the church to perform this ceremony.  

On  Sunday morning, we went back to Cathedral and were fortunate to witness the Botafueiro Ceremony.  I have included a photo here.  The Cathedral was absolutely jam packed, well in excess of 1000 people.  It was quite an impressive ceremony, even for a religious cynic like me.    Amazingly enough, we ran into so many people from the trail that we haven't seen for weeks.  For example, we ran into a German guy we met in day 2 in Pamplona, and haven't seen since.  We also ran into the 70 year old Polish woman who walked 12 hours per day.  There is a picture here of Linda hugging her at the service.  

We are staying in a truly beautiful 4 star hotel, our best of the trip.  Fittingly for us, it is called the San Francisco Monumento hotel and located on the Rua de San Francisco.   The hotel  is located within a working monastery.  We understand the monks from this monastery perform the Botafueiro ceremony.  

Last night, we slept like a log.  I think there is a certain exhaustion that comes after completing this walk.  However, after "sleeping in" until 7:30, we awoke and went for a long walk around town, including the train station to purchase tickets for the train to Madrid on Monday.  

We also toured the museum at the cathedral.  Over the course of this trip, and many other trips around Europe, we have toured countless Catholic Churches and museums.  The amount of art, architecture, etc owned by the Catholic Church is truly staggering.   This particular museum has a huge library of medieval books.  Incredible to look at these works and realize they were all done by monks by hand!

 By the way, I do know the song of the day for the next few days -  "Holiday in Spain" by Counting Crows.  We will stay in Madrid from Monday to Thursday morning, when we fly back to San Francisco.   We enjoy the art galleries in Madrid, particularly the Prado.  Also, we are looking forward to enjoying some high quality Spanish food while there.

We want to thank all of you for your best wishes and thoughts this past 5 weeks.  This has truly been an outstanding experience for us, and we appreciate your support!  While we are looking forward to getting back to San Francisco and our "normal" life, we will very much miss the utter simplicity of this trip- wake up every morning, prepare your feet for the day, and start walking!  

Lastly, I truly have to thank Linda.  Wow!  What a travel companion!  After 31 years of marriage, you think you know somebody....then you get an opportunity like this to take that relationship to another level.  I can't wait for the next 31 years!

I plan to write a hike summary with Chris Berman and Javier, similar to the halftime report I posted several weeks ago.  But, I will need a few days to think this one through....

June 7 Arzua to Arca Do Pino 14 miles

Song of the Day:  "One Day More" from Les Miserables:

One day more!

Another day, another destiny.

This never-ending road to Calvary

Can you believe we only have one more day until we finish this hike!  It's hard for us to comprehend that we have now walked almost 470 miles and only have 12 more miles left.  I'm not sure how it will feel on Sunday morning when we wake up and have no walking to do!  For the most part, walking (and eating and sleeping) has been our primary daily mission in life this past 5 weeks.

We had another beautiful walk today,  mostly through heavily forested hills.  I have to say, the scenery since we entered Galicia this past week  has been nothing short of spectacular and ranks with some of the best hikes Linda and I have ever done.   Galicia is the green part of Spain, as it gets the most rain.  Incredibly, we have had no rain this past week,  only sunny or partly cloudy skies.

After about 6 miles, we stopped for a snack.  At the cafe, we ran into Montse from Palo Alto, near us in San Francisco.  We  have not seen Montse for 3 weeks since we hiked through the snow with her.  After hiking the first 400 miles by herself, Montse's  husband and two children have now joined her for the last part of the hike.  This was her 50th birthday present.

As you can probably tell from many of the pictures this past week, this is cow country!  Based on some of noises we heard coming from the barns yesterday and today, it sounds like it was slaughterhouse  day.  It was a virtual Little Shop of Horrors, with the animals making some very mournful sounds.

When we started this hike, we were given "credentials" which is basically a passport like booklet.  Along the way, all the hotels, restaurants and churches offer stamps to indicate where you stopped along the way.  It makes for a terrific record of the trip.  We will end up filling two of these books each.  I have included a photo of Linda's credentials here.

For the last 60 miles of the hike, you need to collect at least 2 stamps per day, to "prove" that you walked the Camino.  So, Linda has been very diligent about getting our stamps this past week.  The credentials  will be used by the "examiners" tomorrow when we receive our "Compestela".  See my posting from a couple of days ago for more about that.

I have talked about the various business models the Catholic church uses including charging admission to the church, museums, charging for turning on the lights, etc.  Yesterday, we went into a church to get a stamp.  The volunteer giving the stamp then asked us for a donation in exchange for the stamp!  

We arrived at our hotel today around 1:30.  Several of the hotels along the way, including today's, have offered clothes washing services.  For about $7, they will wash a load of clothes.  However, it is then up to you to dry them.  For our hotel today, our room is on the 3rd floor.   They have a clothes line at the 3rd floor level!   I have included a picture of Linda leaning out our bedroom window and hanging clothes!  Most days we simply wash our clothes in the shower or sink (or bidet...) just using a bar of soap.  So, it is a treat when we have access to a real clothes washer.

One health update:  Linda's toenail came off today.  I think Linda is actually relieved to get this out of the way.  She said it doesn't hurt, more of an annoyance than anything.

Tomorrow will be a busy day.  Although the hike is relatively short at 12 miles, the trail will be packed with hikers.  In addition to the normal heavy load of the past week, we are told they bring in bus loads of tourists who hike this last 12 miles only, to get the "feel" of hiking the Camino.  However, they don't receive a Compestela.  Then when we arrive in Santiago, we understand the process for getting the Compestela takes time, as the lines can be long. In any case, it will be a real feeling of accomplishment to finish this after 34 days of hiking!

June 6 Pallas de Rei to Arzua 18 miles

Song of the day:  Walking On by Steve Winwood:

Placing one foot in front of the other

Feel the breeze flow through your body now

Angel on my shoulder’s telling me

Keep on walking and believe

High above looking down on me

So alive and it’s flowing free

Through my veins in eternity as I walk

Walkin', walkin', walkin', walkin'

Today's walk was harder than we had anticipated.  There were a series of steep climbs and descents that didn't show on the map.  That said, the walk was beautiful, and fortunately, relatively quiet.  

After about 30 minutes, we passed a little 70 year old Polish woman that we see almost everyday.  She just marches forward, with very short, methodical steps.  Linda has talked to her before and she walks from 6am to 6 pm every day.  Basically, she takes 12 hours to do what we and most others do in 6 hours.  You really have to admire the grit and determination of this woman.

We also came across Dani, a 67 year old Belgian woman we have  talked to on several occasions.  This is her fourth time walking the Camino.  She started in France and has been walking since mid-April.  When she finishes, she will have walked almost 800 miles.  

We stopped for breakfast around 9:30 and joined a Dutch couple in their 60's that we have talked to in the past.  They started in early April in northern France,  and will end up walking more than 1000 miles when they are done.

Later, I walked with Merle, a 63 year old man from North Carolina.  Last year, he walked 7 months and 2000 miles on the Appalachian Trail.  That's a very tough hike, because you have to bring everything with you.  No bars, cafes or lodging every 5 miles!  

Some things remain the same though... Passed 4 French couples, greeted them with "buenos Dias", got back a "bonjour."  Saw them a little while later, I greeted them with "bonjour", got back a......."bonjour"!  And, we had another excellent lunch of fried eggs and fatty bacon!

I haven't given a health report for a while.  Linda has been bothered by a new blister on her back left heal the past few days.  She keeps piercing it with a needle, but it closes back up.  So, last night, she pierced it with a needle and thread, and left the thread in to keep the piercing open.  What do you know, she is a whole lot better today!  Otherwise, our feet are doing fine.  We will loose 3  toenails though... The good news for Linda is that she should be able to negotiate a 10% discount next time she gets her nails done.....

Tomorrow should be a relatively short 13 mile walk to Arca Do Pino.  

June 5 Portomarin to Palsa  de Rei  17 miles

Song of the day:  Walking Man by James Taylor:

And the walking man walks

Doesn't know nothing at all

Any other man stops and talks

But the walking man walks on by

Walk on by

We decided to leave an hour earlier today to try and beat the crowds and also walk more in the cool of the morning vs the hot afternoon.  We were successful in taking an hour out of the hot afternoon, but alas, not in beating the crowds!  That said, even though the trail was very crowded again today,  it was a much more subdued and quiet crowd.  As opposed to the carnival like atmosphere of yesterday, today was almost  procession like.

The day started out cool and misty.  We immediately ascended 1000 feet and it was a good way to get the muscles warmed up!   At this level, we climbed above the clouds, although they remained in the valley below.  Once again, it was a warm day.  By the end of the day, I was down to a short sleeve shirt, which is a first for me on this entire trip.  I may even break out the shorts tomorrow, which will probably scare the hell out of the other hikers!

We have developed very strange tan patterns on our bodies.  Our hands are very dark, although our fingers are relatively white since they are usually wrapped around walking poles.  Our arms are also white, because we have always worn long sleeve shirts.  Linda wears a pair of Capri like pants most days, and has developed a dark tan from just below her knees to the top of her socks.

We stopped for an early lunch around 11:30.  We overheard a English woman saying to her husband that she was sick and tired of the Spanish food and couldn't wait to get back to England to eat toast and beans!  I've visited almost 100 countries in my life and the only one that has worse food than England is Russia!  That said, the restaurants along the trail are not serving the normal top quality Spanish food that we enjoyed when we lived in Barcelona.  

Our early lunch was once again fried eggs and bacon.  This has become a staple in our diet and we have probably eaten more eggs in the last several weeks than we have in the last year.  Perhaps this is why Linda has started clucking at me so much recently....hey, it's a yolk!

Over the past several weeks, we have been traveling more or less in parallel with four older French couples.  They have often stayed in the same hotels as us and of course we see them on the trail.  And whenever we see them, I will say "buenos dias" and like clockwork, they respond "bonjour."  I have written about this previously...so today, I decided to mess with them a little and when I saw them I greeted them with "bonjour"!  The surprise was the French guy responds "good morning"!  What the hell?  I guess the Camino is trying to teach me forgiveness today, so I take back most (but not all) of the things I have said about the French!

We are only about 40 miles from Santiago now, and plan to arrive there early Saturday afternoon.  Tomorrow we have a walk of about 16 miles to Ribadiso....we plan to leave even earlier tomorrow to beat the heat.

June 4 Sarria to Portomarin 13 miles

Song of the day:  "Life is a Carnival" by the Band:

We're all in the same boat ready to float off the edge of the world 

The flat old world 

The street is a sideshow from the peddler to the corner girl 

Life is a carnival--it's in the book 

Life is a carnival--take another look 

Well, things have definitely changed out here on the Camino.  A few days ago, I explained that you must hike at least the last 100km (62 miles) of the Camino to receive a Compostella.  Sarria is the first town  past 100 km, and is the most popular starting spot for the walk.  It seems like there were probably 4 times as many hikers today as there have been in the past.  And the number of bicyclists has increased exponentially.  In a normal day, we probably saw 5 or 6 bikes; today, we were passed by perhaps 100. Linda called the day "caminoghedden", similar to "carmaghedden" when they closed the 405 freeway in LA for a weekend last year and forced the cars to alternative routes!  

It's easy to spot many of the new people.  First, their clothes are brand new and don't show signs of wear from the prior four weeks.  Second, they tend not to have serious hiking gear.  For example, we have seen several women out here carrying shopping bags, another guy was carrying a boom box!  We half expected to see the Khardashian sisters in their high heals!  It truly is a carnival atmosphere out here.  

The segment today was another beautiful hike across Galicia.  As yesterday, the scenery is rolling farm land, lots of cows and  beautiful wooded trails.   I was able to get another great shot of Linda underneath a grazing cow!  Once again, the weather was outstanding, cool and misty in the morning, warm and sunny in the afternoon.  I may break out my shorts tomorrow!  

We passed part of the time today walking with 3 young people from Japan, China and New Zealand.  For about 20 minutes, we sang the songs from Le Miz!  The Japanese guy knew the words to every song and said he has seen the play and the movie numerous times.

We had a lite lunch at a bar along the way.  We sat with a woman from England who has been walking since mid April.  She said that due to health problems, she can't walk very far each day, and so is taking much longer.  However, one of the problems she faces is that each day, she sees a new group of people, and then never encounters them again because they are ahead of her.  For us, one of the true pleasures of this trip has been running into people over and over again.  For example, we saw a guy yesterday that we spent time with a couple of weeks ago, and then lost track of him. He was behind us, but then caught up.  Someone explained this to me as the "slinky" effect.

Tonight we are staying in our cheapest hotel yet, at $45 per night.  Its definitely not the fanciest room in the world, but we do have a private bath with plenty of hot water, and reasonable beds.  The accommodations get a little scarce on this section, so you take what you can get.  

Tomorrow is a longer segment at 17 miles.  We are thinking that we will leave a little earlier in hopes of beating the crowds.

Monday June 3 Triacastela to Sarria 13 miles

Song of the day: Haunts of Ancient Peace by Van Morrison.  I'm reprinting all the lyrics, because they fit so well:

Beside the garden walls

We walk in haunts of ancient peace

At night we rest and go to sleep

In haunts of ancient peace

The love and light we seek

The words we do not need to speak

Here in this wondrous way we keep

These haunts of ancient peace

Let us go there again

Oh, when we need some relief

Oh, when I can't find my feet

When I need rest and sleep

The Sunday bells they chime

Around the countryside and towns

A song of harmony and rhyme

In haunts of ancient peace

The holy grail we seek

On down by haunts of ancient peace

We see the new Jerusalem

In haunts of ancient peace

Oh, when I can't find my feet

Oh, when I need, I need some relief

I want to go there one more time again

You know I want to go there one more time again

Be still in haunts of ancient peace

Be still

I think the words to this song are almost perfect for most days of our trip.  But, particularly this stage.  Much of our walk today was along a heavily wooded, walled path.Truly stunning scenery and the weather was perfect.  The sounds of birds and wildlife were alive, and we did not have to deal with car traffic.  The temperature was in the mid 60's  most of the day, before warming up to the 70's later in the afternoon.   Definitely a walk to remember.

Along the way, we passed through several small, agricultural villages. We have noticed many buildings where the animals are kept on the first floor, and the people live on the second floor.  Must make for some interesting smells at times....

Linda and I were both feeling a little sad today, because we have just begun to realize that this hike will be coming to an end when we arrive in Santiago on Saturday.  One of the truly wonderful things about this hike has been the short term focus of your day.  You wake up in the morning, put on your boots, and start hiking until you reach your daily destination.  During the day, you think about many things, but not the end of the hike.  Funny enough, it just felt like you would just keep walking forever to reach Santiago.  But, here we are, having walked over 400 miles, and only 75 to go and the end is in sight.  Yesterday, we made hotel reservations for the next 6 days, because of the tightness of availability.  As they say, we are now "locked and loaded"!

One thing I haven't talked about  is "taking care of personal business" along the trail.  For a guy, it's usually pretty easy, just stand off to the side and get the job done.  For a woman, this takes a little more planning, involving finding the right moment when there aren't many people around and where there is protection of bushes, etc.  We pretty much have this down to a science after 30 days on the trail.  Until today....Linda said she had to go, we checked out the trail for hikers behind us.  No hikers in sight, a nice clump of bushes, good to go!  As Linda is just getting started, I yell out, "Linda, there are some horse riders coming"!  Fortunately, Linda is pretty fast at this stuff, and managed to put herself together before they passed.  That's a new one for us....

We arrived in Sarria around 1:30, and had a good lunch, sitting outside to enjoy the warmth of the sun.   Sarria is a town of about 13,000 and does not seem to have the charm or architectural prizes  of many of the other Spanish towns we have been through.

Tomorrow, we have a walk of 14 miles to Portomarin.  There will be a fair amount of climb and the weather is forecasted to be warmer.  I may break out those shorts yet!

Sunday June 2  O'Cebreiro to Triacastela,  13 miles

Song of the day:  Learning to Fly by Tom Petty:
"Comin’ down is the hardest thing
I’m learning to fly around the clouds
But what goes up must come down"

We awoke to a spectacular view from the O'Cebreiro this morning.  OC sits on top of a mountain, surrounded by several other mountains.  There was fog in the valleys around us, but the tops of the mountains were clear and sunny.

Yesterday, we climbed over 2000 feet to OC.  Today, we had a very sharp descent of over 2000 feet.   Yesterday's walk was a killer on the calves, thighs and balls of the feet; today's destroyed our knees and toes!  But, all in all, we are doing terrific, and ready for a shorter, somewhat flatter walk to Sarria tomorrow.

We both had an incredible night's sleep of over 9 hours last night.  I'm sure that was the effect of the very strenuous hike yesterday, plus the comfortable bed in our hotel.

Today, I was constantly reminded of the old Saturday Night Live skit about Blue Oyster Cult's song "Don't fear the Reaper" with Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken.  You might recall that the theme of the skit was about adding "more cowbell" to the recording of the song.  Check it out on YouTube if you haven't seen it.   In any case, the sound of the day was indeed cowbell.  You might notice all the cow pictures included here.  All day long, we passed herds of cows grazing, being herded down paths, going into the barns for milking, etc.  If the sound of the day was cowbell, the smell of the day was....well, you can probably guess!

Galicia is amazingly beautiful.  It is the greenest part of Spain, due to the high amount of rainfall they get.  We are incredibly lucky to be visiting this area in sunny, relatively, warm weather.  The weather forecast seems to be for more of this, but we understand the weather patterns in this area are very inconsistent and can change quickly.

One interesting story about Galicia that we learned when we lived here has to do with their farms.  Agriculture is one of the primary industries in Galicia.  In the past, when a farmer died, his farm would be divided up evenly between his children.  This would then continue to the next generation, etc.  After several generations, all that was left was a bunch of very small, very inefficient farms.  We have been told that this practice nearly wiped out the agriculture industry at one time.  I believe the practice and some of the inheritance practices and tax laws have changed to reduce this problem.

The number of people on the hike seemed to increase a lot today, particularly Spaniards.  In the past few weeks, we have actually encountered relatively few Spaniards, but I would say more than half of the people today were from Spain.  Most of them are just starting the walk to Santiago this weekend.  I understand it will get even worse tomorrow when we get to Sarria.

At the end if this process, we will be issued a "Compestela ." The compostela is a certificate of accomplishment given to pilgrims on completing the Way. To earn the compostela one needs to walk a minimum of 100 km or cycle at least 200 km.  As  it turns out, Sarria  is 112 km from Santiago, and so Pilgrims often start from there or perhaps a little before.  Which is why I think there were so many new people on the route today.

Tomorrow, we hike to Sarria.  Sarria is a historically significant town, and we are looking forward to touring some of the sites.