That's all folks.

Our Camino Portugues has come to an end and now our time on the Iberian Peninsula also must come to an end.  We have had a great and wonderful time out here, but home is home, and that is where we go at the end of every Journey before starting a new one.  We will catch our last sleep in Spain before leaving early in the morning for a mid-afternoon arrival back in the States.

For a relaxing touring day around Santiago it has been very busy.  For the first time since arriving Tina and I actually had the opportunity to "sleep-in"... I say it that way because we really didn't, last night's accommodation must have had paper-mache walls or some other equally poorly soundproof Construction.  Spain is not known for its early-rising yet the chambermaids were busy early cleaning all the rooms on the floor and in the process waking those of us up who are trying to get a few extra minutes of sleep.  A relaxing breakfast at the hotel was likewise rushed as the staff was looking to close promptly at their designated time.  Thankfully the reception desk was more than willing to hold our packs for several hours until we checked into our new accommodation.

Experienced peregrinos will be familiar with the pilgrim house in Santiago...  a haven for English speaking peregrinos.  Among the many services offered is full wash and dry for laundry and an extensive knowledge of the greater Santiago area.  Luckily for us we brought our dirties.

Tina and I then meandered over to the San Francis monastery which is a little-known gem but for those that take the time you are granted with a second Compostela.  Little trivia fact, there was a decree that no building could shine higher than Santiago de Compostela, so when they built the monastery they actually dug it down into the ground and still built it big.

We enjoyed a few moments of shopping before having to tend to more errands...  The Dirties we're no longer dirty they were clean, however we had new dirties that needed to be then cleaned.  Pilgrim house to the rescue again.

While walking down one of the side alleys Tina spotted a churros sign, with guidance from the pilgrim house we located a shop with delicious churros con chocolate, which was just the fix needed at that time.  It was a Spanish treat I had forgot about but was glad we indulged in.

and all the running around and changing hotels we still managed to get in a quick run to Monte de Gozo and the Peregrino Monument.  it is a very important location for peregrinos coming in to Santiago on the Francis route as it is your first chance to see the spires of Santiago.  Interesting side note, there were some locals picnicking at the Monte de Gozo monument with a little ankle nipper of a dog who learned that this peregrino wasn't going to put up with his bullshit.  I didn't have to say anything I just pointed back to the owners and growled and it went back much to the surprise of the owners.  as I started walking to the other Monument it had a brief moment of braveness until I spun around and growled at it again. I was ready to take a cue from my older brother and take a chunk out of the dog with my teeth.  Walking as much as you do when you're on Camino just put you in the mood to not deal with anything.

We even managed to finish off our last night in Santiago with an impromptu met up with a Camino friend from my 2015 Camino, Susan Peacock.  Susan was just herself finishing an extended Camino down the Portuguese and to Finisterre.  We spent our last night in Santiago indulging in Tapas yet again.

Sleep soon airport in the morning, the Iberian Peninsula can breathe a sigh of relief...  I joke a lot about that but in reality the Portuguese and Spanish people have been awesome to deal with and language barrier or not I always manage to communicate my needs.  I picked up just enough Spanish words to bullshit my way through almost any conversation so long as I can make animated gestures and sound effects.  To that point, one peregrina recently named me the whistling peregrino, as I'm more than demonstrated with animated gestures and sound effects several items I was describing.

ULTREIA!

Photos :
https://photos.app.goo.gl/BrwX3kEc8aytbNMo9

SANTIAGO!!!!

We will be honest with you, the day started off rough, that kind of last rough attack you get before you are victorious.  We were unable to score any breakfast before leaving town and the trail was up and down in the brisk morning breeze.  Upon arriving in Santiago City proper we finally located in open bar and were able to score a day saving breakfast. we also had the opportunity to meet up with a few other pilgrims we had previously met with and enjoyed their company for a brief while.

Breakfast in bellies and murdering temperaments calmed down, we commenced our final attack on Santiago.  Walking through the new city was kind of a slog especially during morning Rush.  On reaching one of the parks that is on the outskirts of the old city I was immediately in familiar territory.  Tina and I put our walking poles away and proceeded to walk the entire distance through Old City to Santiago Square hand in hand.

I can't tell you what the feeling is there are no words in the English language that I know of. I can tell you that even on my second pilgrimage I was still overcome by emotion, thankfully for the surrounding people it was not as explosive as my first arrival in Santiago.  Tina had her own emotions which I could certainly feel and understand but those are for her and her to share in her own time.  Suffice it to say the arrival in Santiago was powerful, more powerful than one would normally suspect could happen.

I will say that we were in the Square for quite a long time just soaking in the victory in the beauty of having overcome this Camino in arrived in the Square. we had many of our fellow peregrinos who had either overnighted or had come in earlier in the morning seek us out and give us congratulations for overcoming everything to arrive in Santiago.

Once we could fully compose ourselves we went over to the new Compostela office and waited approximately 45 minutes for our compostela's.  First Compostela, second Compostela, it doesn't matter, it's still a powerful and emotional experience. we even took in some extra time after receiving our Compostela Spain to relax in the garden out back and just soak in the entire experience that it happened.

Santiago had one more challenge for us.  before I get into that let me ask you this question, how well do you check over your hotel room?  Me, I tear the thing apart!  In doing so I found an extra, unwelcome, visitor in our room.  Bringing it to the hotel's attention they quickly closed off the room and put us in a significantly better room.  I will say that the significantly better room past the tear apart inspection. Did we flip out or otherwise lose our cool on the whole incident, no, not at all!  All the hostel, albergue, pensions, and other places we stayed, we found no other visitors.  Peregrinos diligence is always smart.

We proceeded to take a few hours of the day as downtime to gather and compose ourselves and reset ourselves for the 7:30 Pilgrim Mass.  The legendary botafuma, which swings very rarely recently, swung for us tonight!

As my fellow peregrinos can attest, arrival in Santiago is immensely powerful and highly emotional.  Today has been an extreme of emotions.  Yet when we sit back and reflect on the journey and it struggles, we acknowledge that we would happily do the journey again as the rewards are just so much greater then the challenge of overcoming the obstacles.

Tonight we celebrate with pollo paella (with a proper crust) and tinto sangria.  Tomorrow is a day to explore around Santiago and hopefully find those little cans of tiny pickles someplace.  Tonight, exhaustion and full bellies reign supreme.

Photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/BrwX3kEc8aytbNMo9

This is the road that never ends....

Yes it goes on and on my friend....  Ok, not really the truth as a matter of fact we have less than 7 km to go.  however when you're dealing with the injuries Tina dealing with the road just seems to go on and on and on Without End.

By the way tomorrow is the Santiago invasion and occupation. today was actually a little heartbreaking and sorts because many of the pilgrim friends we had met along the way and various Fashions casually or otherwise we're pushing today clear to Santiago and leaving town tomorrow. The trail today was a trail of Quasi-teary goodbyes as we bid an Ultreia farewell to our friends.  For my Camino friends they know how easy and quickly type bonding Camino friendships become, for those who have not walked Camino it's a very hard sensation to describe other than there is a near immediate bonding with so many people. Some people we seem to bump into everyday.  Some people we've only met recently.  Some people Proclaim that we have assisted them in some way.  Whatever the reasons for the friendship it seemed today we were passed by a constant stream of peregrinos all wishing us the best in our future as we likewise expressed our best wishes.

Tonight Tina and I are enjoying a quiet relaxing night in the largest suburb of Santiago before we invade tomorrow.  Looking back time seems to have stopped this brief week and a half that we've been out here.  When we set out we had an aspiration of Walking the Camino Portuguese from Porto along the coast for a while and then changing to an Inland route.  We tried our best to leave ourselves at the mercy of the Camino and let it guide our movements and not us forcing our movements in the Camino.

The first day out a minor ankle twist ultimately manifested into a full-sprain.  Thanks to the wonderful Portuguese and Spanish farmacias we were able to continue Along on a modified itinerary.  out of a possible 240 km we will have walked 177 of those when we arrive in Santiago tomorrow.  Along those km we have always put ourselves at the mercy of the Camino, gotten beat down on a daily basis, yet at the end of the day we were always shown kindness as we soaked in the local culture.

Was this a transformative experience like my Camino Frances trip in 2015?  No it was an entirely different experience.  The 2015 Camino was a solo Journey for myself over 800 km and 7 weeks away from home.  This is a joint Journey over a hundred and seventy-seven km in only 2 weeks away from home.  Does that mean that the journey itself was without results, absolutely not.  While Tina and I are very comfortable in our relationship this journey did help us both reaffirm our commitment to each other.

Tina's own personal take on the Camino she will have to express on her own.  for me it was almost like coming back to see a friend you haven't seen in awhile.  While a different Camino, it is still a Camino, and you can feel the warm comforting embrace of the Camino.  this Camino in the short two weeks probably tested my patience more than the entire Camino Frances did over the whole 7 weeks.  Being a younger Camino and still under very active development, I found sections of it more challenging then I would have suspected given the documentation in the guide books.  Either way my commitment to not let the Camino conquer me but to ultimately embrace the Camino and finish as friends with the Camino still stayed strong.

Tomorrow promises to be a very emotional day.

Photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/BrwX3kEc8aytbNMo9

The long day

Before we start on today let's go back to last night.  Tina and I landed at an absolutely wonderful albergue and when we checked in at the hospital a Taro for the best beds he could provide. He graciously put us in a small 6 bed dorm with two bunks and two singles.  I put $10 into the single and took the nearby bottom bunk.  After having sold out the second floor dorms, he sold one additional bed in our room to a very friendly person named Ben from Denmark

Later we witnessed a peregrina being dropped off in a car that a local had picked up on the side of the road, she could barely make it into the albergue.  We, as naturally good peregrinos, offer to assist her with her foot problems as much as we could.  She had literally blown out the sole on one of her boots and related or not was suffering extreme feet pain.  The hospital a terro brought out a tub of ice water and had her soak her feet for a good hour. We brought out Tina's pair of Oboz shoes to see if they would fit and offered her to take them if they did, sadly they were one a size off.

By this time her husband had caught up and met her at the albergue and called her a taxi to where they were staying in the next town and he hiked up the rest but not before we all sat down for quite some time and enjoyed some good peregrino social time.

We later sent down to a wonderful assortment of Galacian Specialties in half racion form.  Zorza, Mini-chorizos, Spanish omelette (a half ration was still more than enough for two of us), and assorted Spanish meats and cheeses.  Worth noting all of the half rations themselves we're more than enough and would easily pass in the US as a full serving.

In the table next to us was our roommate Ben (Benny), who in Tina's eyes was a dead ringer for Crocodile Dundee. We had some great social time sitting outside under the awning getting to know each other.  As bedtime neared Ben warned us that he talked in his sleep...  I'll tell you right now Ben doesn't talk in his sleep but more about that soon.

We wrapped up and got to an early bedtime at 9 p.m. looking to get an early start this morning.  Just as we were really starting to doze off Ben started his "talking in his sleep"....  Remember I just said Ben doesn't talk in his sleep, that's right he doesn't talk in his sleep, he screams in his sleep, in Danish to boot.  After the initial shock of his screaming we were able to settle down and get a good night's sleep.  at some point in the night apparently his phone rang and he shouted at it yet I did not wake up for that event.

Today we hit the trail at 7:30 walking in the pitch-black until sunrise at 8:30.  nursing Tina's feet we walked 20 km taking a full 8 and 1/2 hours to walk it as we took advantage of every bar and rest area available to us.

We landed in a wonderful spot tonight in Padrón, famous for padron peppers, and also the spot where body of St James came ashore.  As we were out looking for a place to dine we bumped into the very same couple from the night before with the foot injuries and proceeded to have a wonderful social time with them until they had to depart to get ready for tomorrow's hike.

Tina complains back at home that we can't go anywhere without somebody recognizing one of the two of us.  It's worse here...  HAHAHAHA!!!

Taking your time and being easy on Tina's feet takes us a little bit longer on the trail but allows us to enjoy the experience more.  Every time we stop we're bumping into new friends that we've made and if we're not bumping into somebody they are actively seeking us out in the Towns at the end of the day.

Tomorrow's day is looking to be shorter with Thursday being a short walk into Santiago de Compostela... The Invasion is to begin soon...

Photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/BrwX3kEc8aytbNMo9

Quick blog

Longer push today, though we would do 16, ended up 19.  Albergue at 16 was clean but way too stroke and separate men's and women's dorms....  Tina was less then impressed and I was none too thrilled either so another 3km pushing her feet to 19.

Either way, we landed at a much less sterile and more hospitable albergue...  WITH a built in bar!  Got to chill, tend to Tina's feet, assist a lady walking with hurting feet, and just get in some serious chilling and just soaking up the Camino life and food...  OH!  The appetite loss is over, I can actually eat a regular meal again.

Planning on invading Santiago early Thursday, gives them time to prepare for my arrival.

Pictures:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/BrwX3kEc8aytbNMo9