Simon's blog

Here’s a list of the things I found most useful on this Camino trip. In no particular order. Jane may add the things she woudn’t have been without later.

Bum bag

The rucksack comes on and off. This stays on. For many years I wore a bum bag all day and everyday. It carried a Swiss Army card (see below), a bottle opener, a tin opener, my phone, driving licence, credit card, cash etc etc. A bit like a handbag really. When I am travelling my tickets and passport are in there too. Now I just wear one when I’m travelling. If I don’t, I feel like I’ve forgotten something very important. This is the third bum bag I’ve owned. I wore the other two out. But Jane adapted the innards of one of them to give her more pockets in her day rucksack,, and that’s worked very well. They’ve all been pacsafe brand, which are very well designed. For example, you can walk for several kilometres having accidentally forgotten to do the zips up and you won’t lose anything! They also have really good security features. I survived a group pick-pocketing experience in Addis Ababa with one of these bum bags!

Walking boots that fit properly

If you’re like me, you haven’t been to a shoe shop and had your feet measured since you were a child which means the shoes you wear are probably the wrong size. My advice: Don’t be tempted to buy walking boots (or shoes) online. Go to a specialist shop and get your feet measured before you try anything on. We did this a few weeks before setting off; we’ve both been wearing shoes a size too small. I wore these boots in over several long walks before starting the Camino and learnt not to do them up too tightly at the top and that thick socks were best for me. I’ve had no trouble with my feet on the Camino. Jane has been wearing wool toe socks, which she’s found great.

Brimmed hat

I wear one of these all the time anyway. Keeps the sun out of your eyes and off the back of your neck.

A battery pack

I’ve mentioned this before (see the tech note at the bottom of Camino Day 1). My iPhone battery is really good and never runs out during the day. However, it can’t reliably cope with logging a multi-hour walk on Strava while following our route on the Camino Ninja app, taking loads of photos and writing this blog. So this battery pack has been brilliant. I plug it in occasionally during day and that’s enough.

Swiss Army Knife

CONFISCATED!** But this is what I wrote before it was.

I felt a bit guilty about buying a Swiss Army knife for this trip. I’d managed for 70 years without one, why should I need one now? I’ve had a Swiss Army card for years and I preferred this to a knife as I could keep it in my bum bag at all times and it would get through airport security checks. But when we were skiing in March we were staying in an apartment and the shower door fell off. I was able to fix this as our friend had a Swiss Army knife with a screwdriver. Had I not had access to this, our €500 deposit on the apartment would have been in jeopardy! So I decided to buy one and it’s been incredibly useful. The blade is much bigger than in the card and easier to use. I went for the one which has a Phillips screwdriver instead of a corkscrew. I think it’s called “the tinker”.

** This was annoying especially as I’d checked before travelling and had concluded that as long as the blades were not lockable then a pen knife is fine. But not on Renfe trains where there is a blade length restriction. Ironically, if the pen knife had been in my pocket it wouldn’t have been spotted. So a benefit of air travel is that you can take a pen knife in your hold luggage but if you’re using Renfe trains you can’t.

The Camino Ninja App

This isn’t perfect but we couldn’t have managed without it, especially in Portugal where the signage wasn’t so good. Also really good for finding the start of the trail in the morning. It now also has a planning function that allows you to specify your route in advance. It’s free.

Some scrap paper

I know many people think paper has been superseded by technology but I always find it helpful to write things down especially when I’m doing complicated sums like adding hours and minutes! It’s also handy if you need to leave a note. I put 3 or 4 sheets of A4 folded into quarters in my bum bag.

Pen and pencil

If you’re taking paper, you need something to write with. I love these bullet pencils and pens despite the aura of violence and death they carry with them.

Adapter with USB ports

I’ve had this USB adapter for years and it’s brilliant. It will plug into any mains outlet in the world and provide four USB charge points and take a UK plug.

Universal sink plug

Shown here with teaspoon for scale. Whether or not the sinks in your accommodation have plugs that work is totally unpredictable. We used this in about 1/3rd of the places we stayed at.

A companion

I opted for this one. Compact and resourceful. Great to share experiences with along the way, and for making packed lunches out of nothing. Gathers roadside plants to eat. Notices everything that I forget to look at because I’m looking at my Camino Ninja. Fun to be with although can go off the pace a bit in the afternoon.

Aggressively officious is how I’d describe the staff at Eurostar Paris. “I am a member of staff. If you don’t let me through you won’t travel,” (in French, using the ‘tu’ form even though she was much younger than us – very rude!). “Excusez-moi,” would have been fine.

Shouting “Get it off. Get it off!” (in English). Referring, it turns out, to my bag that had barely cleared the exit of the scanning machine and was behind a row of others. “Pourriez-vous retirer votre sac, s’il vous plaît, monsieur ?” would have been better.

But… the Channel Tunnel is still amazing , and it’s still a treat to wake up in Paris to a french petit déjeuner and be in London for lunch.

For future reference, it takes just 8 minutes to get from the Eurostar platform in St Pancras to Platform A – to the south coast. So we made our connection with no problem. Thanks to neighbour Helen for picking us up from the station and for the warm scones, milk, butter and grapes. Very thoughtful. They were the best scones I’ve ever tasted.

No one had tidied my workshop while we were away, and, despite the best efforts of our weekly gardener, the Box Tree Caterpillar has been ravaging the topiary! First world problems!

Trip summary

10/4/26	Pulborough to Lyon (via Paris)	Train
11/4/26	Lyon to Barcelona	Train
12/4/26	Barcelona to Santiago (via Madrid)	Train
13/4/26	Santiago to Porto (via Vigo)	Train
14/4/26	Day in Porto
15/4/26	Porto (Matosinhos) to Angeiras	Walking	12.8km	1
16/4/26	Angeiras to Pávoa do Varzim	Walking	17.7km	2
17/4/26	Pávoa do Varzim to Esposende	Walking	21.6km	3
18/4/26	Esposende to Viana do Castelo	Walking	25.0km	4
19/4/26	Viana do Castelo to Caminha	Train
	Caminha to A Guarda	Walking	6.9km	5
20/4/26	A Guarda to Oia	Walking	18.0km	6
21/4/26	Oia to Baiona	Walking	17.5km	7
22/4/26	Day in Baiona
23/4/26	Baiona to Vigo	Bus
	Vigo to Redondela	Walking	16.39km	8
24/4/26	Redondela to Pontevedra	Walking	22.49km	9
25/4/26	Pontevedra to Caldas de Reis	Walking	23.59km	10
26/4/26	Caldas de Reis to Padrón	Walking	19.39km	11
27/4/26	Padrón to Santiago	Walking	25.39km	12
28/4/26	Day in Santiago
29/4/26	Santiago to Astorga (via Ourense)	Train
30/4/26	Astorga to Burgos	Train
1/5/26	Burgos to San Sebastián	Train
2/5/26	San Sebastián to Hendaye	Train
3/5/26	Hendaye to Paris	Train
4/5/26	Paris to Pulborough	Train

Key statistics

10 travel days
4 outbound
6 inbound (included a wonderful diversion to see friends in Astorga)

3 sightseeing days
– Porto
– Baiona
– Santiago

12 walking days

25 days total

Kilometres walked
– total 226km
– continuous into Santiago 107km

Kilometres where we ‘followed’ the Camino route by public transport
– total 49km

Just before sunrise, we took the boardwalk to the station for the 7:05 high speed train to Paris. Paris is 500 miles away and the trip is programmed to take just under 5 hours. We booked this trip more than six weeks ago and this was the only train with seats available all the way through to Paris. This was the position last night when we looked to see if we could get a later train.

There were only two other people on the upper deck in our carriage leaving Hendaye but more people got on at Bordeaux and the stations before. But there were still four or five free seats in our carriage coming into Paris.

We arrived in Paris 3-4 minutes early.

On the journey, Jane researched what we might do during our afternoon in Paris. The Louvre at €50 a person was sold out and so was the Quay D’Orsay at €30 a person. But there’s a Museé Banksy here! So we booked for 3:30. We left our bags at our hotel – it was too early to check-in – and then we set off towards Montmatre, which is where the exhibition is. We stopped on the way for some lunch – coinciding with a rain shower. La Bute itself was packed.

On the way down, it poured again and we were glad of my new umbrella, and the rain poncho that Jane takes everywhere and finally got to wear!

The Banksy Museum was inspiring (but not uplifting, at least not for me). It was very well done. I’ll start you off gently with this one.

But they got more and more hard-hitting….

This next one is a comment on war and consumerism. Those of us who’ve seen the original photo this is based on won’t have forgotten it.

One of Banksy’s comments on Guantanamo Bay; he will often paint modern figures or scenes on old oil paintings he picks up at flea markets – an aspect of his work we didn’t know.

This is a recreation of one of the rooms in the Banksy-funded Walled Off Hotel in Gaza.

I wasn’t aware of this one, of Steve Jobs. This went up in the Calais Jungle, the encampment near Calais, France, where migrants live as they attempt to enter the United Kingdom. Steve Jobs was of Syrian decent.

Banksy’s ability to convey, movement and facial expressions with minimal use of paint is extraordinary. The Flower Thrower is a great example:

Despite harrowing nature of much of the content, it was an educational way to spent two hours, and we were lucky to catch it so close to where we are staying.

This evening we walked down to the Seine and had a crepe and a pizza opposite the Louvre…

…then got the metro back the hotel.

Tomorrow this epic trip comes to an end. We catch the 11.09 Eurostar to London and get in at 12:30 UK time. We should be back home by mid-afternoon. I’ll be doing a couple more posts on “Camino Reflections” and “Crucial Camino Kit” over the next couple of days to wrap this series up.

(Donostia to Hendaia)

We paid €2.90 each for an international ticket on the Euskotren train from San Sebastián to Hendaye. This must be the cheapest ticket for cross border travel in the world. The journey is about one hour long. We couldn’t buy tickets ahead of time; you have to pitch up in person.

Before walking to the Amara station we went out to grab breakfast in Vincent’s Cafe. It is named after the saint, honoured in the enormous church opposite, not the cafe owner.

This was our last opportunity to sample the famous Basque Cheesecake, so we did. Cheesecake for breakfast? Why not – we’re on holiday! We asked the waiter how you say cheesecake in Spanish and he gave us the answer we expected “Torta de queso”. “How do you say it in Basque?” we asked. He hesitated for a moment. “Cheesecake” he said. Here is the said cheesecake next to Jane for scale.

Unfortunately, before the cheesecake, Jane had ordered an Açai fruit bowl – which turned out to be mainly Açai icecream… oh well! Before setting off for the station, we walked around the old part of San Sebastián and around the old fort above the marina – despite a dire forecast, the weather held!

On arrival in Hendaye, we’d hoped to change our very early train to Paris, but the ticket office was closed over the bank holiday, and the online booking options still show all of the Eurail tickets reservations sold out later in the day. Annoying, but at least we have a booking on the 7:05! As we’d collected lots of dirty washing and we had an hour or so to spare before our check-in, we headed for the nearest laundry.

Hendaye is a bit of a come down from the glamour of San Sebastián. But we got our stuff washed and mostly dried. Jane went across the road to Lidl while I stood guard. Everyone in Lidl was speaking Spanish but the signage and check-out was all in French. The very helpful chap at the launderette was speaking Syrian Arabic – he was delighted we could say Shukran. And when we arrived at our accommodation (as it started to rain) the host preferred to speak in Spanish rather than French. Basque is also quite widely spoken and the signage is bilingual. So it’s a real melting pot of language.

Just as we arrived at our accommodation, the promised rain started coming down in earnest, and we thought we’d be confined to barracks for the rest of the day. We looked up a few of the places we’d been on the Camino and there will be some very wet pilgrims out there today! Fortunately it cleared up after two hours. Just enough time for us to settle in and have a picnic lunch.

As usual there was a bit of over-selling of the accommodation. This was the terrace overlooking the river! Technically, you can just see a bit of water if you stand up and know it’s there. However, we were just 80m from a lovely riverside boardwalk unknown to Apple Maps, which took us alongside the estuary, past where we need to go for our early train, and eventually to the beach.

Hendaye is famous for surfing, and they were out in force, despite the weather.

Heading home before next downpour, we invested in a very nice, large umbrella, so we don’t get drenched tomorrow. We’ll endeavour not to leave it on the train!

An interesting bit aviation geography of this area is San Sebastián airport. It has been built on reclaimed land in the Bidassoa river estuary so it’s virtually in France, with San Sebastián a 13 mile drive to the west.

We could see the airport from the boardwalk. While we were in the town a plane came in. It was deafening! It was so low you could see the rivets on the fuselage! We wanted to see one take off, and as we walked back along the boardwalk we were lucky to catch a perfect view.

Despite the rain, the enforced rest indoors, the stint in the launderette and the train journey, we’ve clocked up 16km today.

We capped the day off with an unexpectedly good meal at a hotel around the corner. We went local as we didn’t want to get soaking wet if the weather played out as forecast. Fantastic French cuisine: duck, grilled fish of the day, asparagus, and an indulgent and very large chocolate and miso crème brûlée. So Jane has had 3 desserts today!

Tomorrow we catch the 7:05am train to Paris. So an early start.

As you’d expect the cathedral in Burgos is of an incomprehensible scale so coming across this model was handy (sorry about the reflections).

We got up early, had a great breakfast in the hotel, and were in the cathedral square by 9:30 when a Picasso exhibition opened in a peripheral part of the cathedral structure. It was very well done and featured one Picasso’s anti-war pieces, the harrowing picture of a mother and dead child. Jane cried.

After pulling ourselves together we got tickets for the cathedral. It cost us €10 each to get in but if we’d had our pilgrim books with us it would have cost just €6!

Everywhere in mainland Europe now seems to run on QR codes, from menus to timetables to tourist guides. The cathedral tour QR code led us to a guide app which downloaded fine but the content bit was too much for our 5G connection. So we just wandered around somewhat overwhelmed by it all. It consolidated in our minds the concept of “cathedral thinking”.

Just to give some idea of the scale of things. Behind each of these arches, and these are just three of them, are chapels of extraordinary opulence.

Here are a few images to give you an idea of the scale and spender of these chapels.

After the Picasso exhibition and the stroll around the cathedral we walked briskly back to our hotel to check out and head for the bus stop. We got the #2 bus to the train station and were in plenty of time to catch the 13:24 to San Sebastián.

The train went through some lovely countryside.

However, the train unexpectedly stopped short of San Sebastián and we were all ushered off at Altsasu. We had to wait half an hour for another train, that came in on the opposite side of the platform, while the train manager made frantic half-whispered phone calls. No-one quite knew what was going on.

Clearly, we are now in Basque Country.

Was this all part of a mass kidnapping by Basque Separatists, we wondered? Turns out it wasn’t. But the train sent to our rescue was a rather run down local one. Although it didn’t stop at all the stations on the line, it went very slowly between them. We finally arrived in San Sebastián 45 minutes late.

We needn’t have worried about arriving late as the party in San Sebastián had only just started.

What an amazing place. There was eye-catching architecture right outside the station.

No derelict buildings here!

We dumped our bags in our accommodation and walked the whole length of the bay to the funicular.

Like the one in Viana, this one was more than 100 years old. There were great views of the bay from the top.

Aside from the viewing point, the rest of the summit was mostly fun fair – and absolutely packed, as it was the May holiday. So we had an ice cream and came back down.

It was still very busy at sea level but we found a table for two outside a tapas bar, a storm was threatening, but it held off.

By the time we’d finished, the beach had largely cleared and the tide had gone out so we wandered back to our accommodation along the sand.

We’ve had some fantastic and some very odd accommodation, some enormously spacious and some so bijou you can hardly get in and turn around. No luxury for us tonight – it’s firmly in the latter category!

With the holiday, everywhere was booked out, so we are in a small white box with barely a window. If you get out of the wrong side of bed you are in the shower and the loo is practically the bedside table.

We are going to get up early tomorrow, have a quick look around the old part of town, where our accommodation is, and then jump on the local train to take us into Hendaye in France, where thunderstorms are due!

We didn’t have a lot of time this morning given that we overslept until 10. There’s no sleep like a long sleep in an ancient stone cottage up a mountain where time stands still. Except it didn’t! John kindly took us to the station in Astorga via the main square for a coffee, to catch the same train we hopped off of yesterday – seems like a lifetime away!

The town hall behind us in this photo is famous for the figures that strike the clock bell. Zoom in to appreciate!

We’d decided to return to UK via the historic city of Burgos, which also sits on a Camiño route, and across via San Sebastián into France at Hendaye for the last leg to Paris. The train journey to Burgos was comfortable and uneventful. During the journey we decided to rejig our schedule tomorrow, leaving Burgos on an earlier train to give us a bit more time in San Sebastián. As usual, the staff at the Renfe office at the station were super helpful, and we got an earlier reservation that we hadn’t been able to secure online.

Arriving in Burgos, we decided to take the 45 minute riverside walk to the centre of town. Got to keep the miles up! The new development along the river is very well done, with tree planting, playgrounds and cycle tracks. We grabbed lunchtime tapas at an eatery on the way. Once checked into our hotel, we headed for the historic part of the city which is incredibly impressive.

This is the Arco de Santa Maria, one of the gates in the old city wall. It features six characters critical to history of the city.

They are (top row) Emperor Charles V, Fernand Gonzalez and El Cid (1043 to 1099). And on the bottom row Diego Rodriguez Porcelos (founder of Burgos) and the Judges of Castile. So now you know! With tomorrow being a holiday, we were lucky it was open. We saw some ancient relics including El CID’s arm bone! Here is the view from the turret to the top left of the statues.

The cathedral is all you’d expect from a Spanish cathedral. It was nearly closing time so we will go inside tomorrow.

Just around the corner from this plaza we spotted a sight seeing “train” which was departing in two minutes. Perfect.

This took us around the main sights with an audio guide over a distance we could not have covered on foot in the time available. The highlight was a five minute stop at the Mirador, where you get a panoramic view of the old city.

As evening fell, the streets, bars and restaurants got very busy and we failed to find a nice quiet place for tapas so we sat in a very noisy place instead! Not a very relaxing experience, but Jane was delighted to be congratulated on her Spanish (again!), the tapas were good and large enough to provide lunch for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a holiday (May Day) so we are going to get up early, go to the Picasso exhibition next to the cathedral and then go into the cathedral itself, before (hopefully) catching the Number 2 bus to the station. We’ve found the bus stop and confirmed it runs on Dias Feriadas (bank holidays).

Our trip back home started today. We caught an early train out of Santiago this morning and changed at Ourense for a train to Astorga. In Santiago they confiscated my Swiss Army Knife which was a bit unnecessary. I’d done my research about pen knives on trains before we left the UK and had concluded that they were OK as long as they didn’t have a lockable blade. Clearly, this is not the case on Renfe trains where there’s also a blade length restriction. We’ve travelled on several Renfe trains already on this trip with no problem. And ironically, if the pen knife had been in my pocket I would have been fine. They only scanned bags not people. Anyway this negative experience was completely washed away on arrival in Astorga where we received a very warm welcome from John and Annie who whisked us off for a coffee opposite the cathedral.

From the coffee shop we had this view of another cathedral right next door to the first one, designed and built by Gaudi. Sadly we didn’t have time to look around.

John, Annie and friends/relations have integrated themselves into a rural community, taking on derelict stone buildings with no roofs and making them beautiful. We were given this one for the night.

John took us on a walking tour of the area and their animals and explained how things had changed over the years. Last year they got close to having to evacuate because of the fires that swept across northern Spain.

For the builders amongst you, they have a different approach to tiling the ridges of roofs here.

In the evening we were joined by a handful of John and Annie’s friends for a great meal and conversation in the local “pub” where John snapped this photo.

This was a highlight of our trip. Thank you John, Annie and friends. We’ll be back! Astorga is a possible starting point for the French Camino (just saying).

Annie is off on a short trip to the UK so we’re expecting to be able to return some of the tremendous hospitality next week!

Today we played the tourist. This picture shows what we got when we asked for a coffee with milk and a zero beer. The coffee came with a piece of cake and the beer came with a salami sandwich and the whole lot came to €4.40! Adding extra complementary food has been a thing here. The other evening we arrived at a restaurant and before we’d ordered anything cheese and ham sandwich arrived.

This morning, we didn’t rush to get up; after having to leave our baggage for collection every day before 8am, that was a luxury!

Going into the Cathedral is free, so we did that first.

It is an enormous building – or rather, collection of buildings and re-buildings, as we found out later. We lit another candle for our friend Ben, admired the totally over-the-top decoration, then we all dutifully filed past the cask of St James in the crypt. We’ve come all this way, with thousands of others. But the question occurs to you: who’s in the box? Someone is in there. And a lot of people genuinely believe it is Jesus’s disciple, James.

James was beheaded in Jerusalem in the AD 40s. So things don’t quite add up. What’s he doing in Galicia? The story goes, he proselytised here (although nothing in the historical or religious record shores that up), went home, was executed, and was brought back from Jerusalem in a boat (of stone?!) by disciples, got carried in an oxen cart to a forest on a hill (with his disciples killing a dragon etc on the way) and was buried. So far, so unlikely. 900 or so years later, a hermit, guided by stars (hence Compostella, maybe), found the tomb, and the local top guy in the clergy ruled that it was St James. Which was handy at the time, as he needed a rallying point against the Moors. The King came – and pilgrims started coming.

The story doesn’t end there: by the 1490s, Sir Francis Drake, the pirate, (not him again) threatened the Galician coast, and St James was hidden by the clergy, as relics can be powerful in the wrong hands. His hiding place was forgotten for several hundred years; the pilgrims stopped coming. Then, during renovations he was rediscovered, reinstalled, and the pilgrims started coming again. And here we are today: inspired, supporting the wonderful Galician people and their economy, and motivated to walk hundreds of miles (which is really worth it, whoever’s in the box).

To get a bit more of the history, we booked our time slots: a visit to the cathedral museum and “Portico de Gloria”, and a tour of the cathedral rooftops.

The museum visit didn’t really work well, which is surprising given the tourism angle here. We were guided into a cordoned off area behind the main doors of the cathedral (which are always shut) and then left there. Our bemused group hung around for a while looking at the amazing sculptures on the famous historic doorway created by Master Mateo in the 12th century… and many then left. However, we noticed a small corridor, which led to a labyrinth of other corridors and rooms with lots of architectural items as well as jewelry and valuables displayed. There were some information boards, but it was quite dark and poorly lit. It was hard work to make sense of it all.

We spent the time between appointments in the huge park in the centre of Santiago, where we had one of Jane’s now famous supermarket picnics.

Our second visit was a guided tour but in Spanish – all the English tours were already fully booked for today. Jane got much more of the Spanish than I did, so we managed. Where we were taken was extraordinary. This photo was taken at the top of a long flight of stairs which were pretty medieval and uneven, looking down into the nave where had been that morning.

Then we went a bit higher and out on the roofs of the cathedral.

The guide explained the various towers, architectural structures, renovations and history. The cathedral has previously doubled as a defensive building, with soldiers living on the roofs. More recently, the guide explained, the bell ringer and his family lived up here. He had three children, rabbits, a goat and vegetable garden! You can see the line of the roof of his rooftop hovel in the stonework to the left of the round window.

We then went even higher so I was able to take this picture.

We’d walked over all of these roofs, as part of the tour, hearing about how the building developed over centuries of additions, renovations and changes: the various towers, the (unlikely) repositioning of the pilgrim clothes-washing pool on the roof, the clock (currently not working) and the surrounding buildings, over which we had a Birds’ Eye view. At least, Jane heard about it…. I just caught snippets!

There were some great views from higher up. To give an idea of the scale of things I’ve circled a cross viewed from the top…

…and from the square.

We’ve decided that being a tourist is much harder work and less enjoyable than walking!

Tomorrow we are up early to catch a 7:48 train to Ourense where we change (hopefully) for a train Astorga where we have friends.

Walked: 25.39km (226.28km) | 5h1m (47h35m)

Followed: 0km|48.7km (1h20m)

We made it! 25.39km in 5h1m. There was an element of fear and dread in anticipation of this stage yesterday. It was a long stage and the sun looked like it was going to be full on. We’d also heard about the climbs and the urban nature of a lot of the walk. So we decided to start early and were walking by 7:45. Sunrise was 7:35 but there was no evidence of it. It was cool and cloudy and it stayed like that for the next 3 hours. We didn’t find the climbs hard either. We’d definitely done worse. This is how Strava recorded the elevation.

Just after leaving Padrón we passed another beautifully tended graveyard. The Spanish know how to respect those who are no longer with us.

We also passed several of these pools today. It took us a while to realise what they are! Pilgrim Footbath? Answer at the end.**

We popped into this church and had a nice chat to the volunteer offering stamps for Camino passports. There was a collection box.

Everyone speaks of how busy the Camino is getting – especially in high season – and its enormous impact on the economy. Even with modest accommodation, we guess each overnight must bring in at least €50-75 per pilgrim.

A feature of today was live music. Early on, we found a duo playing Galician bagpipes, but we were pressing forward, so didn’t stop. Then, as we were walking through a wooded area piano music drifted down. Did a pilgrim up ahead have a boombox? It faded, and then up the next incline, we came across the source:

Most of the walk was very pleasant and when we approached towns we went through suburban areas rather than industrial ones.

Generally the trail was very pleasant but some paths were trickier than others.

Jane gave me a black mark a couple of days ago when I got around to telling her to lean forwards when going up hills. “Oh my goodness, why didn’t you tell me that earlier?” Clearly not everyone had George Squires as their PE teacher at school. I could hardly keep up after that; here she is employing this newly acquired skill.

We were so keen on getting the km in today before the sun came out that we barely stopped to eat. We had a coffee and croissant before we started at 7:15 and promised ourselves a ‘second breakfast’ later, but we fell foul of the ‘cerrado los lunes’ (closed Mondays) that we noted last week. When we did find somewhere, the whole world was there, queuing for the loos! So it had to be a quick banana and apple stop, and a lemon ice-cream later on. We were soon approaching the old part of Santiago and caught the first glimpse of one of the cathedral towers through the narrow streets and crowds.

And in no time we were there.

We were fairly early arrivals and yet still the square was filling up, with pilgrims lying down and sitting on the warm paving stones staring up at the amazing building and the blue sky. It was a fantastic atmosphere with lots of people very pleased with themselves and each other, swapping phones with complete strangers to request photos, finding aquaintances from the road, and generally not quite believing they’d made it.

We went off to get our certificates from the pilgrims’ office around the corner – a very slick affair these days, with DIY screen entry for your route and data, and numbered tickets to collect your scroll. By this time we’d realised we hadn’t eaten much and had a couple of tostados and a zero beer while we watched other pilgrims stream in. We saw some we recognised: the wide German lady who had brought her own Sherpa, several groups we’d habitually passed, and in the distance, Lorenzo and Clara. Jane called out but they didn’t hear: it was busy!

We did it and it was easier than we thought! 226km in 12 days.

We went out for tapas this evening and thought we’d just pop up to the cathedral square once more. We caught this street band playing in the cloisters opposite the cathedral. The live music theme was complete.

Here’s a sample of their music.

** Well done if you guessed the use of the little roofed tanks at the wayside: the communal laundry.

Walked: 19.39km (200.89km) | 3h54m (42h34m)

Followed: 0km|48.7km (1h20m)

Today we hit 200km of walking and it’s taken us about 42.5hours which gives a pace of 4.72km/h, which I think is pretty good for a couple of 69 year olds, one with very short legs. However, the pilgrim’s progress award has to go to ‘the lady with the pram’ who we’ve seen a few times, and who everyone mentions: a young woman pushing her little boy in a pink, all-terrain buggy, all the way to Santiago! She’s quite elusive, and we’ve met no-one who’s spoken with her – but what determination!

Caldas de Reis is a very pretty place, although like many of the towns and villages we have passed through, there are many previously beautiful houses, cafes and businesses that are closed up or literally collapsing. Was it COVID? Or has there been a long slow decline as younger people move to the cities? Either way, one wonders how things would be without the streams of pilgrims and their euros coming through. Perhaps that’s why we’ve been treated so kindly everywhere. But we get the impression that Galicians are just nice! At the river just outside our hotel, a beautiful old mill that had been a taverna stood all forlorn, just outside our hotel.

The morning sun on the river was worth a photo, but I had to take a snap in the other direction as well to catch Jane’s outfit del dia. As you can see, we may be 11 days in but standards are being maintained. We were actually both complimented on our turnout last night, by fellow pilgrims at the next table!

The walk today was pretty straightforward and generally very shaded and pleasant.

We stopped at the Church of Saint Marina of Carracedo. A well-attended Sunday service had just finished, so we went in to get a pilgrims’ stamp. It’s very ornate and well kept for an isolated rural church.

Outside the church, we sat on a nicely cold stone picnic table to have our ‘second breakfast’. We met Lorenzo, from Italy, and his ‘acquired grand-daughter’ Clara. He was well-travelled and his English was impeccable. We got to talking about development in Africa, and the South Downs Way, and after 20 minutes chat, I think we might have invited them to stay with us, if they come to walk that trail. The Camino is a bit like that.

In the same spot, we also met two Canadian cyclists, struggling with their hire bikes; very heavy, without much in the way of gears or saddle adjustment. We passed them a few times, pushing these beasts up the hills, and were very pleased later on to meet them in Padrón.

There weren’t a lot of cafes on the route today and quite a few were shut, as it’s Sunday, but we found one with a comfortable, shady terrace for noon coffee, and bumped into Tony, who we’d met at dinner last night. We stayed for nearly 2 hours to let the hottest part of the day pass.

We set off again and noted that in Galicia they know how to do cemeteries. Soon we were back into vineyards, forest paths and villages.

As we approached Padrón we lost shade and things began to urbanise. It doesn’t really come across in this photo but this industrial complex overwhelmed this suburb both visually and aurally.

After four hours of walking we arrived in Padrón and sat down immediately for a very welcome beer at the bar that manages our accommodation for tonight.

We’re in, and have nearly lost each other and half of our possessions already, as it has three bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and terrace! We found one little shop open and are eating in tonight to use the extensive facilities!

Tomorrow is going to be tough. It’s the last stage, it’s long (25km), very hot, and there are significant climbs. The plan is to set off really early.