Epilog: Back in Madrid

The walk is over.  On our last night in Muxía, we took a walk and found a nice bar to have a beer before turning in early.  Our alarms were set for 5:30 AM because we had a 6:15 bus to Santiago.  Letting ourselves out of the hotel before six, we walked about four blocks to the bus stop.  There was a crowd of pilgrims already waiting.

The bus got us to Santiago just after eight AM: time for some good coffee and tortilla!  We found a small cafe about a block from the train station and savored the moment.  

Then we searched the Internet for a bakery that would be open so Tina could take some good bread back to Madrid.  Galicia was always a poor region, so their breads contained more whole grains than you'd find in richer places that prized bread with a snowy white interior.  Tina adores Galician bread. At 9:00 AM, we visited a nearby bakery and bought a loaf for the road.

 

The high speed train to Madrid takes three hours.  Knowing what a pain airports can be--plus airlines hate hiking poles--the train made sense.  Well, the train was a half hour late, and they substituted out the equipment, so it was really crowded with insufficient luggage space. That said, it traveled at over 300 kilometers per hour through that beautiful countryside we've been writing about.

 

We got to Madrid and were greeted by torrential thundershowers that were definitely not in the forecast.  There was even hail!  Tina shot some video of the aftermath.  We were the only people on the street totally prepared with attractive ponchos!

We finally had lunch around four PM, and then discovered how tired we were by sleeping for twelve hours straight!

We'd like to share some odds and ends that either never made it into the blog or were distillations of what we experienced.

1. Funniest moment.  On the long walk from Luarca on Day 4, we were walking through an area where people raise livestock, cows and sheep.  We saw a farmer returning from the fields with his dog.  As we passed the farm's driveway, the dog came bolting out and ran up the road ahead of us at top speed.  Did an animal escape?  The dog abruptly stopped. Next, it squatted and took a dump in the middle of the Camino.  Then it turned around and ran just as fast back to the farmer!  Apparently, Fido's not allowed to go at home.  Good dog(?)

2. Young people are really into wearing black, even on the hottest days of the year. Black tops and shorts.  Black yoga pants.  Are we getting old?  Why is that not the dumbest idea ever?

3. Muxía was the perfect place to end the Camino.  Aside from walking the path less traveled, it was to us, more meaningful and placid than Finisterre.  Oh, and we figured out that the scene from The Way, where Tom (played by Martin Sheen) scatters his son's ashes, was filmed in Muxía on those rocks by Church of Nosa Señora de Barca.  Not in Finisterre. My bad.

Posing, without sucking in my breath...

4. As predicted, I lost weight--about ten pounds in less than three weeks.  Every day, I burned between 3,500 and 4,000 calories, according to my watch, as we walked between 40,000 and 50,000 steps.  You can't stuff your face while you're walking, and it's impossible to replace that many calories at mealtime.  Now, the question is how do I stay in this shape?

5. People cheat.  Sorry to put it that way.  Day 16 was a good example.  We were in Olveiroa, having lunch before checking into our hostel.  A taxi pulls up, and out pops a lady that we'd sat near as she ate her breakfast at 9:30 AM during our morning coffee stop.  Okay, maybe she got hurt or was too hot to continue...  Next, two minivans pulled into the same lot, and out piled all of those Irish pilgrims that we'd described the previous two days.  They made their way straight to where we were sitting, and started ordering gin and tonics...

Sorry, that door is locked.

 

6. The Camino has lost something valuable with all of the locked churches.  As we've said, the ancient pilgrimage traced a line between parish churches across Europe and into Spain.  Until recently, you could step inside, maybe rest, and have a pensive quiet moment.  Some of these chapels were very austere and some ornate, but the effect of sitting in cool silence was very calming--and valuable.  This time almost all of the churches were locked up.  If we went into a church, we wrote about it.  I'm not a regular churchgoer, but I really missed that part of the Camino.

7. Spain is very aware of food allergies.  I didn't have a single gluten reaction.  (This isn't news to me, but it might be to you.)  Restaurants are required to be very careful about ingredients, and the staff is required to be trained.  It helps that waiting tables is a salaried position here, and that wait staff tend to have a lot of tenure.  (Maybe I should throw in here that there's no tipping anywhere.  I love that!  Don't ask me to do math when I'm tired!)

8. Some people talk constantly on the Camino.  How can they truly be relishing the moment?  Those Irish pilgrims were talking about things back home, both on the road and at the Hostels.  Is it possible to absorb the lessons this experience provides with a constant soundtrack?  That said, some people wear earbuds, presumably listening to music.  (Same question...)  Some of the best parts of this pilgrimage were the silent ones.

Things to try to remember, as we re-assimilate into "normal" life:

9. Don't pass up an open cafe.  Translated: don't put things off 'til later.  Act now. You may never get this opportunity again.

10. Rest on the 7th day.  It's not just a biblical fiat, it's really good for you.  You'll be re-energized and able to do more afterwards, not to mention avoiding injury.

11. Unplug.  Notice the world around you. It's amazing.

12. Talk to strangers.  We're all travelers on the same road.

13. Be grateful for what life brings you, and don't dwell on what "could have been".  It's all good.

*    *    *

We hope you enjoyed this travelogue.  It's been a valuable experience to force ourselves to write it, to pay attention to the details, to remember.  (I should keep a diary, but who has that kind of time??)

We're planning to do this in five years when we reach another one of those monumental birthdays that says you can't do it.  In fact, when we were in Santiago, we bought two new passports!  See you then!

Day 18 Finisterre to Muxía: the End of our Journey

 

The last day.  It’s always a bittersweet experience.  We’ve relished each day of the difficult and challenging journey, and we’re excited to finally achieve our audacious goal.  Every moment today is extra-special

We got a 6:30 am start, in the fog and dew of a dark morning.  The forecast was for cool, rainy weather most of the day, with partial clearing in the afternoon.

The forecast was right.  We walked in the foggy, damp morning alone, just nature surrounding us.  By 7:30 am, it was time for rain slickers.  Paco had just been commenting this morning that the one item we packed—and never used—was the waterproof backpack cover.  It sure came in handy today!

 

Cloudy Start to the Day

Quiet Paths

 

Mickey Re-appears!

We had a three plus-hour trek to our coffee break, through remote country roads.  It was beautiful.  We passed all the usual sights: eucalyptus groves, wildlife, hilly terrain, confusing markings.  Ah, the Camino!

 

Wildflowers Along the Way

Then, in the distance, we heard some unusual sounds: rumbling, grinding gears, motors.  But we couldn't see anything that could cause such sounds--in the countryside.  As we walked, the sounds grew louder and louder.  Until we saw it:  a small, local lumber mill!  The employees were taking the large, harvested logs and turning them into planks, and chipping the unusable pieces for particleboard, mulch, and other purposes.  That's brilliant! The trees are grown here, harvested here--and processed here. How sustainable.

 

Local Lumber Mill

We passed no pilgrims headed in our direction all day.  Plenty were going the other way: from Muxia to Finisterre, but not the other way ‘round.  I guess everyone wants to finish in Finisterre.  Oh well…

We had a welcome rest break around 10 am in the town of Lires.  Paco even got his Spanish tortilla!  We saw lots of fellow pilgrims here and in neighboring villages. Going the other way.

Coffee and Tortilla

 

Walking out of our cafe, we came across an amazing cactus growing long the side of a home.  We've seen lots of succulents in Galicia.  It seems kind of odd, given the cool and  rainy climate.  We normally associate these plants with the desert Southwest.

Cactus in Galicia

After our break, the hard part of the walk began.  We had to ascend about 900 feet (90 flights of stairs), and go back down again, in order to reach our destination.  It was rocky, slippery, and long.  We were walking at the same height as—or above—the wind turbines and high-tension power lines.  We were up high!

Of course, it was raining again. 

Walking in the Rain

 

A Beach in the Distance

Shortly after descending from the mountain, we started to glimpse beaches.  And rocky shorelines.  And Muxía! (pronounced moo-SHE-ya) The weather was clearing and we could actually see the shore.  It was beautiful, rocky, and breathtaking.

Coastline on the Approach to Muxía

 

The Last Mile

Amazing Coastal Views

First order of business: visiting the local tourist office for our Muxíana, the official certificate that commemorates our walk into the city. Next came lunch.  We found a Michelin-recommended restaurant in town and managed to get a scarce table for two.  The food was spectacular.

 

Salad

Sardines

Then off to see the most important sight in the city: the sanctuary of Nosa Señora da Barca (Our Lady of the Ships) and the rocks along the shoreline.  Legend has it that the Virgin Mary, riding in a stone boat, appeared to the Apostle St James to give him courage in his mission of evangelization.  The rocks along the shore include remnants of that stone boat.  The church, rebuilt numerous times over the centuries, includes replicas of sailing ships supported by angels throughout the sanctuary.

Church of Nosa Señora de Barca

 

The Sanctuary

Boats Supported by Angels

The Lighthouse

Sacred and Rugged Beauty

It's truly a magical place.  The views were spectacular.  The church was awe-inspiring.  We’re so grateful to have had the opportunity to complete this journey.

Along the Way

 

Thanks for sharing this adventure with us!  Paco will be back with a final wrap-up shortly.

 

Day 17: Olveiroa to Finisterre, the End of the Earth

Olveiroa, the town where we finished up yesterday, is really tiny.  If you had a decent arm, you could throw a rock from one end to the other.  That said, it had three places to stay and three places to eat.  We had an awesome lunch at one place and a really nice room at another.  We also kept seeing young people walking back into town in bathing suits, so last night, we figured we'd investigate.

Boy, did that feel good!

There are crystal clear streams that run along two sides of the town, so we decided to see what our abused feet thought.  The water was cold, but awesome.

There were quite a few well renovated old homes in the town, and a number of the signature Galician corn cribs, called horreos.

Three horreos in one poor photograph.

What Olveiroa doesn't have is a single grocery store.  You have to drive to any of a number of neighboring towns.  How were we going have our six AM espresso shots?  (By now, you know how important those are...)  I asked the bartender in our hostel if they had coffee-to-go.  It's a fair question, because in most of Spain, the answer would be no.  That's not the cafe/bar culture.

I got lucky.  He sold us four small cafes con leche that we took up to our room as if they were gold.

The forecast for today was cold and foggy, so we decided not to start as early as we had for yesterday's heat.  We moved everything back a half hour--got up at 5:30 AM and got out the door by 6:15 AM.

The Camino leaving Olveiroa, beautifully illuminated.  Great little town.

 

It's a good thing that we didn't leave any earlier because that forecast was totally accurate.  The fog was so thick that our headlamps reflected back at us.  It was slow going.  You're going to see a lot of pictures of clouds and fog today.

7:00 AM The sunrise improves visibility.

Less than two kilometers out of town, we walked through the tiny hamlet of Logoso.  It has an albergue with a cafe that was open.  We saw one pilgrim awake, getting ready to leave.  Having just had all that espresso, we just kept walking.  There wouldn't be another town for 13 kilometers.  That's close to three hours.  For whatever reason, that town's named Hospital and it's close to where the road splits to go to either our destination, Finisterre, or tomorrow's destination, Muxia.

Tina filling some big shoes outside the still closed pilgrim office in Hospital.

I know it's just a sign, but you get excited when you see your destination in print. (Fisterra)

We walked for what seemed forever through paths through the woods.  Eventually two pairs of pilgrims and two individual pilgrims passed us.  These were serious hikers, starting early in the morning in the fog, walking faster than us, carrying all their gear.  We couldn't keep up.  Then we reached this:

Meet Vákner, a fifteen foot tall werewolf statue

Galician culture blends pagan stuff with Christian tradition.  They're big into witches, for example.  Today, I learned that they also believe that they have a werewolf roaming these woods named Vákner.  In 1491, Armenian bishop Martir came face to face with him while walking this Camino. (The local townspeople were amazed that he survived.)  Nice day to have all this fog...

It would be another hour before we reached civilization--someplace with Coca Cola and bathrooms.  Four hours.  That was in the dumpy harbortown of Cee.  It's next to a much more photogenic town named Corcubión.  We should have kept walking until there, but I was getting grumpy.  Who designs a Camino without proper rest areas??

 

The historic center of Corcubión

Funny story, approaching this first town, Cee, on a two kilometer down-sloping gravel track, we met a local person walking his dog (a sign that civilization was near).  He says to us in Spanish, "Too bad for the fog, the views from here of the sea and the Ria are amazing."  From this point on, we walked either within sight of the sea or would leave it only for brief periods.

A secluded beach only reachable by a path that connected to ours... not today.

The beach at Langosteira.  That's Finisterre in the distance, under the clouds.

We were approaching the town of Finisterre, a town who's name means "the end of the Earth" in Latin.  The Romans found this place, the westernmost point in Europe.  It put an end to their westward expansion.  The beautiful beaches are usually tucked into rocky fjords, called Rias.  The rocky coastline earned the name La Costa do Morte (The Death Coast) because of all the shipwrecks.

Finisterre was our first of three objectives today.  We arrived in under eight hours, walking about 31 kilometers.  The second objective was to get another certificate for this achievement, called a Fisterrana.  We picked those up at the tourist information office before even checking into our hotel.  The third objective was to walk to the lighthouse at the end of this peninsula, the real end of the earth.  We did that after lunch.

Kilometer Zero, Just before the Lighthouse

 

The lighthouse.  It draws a lot of tourists.

If you saw the movie The Way, this is where Tom (played by Martin Sheen) is supposed to spread the rest of his son Daniel's ashes into the sea.  It's really touching except I couldn't find the spot.  We think that Tina found it on the way back, closer to town.

The lighthouse walk added another six kilometers to the day's total.  My watch currently stands at over 57,000 steps.  No mas!

Tomorrow's our last day on this Camino.  We're walking to Muxia where the Virgin Mary is supposed to have appeared to Saint James (Santiago).  We'll get another certificate for finishing--in case you're wondering.  Tina will let you know how this ends.

Day 16 Negreira to Olveiroa. What a Walk!

 

Today’s walk was the longest of our 2024 Camino: 34 KM, plus elevation.  And it was hot.  The temperature was around 90 degrees when we finished.  We were exhausted. But it was worth it!

We left our hostel at 5:30 am, in the pitch black.  (Thank goodness for refrigerated lattes, which are a great option on a super-early morning!) Normally, when we leave very early, we’re the only pilgrims on The Way for a long time.  Not today!  No sooner had we joined the Camino than we saw 2 fellow travelers, with headlamps, walking in front of us.  Soon, we spied 2 additional people ahead in the distance.  Yes, there were six hearty souls starting this walk at 5:30 in the morning to beat the heat!  The views leaving town were spectacular.

Castle Walls in Negreira

 

As we reached the outskirts of town, we noticed the 2 groups of travelers ahead of us hesitating on choice of routes.  We double-checked our App and saw that we were a long block off the actual Camino.  A quick turn later we were back on the right road.  We didn’t see the other pilgrims again for hours.

Negreira in the Distance

 

The entire day was filled with wonderful terrain and views, from early-morning sunrise, to fields of wheat and corn, to eucalyptus groves, dairy cow farms, and the ubiquitous Horreos (Galician corn cribs, shown below with a cross and tower at either end).

 

Sunrise

Early Morning Views

 

 

Beautiful Paths

 

Lots of Corn

Galician Horreo with Cross and Post

We walked for 3 full hours, covering over 10 KM, before our coffee break in the town of Vilaseria.  There, we started to see more and more pilgrims joining the route. We also saw some of the wayward travelers from Negreira pass by the café. 

Our next break was at 11:30 because I needed to answer a client email and make adjustments to a contract.  I know, I know…this is the Camino.  You’re supposed to leave all your worries behind and be “in the moment”.  I can almost do that…

Tina NOT Acting Camino-like

 

One of the hardest parts of today’s walk was the trek to the top of Mount Aro, 1,850 feet, in the early afternoon heat with no shade.  It was brutal.  The views were worth the effort!

Paco in the Fields

 

Views from Mount Aro

We arrived in Olveiroa around 2:45 pm, after 9 hard hours of hiking.  We popped into the first café we found and enjoyed a lovely lunch.  Afterwards, well, you know the drill: showers, laundry, naps, blog.  And a cold afternoon treat.

 

Afternoon Treat: Bubbly Water and Gluten Free Beer!

 

Later this evening, we plan to check out the sights around town.  We've noticed lots of pilgrims heading down to the river in swimsuits.  Hmm.  That sounds enticing!

Tomorrow is another long day of hiking—34.7 Km—to the lighthouse in Finisterre, the end of the world.  I can’t wait to see it!  We leave super-early again.  Paco will let you know how it goes.

See you soon!