Kiwi Roaming

We woke early and headed out for a delicious breakfast nearby, the cafe was located in an area where the walls were adorned with mosaics so we really enjoyed wandering along observing the wonderful tiles.

With no Bolt or Uber available – people in all the message groups said they were but we kept getting the message “no rides available” we decided to be brave and take a bus back to O Milladoiro. It cost €5.60 for the three of us and took about 20 minutes. Once off we wandered up the hill – Steve skipping – with no heavy bags it was a breeze, Imogen carrying our water for the day and me my poles and crossbody bag. We soon saw the Camino path and other pilgrims so joined the steady stream walking into Santiago.

We played a final game of 20 questions, discussed our reflections on the walking and what we think went well / would do differently. We also got to say hi to some Camino friends but for the most part everyone we saw today was new. At one point there was a choice to make, two Camino paths into the city, we chose the longer one with our fresher legs and enjoyed wandering up the back streets – whereas the more direct route (that everyone else chose) took the busy main road. Less and less Camino signs were present and we diverted slightly to go to a Vegan Churro place before they closed at 1pm! Yum but sweet and sickly.

Back to the throngs and into the final few streets leading to the cathedral. Had we come here yesterday we would have been exhausted and late, but arriving today was less emotional and almost like we were observers watching everyone else, instead of experiencing our own arrival with relief. The square was pretty full, some groups of walkers cheering and singing, others sitting quietly contemplating, bikes, buggies, and dogs and generally a very happy scene.

We wanted to get our Compostela, we had done the work on getting the stamps so we headed to the pilgrims office, scanned the QR code and filled in our personal details. Then we were given a number and told to queue to the left – I reckon there were 100 people in front of us in the queue when we joined down a narrow corridor near the toilets. It wasn’t fun but did move quite quickly with 15 processing people scheduled on. Our numbers came up one at a time on the big screen and Imogen and I were processed in 2-3 minutes, Steve on the other hand had struck up a conversation about his journey so I went looking for him 10 minutes later chatting away!

We left here and I was hot – one of the signs walking up to the Cathedral told us it was 23C, later as we walked home another sign told us it was 30C! so somewhere in between and hot. I had likely had a huge sugar spike from the churro’s too and was crashing so we walked until we found a lovely shady cafe in the botanical gardens. Aperol Spritz to celebrate along with a yummy Greek Salad and delicious grilled Squid for lunch. Olya joined us and we had a second round of drinks with her before heading back to the apartment about 5pm where Imogen had her lunch of leftovers from last night. My usual wonderful navigation skills meant we took a wander through the gardens on the way and enjoyed seeing a different view of Santiago.

Naps, showers, washing and blog writing done and suddenly it’s nearly 10pm so Steve and I went to Burger King – the closest place with vegan options – for takeaways. We all ate well and are now settled in ready to crash before our trip back to Porto tomorrow. Had we walked into Santiago yesterday we would have had time to go to the Cathedral today and looked around the old town some more but we think this was the right choice for us.

I will write a couple more Camino blogs – our reflections and packing / gear insights. Steve is VERY disappointed about today’s steps and km’s btw, his Apple watch stats will be impacted. We walked a total of 310.66KM in 2 weeks so I think his stats will cope.

Steps 21,532 or 13.2km