The walk from Paza de Galegos into
Santiago de Compostela is 10 miles. It starts in the woods outside
the Pazo, goes through small villages, turns into areas of Spanish
“country homes” and gradually becomes the outskirts of Santiago.
We finished right around 2:00 in the afternoon.
A quick aside on the phrase “country
homes” which is totally my own. Marty and I walked by a lot of
them, on the outskirts of villages and towns. So I guess maybe
they're typical, at least for this area. They are nice homes, nicely
landscaped and well kept, on a couple of acres of land. They have
some form of small farming taking place, but they aren't farms. The
edges of the property have grapevines and fruit trees. The house is
surrounded by a stone wall with a fence on top, a gated driveway, and
one or more dogs (usually large) inside. They give the impression of
security. Not sure if that's because of actual crime rates (it
doesn't seem so), or of a need to feel secure behind the walls.
Once in Santiago, we went directly to
the cathedral, went inside, and contemplate what we'd just done. That
contemplation will take more time than I gave it in the cathedral,
and have given it since. So that part of this Camino isn't finished
yet. But even so, there's a great feeling of accomplishment that goes
beyond just the walk. Something about knowing you're walking down the
same paths and over the same Roman bridges that some individual did a
thousand years ago heading the same way you are..
Right – no pictures from me on this
stretch – Mr.Lumix was out of service.
PHONE HOME
ReplyDeleteAlan, another great blog. Thanks for taking the time to do this, I enjoyed following along. Spain is a great country. Great people, food, wine, and a lot of diverse architecture from old to new.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your hiking trek. Now looking forward to hearing about phase 2. Have fun and eat and drink well.
ReplyDelete