Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Santiago de Compostela

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.

3 comments:

  1. Alan, 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.

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  2. Enjoyed your hiking trek. Now looking forward to hearing about phase 2. Have fun and eat and drink well.

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