Craig D. Townsend

Catching up on the last five days of the pilgrimage: I hiked my longest day on the sixth day - about 17 miles - from Palas de Rei to Arzua. It was a glorious day - started in fog, some great terrain - so much of it familiar from my previous trip with my family, when we began our last section in Palas de Rei. The last three days are all similar: woods, tiny towns, farmland, just alternating between those choices over and over. I ran into the same people over and over - the Spanish woman I'd met in the rain, the Oregon family with two daughters, the young German woman I'd seen in the last couple of towns, the many people who passed me and then I passed in turn as we took different breaks while walking at such similar paces. Though I was generally walking alone, there were always people around the next corner - a nice sense of companionship.

Then I arrived in Arzua, a lovely little town with a very pretty town square - I found my hotel and then waited with great eagerness for the arrival of my two brothers, Charlie and Michael. They had agreed to meet me and hike the two last days of the journey - it was so great to find them arriving after their own journey from the US. We had a fabulous celebratory dinner at our hotel.

And then in the morning we were off. See the pictures - two more days of the same sort of hiking, varied terrain, up and down the Galician hills, foggy mornings that made the woods all misty and medieval feeling, great little towns to stop in and have something to eat or drink and then continue on the road. After so much time alone, it was a joy to have such great companions, and to show them what I'd been doing!

We stopped in Arca, a funny little town, overrun by pilgrims and with little to do besides sit in a cafe and watch other pilgrims arrive. Then off in the morning on the last stretch, the arrival into Santiago. First more woods, then a couple of tough hills, and the final climb to the Monte de Gozo, the last hill outside of town, where pilgrims used to catch their first glimpse of the cathedral towers - not anymore, too many apartment buildings block the view. But then the last 5 kilometers over the bridge and through the suburbs and then the city, arriving finally at the cathedral. What joy and what relief commingled!

Unfortunately the cathedral is still undergoing renovation/​restoration, so just as on my last visit three years ago, we were unable to touch the pillar at the entrance and feel the handprint left by a thousand years of pilgrims hands - but we could see it, and see this beautiful place. So great to finally arrive!

On the first day with my brothers, less than halfway to Arca, Mike's boot suddenly came apart, the sole simply flapping off the shoe. See the pictures of it taped together, with a strap off Charlie's pack around the middle to try to keep it together! He finished the day, but the boots were dead - so the next day he walked in old, beat-up sandals - a long and hard day for him. But still, we made it!

Santiago is a great small city, such a joyous place. We had fabulous food, and a great tour of the cathedral roof - great way to see both the city and another side of the cathedral. Mike and I were a bit tentative on such heigihts, but eventually settled in - Charlie, of course, was completely in his element (well, he does run a climbing school!). We stayed in Santiago two nights, enjoying the hospitality of the Altair Hotel - what a great place. I picked up my compostellana, the certificate that I earned for walking at least the last 100 kilometers - and I actually did nearly 100 miles - I went to the pilgrims' office and showed my credencial, the pilgrim passport that we all use to collect stamps from every place we stay and eat, all the little towns and churches along the way. And our last souvenir: dinner at a great restaurant, Dezaseis, where they gave us each a scallop shell to take home (though I was the only one to actually eat a scallop) - the symbol of St. James and the pilgrimage. And now our journey is done. Enjoy the pictures!

Check out the photos, I've added one from the church in Portomarin where you can see, vaguely, where the numbers have been chiseled into each stone, as I mentioned in my report yesterday.

Today started out with beautiful sun, then turned into a downpour, then turned back to beautiful - ah, the weather in Galicia... The word is we're done with rain, but I'll wait and see. Nonetheless, a fabulous day - lots of up and down, but nothing too steep, and just great country - in the woods most of the morning, then walking along a ridge in the rain with weird misty views, then wandering in the sunshine from one tiny village to another. Passed and re-passed lots of folks from around the world - Germans, Italians (they seem to like doing it on bicycle), many Spaniards, and met one young guy from Tennessee and a grandmother from Montana. Everyone has a story, and we all seem to want to tell them to each other. It's a series of strange and wonderful encounters.

Now I'm in Palas de Rei, which is where Cathy and Caleb and Asher and I started this section three years ago - it's a nice little town, not much to show except this funny little church - see the photo. The whole thing has been largely reconstructed, but it has a Romanesque doorway that's intact - except that they've added strings of electric lights on its arches. Strange. But inside was just a lovely and peaceful space - I sat there for quite some time. Today I hiked almost 15 miles, tomorrow it will be somewhere around 17 - my two longest days. Mostly it feels great - but oh, is it nice to sit down!

It's day four, and I'm in Portomarin, a nice little town on the top of a hill above the Rio Mino, a pretty big river - made even larger here by the fact that they've turned this section into a reservoir - so back in the sixties they moved the entire town from down next to the river to up top, stone by stone, and flooded the old town. You can see a photo of the church - every stone has two numbers on it, designating the row and the order, so they could put it back together.

It's been a bit rainy the past two days, but still beautiful country and I'm keeping warm and dry. I've met lots of pilgrims - French, Canadian, New Zealander, German - but also getting to speak some Spanish with the local folk when possible. I'm also getting plenty of time to just slog along on my own, which has been really wonderful. And the food! I had a lovely paella for lunch today in a tiny mountain village - last night was pork in a great sauce, and the night before I had the tiniest trout I've ever seen - so little, fried in oil, you eat (or at least, I ate as I was told) everything except the head and backbone and tail - all the little bones and the crispy skin - just delicious.

I've included a photo of the tympanum over the door to the church here (which is strangely fortress-like), as you might be able to spot the men all sitting around the outer edge are playing instruments - it turns out the church was built by followers of the guy who built the cathedral in Santiago, and this tympanum is therefore a version of the very famous one there (you can see a shot of that in the other Santiago photo album on the Photobucket website). Very cool!

On Monday, July 20, I arrived in Madrid at 7:30am, took a flight to Santiago at 9:30, got in at 10:45, got a taxi to the bus station, found a cafe and had a sandwich, got a bus at 2:00pm, and at 5:15 I was in the little town of Piedrafita o Cebreiro, where I called a cab that took me up the three-mile hill I wanted to avoid, and there I was in O Cebreiro before 6pm. I purchased a credencial, the "pilgrim's passport" that you get stamped in each stop along the way to show where you've been, and took a quick look at the church there. They have a chalice and paten from the 12th century on display, there's a miracle (of course) associated with them, something about a visible transubstantiation - who knows. Very cool looking though - see the photo. Then I was off, walking along the tops of the mountains that border the province of Galicia - a couple of killer uphills, but so beautiful! I spent the night at the top of the second one, on Alto O Poio - dinner and an early evening. Then it was off to bed finally! The next morning was a continuation at first along the tops of ridges and hills, great views, and then a long and brutal downhill into Triacastela. Met up with a lively Frenchman, Jean-Luc, and his wife Christiane, from Grenoble - they've been hiking sections from Le Puy in France all the way, over the past five years - this year they finish. Trying to speak in French and Spanish and English all in bits did me in! Lunch in Triacastela, then continued on my own to Samos, site of Spain's oldest monastery (so they say) - Benedictine - see the photos, it is quite beautiful. They had a big fire in the 1950s, and so most of it is restored, but the church itself is quite large and mostly intact from the 17th century. I spent the night in Samos, and today have been hiking in much rain - am in Sarria now, will head on this afternoon to the little town of Barbadelo to spend the night.

It's been a great journey so far - it's very different and powerful to be on my own so much of the time. But great encounters - today I was walking along a very narrow stretch and here came a farmer on his horse, with a young German Shepherd alongside - not really enough room to pass, but he was stopping right where I was to put a couple of bags of grain on the horse's back - he got one on, then climbed back up, and the bag immediately fell off - he's cursing, the dog's barking, the horse is snorting, and I'm wanting to flee - instead I asked if he needed help, and ended up passing him the bags he needed while he stayed on the horse and got everything arranged the way he wanted - and then asked if I wanted to have anything to drink! It was too early for me to have what I guessed he had in mind - a little anisette, perhaps? - so I said no thanks and headed on my way. I love this walk.