Day 12: Padron to Santiago

“Solvitur ambulando, It is solved by walking.” -- St, Augustine

We made it to Santiago!

The temperature dropped yesterday down into the upper 40s. We walked around Padron last night and decided to try a little café that had a sign up for lasagna. Pasta sounded good on a cold night. I have to admit lasagna made with manchego and goat cheese as wonderful, but they served it with a side of french fries. Something we've seen a lot of in Spain along the Camino.

In the middle of the night it started raining a little, and by morning it was just misting rain when we started walking. It reminds me of the rains in Oregon where it's gray and rainy all day and there's only a quarter inch of total precipitation. We walked out of the town in the mist and up into the mountains for a short 800 foot climb and then down to Santiago.

The total distance for the day was about 16 miles, but we added a little bit by taking a shortcut.

The Portuguese way enters Santiago from the south and winds it's way past dozens of tapas restaurants that that looked inviting, but we kept on walking to the Cathedral Square. It was a great feeling to be standing in front of the cathedral with about 300 fellow pilgrims lying on the ground sitting against the walls and taking turns getting pictures.

In 2016 we only spent a few hours in Santiago and were rushed to get into the cathedral to see St. James, go to the pilgrim office, get our Compostela, have dinner and get to bed. This year we have two days to spend in Santiago. There are dozens of museums and churches to view, so we will take full advantage of our time here. The city is also known from the quality of their food. We will test that out by primarily eating seafood served as tapas.

The Cathedral of Santiago is the most significant building in the town as it is the end for all the Caminos wherever they originate. I can't upload enough photos for you to see all the details. For example, the entryway has over 200 figures that represent the Apocalypse. Construction on the cathedral started around 1100 on the site an existing Church that was dedicated to Santiago ( St James in English) in appropriately 900. The construction took a very short time of 70 years (for Cathedrals). Part of the reason is that pilgrims would carry stones from the quarry into Santiago for extra favors at the church and some would stay to work on the Cathedral.

Main altar of Cathedral

scaffolding has been up for five years, but is coming down now

Day 11: Caldas de Reis to Padrón

“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.” - Frank A. Clark

We have enjoyed talking with all the people from different countries. It's fun to hear how similar stories are portrayed in different countries. The other night someone was talking about the speed at which people walk and I said you mean like "The Tortoise and the Hare"? He didn't know that story but said he had heard of "The Rabbit and the Hedgehog" The people from Holland said their version had a snail. Today we saw the snail....

Last night we linked up with some Australia's. Two ladies walking together and a husband and wife. They didn't know each other before the Camino but are making plans to get together when they get home. It was great fun. We had a dozen different tapas, wine, beer, and cake. We mainly had seafood - cockles, sardine, squid, and octopus. Nice location in an old grist mill with millstones for tables.

 

Another beautiful day on the trail. The high today was 64 degrees and it was perfect weather and beautiful Galician countryside.  We did have rain for about an hour but it just kept today cool, and I got my hat washed for a second time. It was around 50 degrees when we walked into town.

Legend has it that it was near Padrón that Apostle Saint James first preached during his stay in what is now Portugal and Spain. Soon after his death his disciples Theodore and Athanasius brought his head and his body to this area from Jerusalem in a boat. They moored the boat to a padrón (big stone). The two disciples remained to the area to preach after burying the Apostle.

 

Iglesia de Santiago is where the fabled stone is situated where the boat carrying St James remains was tied. You feel the presence of St James here with the various sculptures and artworks and you can go to the altar and photograph the stone.  The first church was built here around 900, the 2nd around 1100, and part of the present day Church in the 1400's.

This is Padron -- the Church is to the left of the bridge

The 1st century pardon - where the boat carrying James was moored

Iglesia de Santiago

There's another magnificent church in town -- Santa Marie de Cruces. It was a cathedral at one time and  has 15th bishops buried at the graveyard. Some dating from 1200. This church had particularly interesting statues dressed in real cloth clothing.




Santa Marie de Cruces

Now just some pictures of today's walk with some of the smaller parish churches we saw along the way, and a slug that was going slower than the snail.

Church popping out of the vineyards

I have never seen firewood piled like this

Padron city park with trimmed sycamore trees. Ocean is 15 miles downstream

 

just another 'chapel' along the way

Day 10: Pontevedra to Caldas de Reis

"Great things are done when men and mountains meet; This is not done by jostling in the street." - William Blake

I guess technically we didn't have mountains today, but they were some nice rolling hills. Galicia would remind most people of the Appalachian Mountains. Because we're so close to the coast most of the high points are around a thousand fee. But when you're coming from the seashore it's a bit of a climb.

We're still seeing our friends from last week along the way, but the number of day hikers has increased dramatically. What many people do is take a small bag to walk during the day and have their suitcases moved from hotel to hotel on the way. There are five star motels in some of the towns. For example, yesterday we passed one of the famous Parador motels in Pontevedra. These hotels are considered some of the best in Europe but it seems very un-camino like to stay there. If you saw the movie "The Way" you remember a scene where Martin Sheen pays for all of his Camino friends to stay in the Parador in Leon.

We are appreciating the small for things like having a hot shower and not being in a room of snoring pilgrims every night. We were able to book a two-person room in a hostel and caught a break for tonight.

Our destination for today was an very important town in early European history. The 2nd century Greek philosopher Ptolemy referred to this town several times in his writings. Theologically, the bishop from here organized the Council of Toledo in 397 AD to uphold the Nicene Creed.

Today it is a small but still a nice town of 8,000. The big attraction for the Romans and the Greeks and I guess the pilgrims is the hot springs in this town. You can dip you feet into a hot fountain in the Town Square, but most of historic Hot Springs are taken over by luxury motels.

The main Church in town is quite unusual. It's dedicated to St Thomas Becket. Kind of strange to have an English man on the main altar of a Spanish church. The church was originally built around 1080, was destroyed by the Moors, and then rebuilt in the 1800's completely new as the Church of St Thomas Becket.

Beautiful scenery along the walk today but not many the sites other than the beautiful woods. It was very nice today to have the majority of the hike under trails along the rivers. We had a little walking along a major highway for Just 2 km. We're looking forward to some more dirt paths tomorrow.



Pontevedra bridge - leaving town in the morning

water front in Pontevedra

Bridge at the hot springs Hotel

Caldas de Reis - City Hall and hot spring Hotel

Church of St Thomas Becket.

river park in Caldas de Reis - huge sycamore tree

Day 9: Redoudila to Pontevedra

"If everyone in the world took care of each other the way folks do out on the trail, and if everyone approached each day with as much hope and optimism as hikers do, the world would be a better place.”
― Jon Tullis

The quote above is about the Pacific Coast trail, but it applies to the Camino as well.

After a wonderful breakfast purchased by Jose to make up for the booking issue, we headed back up onto the Camino and we'll walk North until Thursday.

The days are a little shorter by design but they seem easier and easier as each day passes. For you Fitbit people, my Fitbit buzzes every day about 9 am to tell me I've got my goal of 10,000 steps in for the day. We've been averaging close to 35,000 steps a day.

The town name means "the old bridge", in reference to an old Roman bridge across the Lérez River which has been replaced supplemented by the "new" bridge built in the 12th century.

The first stop in town is the Igrexa da Virxe Peregrina" (Church of the Virgin Pilgrim). A very unusual mix of the Santiago and Fatima Caminos.

At one time this was the largest port in Galicia.  The Christopher Columbus ship Santa Maria, originally named La Gallega, was built in Pontevedra.

If  you are looking for wine from this region, look for Rias Baixas.

There were several beautiful sights in town. In addition to the Church of the Virgin Pilgrim there was the Basilica of Saint Maria Grande, and the Convent of San Francisco. For a town of about 50,000 people they have three churches that are more beautiful than any I've seen in Florida. The convent Chapel would easily sit 1,000 sisters.

Today's walk was about 16 miles, the highlight was a detour that saved us 8 km of road walking in exchange for 9 kilometers of dirt paths along a small river with waterfalls. Surprisingly most people took the highway to save the one kilometer. We relied on a German using the "Dutch Guidebook" (movie reference for fans of The Way). He told us to ignore the signs and make a sharp left at an old electrical transformer. He was right -- about 200 meters past the box we saw yellow arrows through the woods. Apparently the town people paint of the turn to have you walk along the road past their cafes.

For about 2 hours today we walked with Atila, one of our Camino friends from day 2. He teaches at a Catholic University in Hungary and his son is at the Franciscan Monastery in Hebron Spain. The monastery is a 10km detour off the Camino. We might not see Atila again before Santiago. (edit: We did see him 6/3 in Cathedral Square on our last day)

In the woods there was a rack were you could hang a shell. We added one with a shoutout to family and the Knights of Columbus.

As I mentioned on previous posts, there's an ebb and flow during the day where you see people from previous days. Today we saw the two sisters from Holland. We didn't walk much with them, but we did sit with them in a cafe early in the day for coffee and in a cafe later in the day for juice. (edit: We saw them 6/2 in Santiago waiting in line for Pilgrim mass)

A lot of people join the Camino in the last day to walk the minimum 100 km to Santiago to get the Compostela. They're big tour groups --- the kind that stick together and not as social with other people as our earlier friends. Just like 2 years ago when we walk the Camino, we are also joined at this point by groups of Italian cyclists. I think we should make them buy a bell for their bikes as they fly by with hardly a notice to the walkers.

Just a few more days to Santiago. Tomorrow night we stop in a town known for it's hot springs. I'm hoping that we can take a dip.



sometimes it is good not to be too tall



note the arrows north to Santiago and south to Fatima



Galician piper



the Virgin Pilgrim

Virgin Pilgrim

Convent 'Chapel'



massive bridge at Pontevedra



we left a shell to mark our passage



morning dew on flowers

low-tide along the river