Day 37 – Rúa to Santiago de Compostela!

Very interesting day today! To start at the beginning, we headed out from our accommodating at Rúa just before 9 after the best breakfast we’ve had all trip! Although we saw a few walkers while have breakfast and as we set off it was nothing like the torrent we encountered yesterday. Our accommodation was just before the much larger town of Pedrouzo, so I’m guessing this meant the bulk of people were ahead of us. We started in fog again and for the most part were walking by ourselves on shady gravel track. A short stop for coffee at Amenal after an hour and then uphill past the airport at Lavacolla. We should stopped again but pressed on for Monte de Gozo, hoping for lunch there. Just under 8kms of mostly uphill and increasingly on minor roads. Unfortunately there were no real places to stop leading into Monte de Gozo and none that we could see there. There is however a huge 370 person albergue that looks like a construction camp! From there it was a short walk downhill into Santiago de Compostela but Al’s knee was really giving her grief by then! We stopped at the first place we saw – pulperia right on the outskirts. The guy couldn’t have made it more obvious he didn’t want us there but we had a couple of beers and wine and some food and rested for an hour. There’s a park just inside the city boundary where a lot of people were celebrating their arrival, however the cathedral is still nearly 4kms away, so we kept going through the fairly modern outskirts of Santiago to the old town. A couple of twists and turns and there we were! Our hotel is right next to the cathedral so we checked in, had a shower and a bit of a nap and headed out to queue up for our Compostela. Had a bit of a look through the cathedral, which is truly magnificent then a couple of drinks and dinner – in bed by 9pm truly knackered!
While it is great to be in Santiago and to have completed our goal, at least 98% of the people have done the Camino Frances and more than half of them, I would guess, just the 100kms from Sarria, so you are not sharing a similar experience. We ran into a German bloke and his daughter that we had seen on and off since Ribadeo and they felt the same way – the hustle and bustle of Santiago and the Frances over the last couple of days has really made us appreciate the truly unique experience of nearly 800kms of quiet solitude, spectacular scenery and genuine challenge on the Norte! 21kms today making it 823km in total. The guide book says 817km but we deviated a bit from to Santander and again around Posada Lunada. The Compostela says 803kms – no idea where they get that number from!