cathedral
O Pedrouzo-Santiago De Compostella!!!! Day 29
Image Posted on
I woke up this morning ready to reach the end of my journey. I grabbed a quick breakfast with some friends from the albergue and then we were off to tackle the last 20 km to Santiago.
For the most part, we stuck together the whole way in. There were several hills to climb and, as usual, several small towns to walk through which made the last hike in to town that much more enjoyable. I had been so excited to walk into Santiago today that the night before I had pretty much memorized a few of the landmarks along the way so I could know when we were getting close. First we passed the airport, then the large TV towers, and then we made it to Monte de Gozo. Here, there’s a large monument on top of the hill where, if it wasn’t raining, pilgrims could get their first glance at Santiago and the top of the cathedral where their journey would end. A large group of us stopped and had our pictures taken at the large monument overlooking the city as an early celebration before entering the city in a couple of hours. A quick note, make sure you have a camera that’s easy to show someone how to use. A seemingly quick stop took nearly a half hour just to take a couple of pictures.
After what seemed to be hours after leaving Monte de Gozo, we finally entered the city of Santiago. Yet again, we had to navigate our way through the newer part of the city walking through streets on blacktop and concrete (painful for me at this point). The group of us (about 6-8 at this point) stuck together as we tried to find our way to the old part of town. The longer we walked through the city, the larger our group got as we were all heading for the same long desired destination.
And then it happened. After 28 days of hiking, hours skipping ahead 70 km on a bus, food poisoning, meeting and saying goodbye to friends, and a list of other experiences I’d had, I walked into the courtyard where the main cathedral was. There was a slew of pilgrims laying down in the courtyard resting their heads against their packs, people running up to each other and hugging, and some people just standing in the middle of the courtyard looking up at the cathedral taking in the moment. I ended up shaking hands with and hugging friends I had hiked with the last few hours and running into a few other characters I had recognized from the journey. It was a surreal moment in which I realized that I had just hiked almost the entire way across an entire country! I recommend just standing in the courtyard and just basking in that fact silently for 60 seconds. I dare you to not have a tear come to your eye.
After the moment of realization had passed, we found our way to the right of the main entrance to the cathedral about 100 yards away where we stood in line to get our passports stamped for the final time. At 1:00, April 30, 2013, I had my passport stamped in Santiago de Compostela. We left the pilgrim’s office and all agreed to meet back in front of the cathedral that evening to grab drinks for the celebration of our accomplishment.
After getting our passports stamped, the search for a place to stay began. Nick told me about a really nice hotel nearby that had good rates and was right outside the cathedral. I booked my room online at Hospederia right outside of the cathedral. It was about $70 a night, but I deserved it and it was well worth it. This place had wi-fi, nice beds, great showers, and a great breakfast spread in the morning.
Before I got the chance to check in to my hotel, I ran into my friend Sally. We congratulated each other on the success of our journeys and agreed to meet up with a group of several pilgrims later on after we’d all had some time to take a siesta and relax. When I showed up to meet everyone we decided to just go bar hopping around old town, which is very easy to do. There’s a plethora of bars, restaurants, and cafes to stop in and have a bite to eat or a drink. We decided to try as many as possible, and stayed out later than I had in over a month celebrating the entire experience we had all just had over the past several weeks. After we’d had enough to eat and waaaaaay too much to drink, we stumbled back to our hotels to take real showers that required no use of sandals to avoid nasty floors and to sleep in real beds with no snoring pilgrim above our heads and with real sheets and pillows. Oh how quickly the simple things in life can transform into something so luxurious when it has been taken away for only a few short weeks.
Destination: Santiago de Compostela!
Distance: 20.1 km
Accommodation: Hospederia- This place was convenient as it was located right outside the side entrance of the large cathedral. Wi-fi, comfy beds, great breakfast, clean bathrooms. It’s a little pricy at $70.00 a night, but it was a one time deal and it was so nice.
St. Juan de Ortega-Burgos Day 12 & 13
Image Posted on Updated on
Day 12
I was looking forward to the hike to Burgos because it meant we would get to stay in our 2nd large city. We had also decided to stay there for 2 days, giving us a little more time to rest and explore some more of the city. The hardest part of the hike to Burgos was walking on blacktop and concrete in boots. It was fairly uncomfortable and hard surface was taking a toll on Caroline’s knee which had been bothering her for a couple of days now. To fix this, when we arrived at the outskirts of the large city, Dom, Caroline, Mel, and I opted to take the bus to the older part of the city where the albergues were.
Since we were staying in Burgos for a couple of days, we had to stay at 2 different places since albergues usually don’t allow pilgrims to stay for more than one day. We decided to spoil ourselves after 11 days of hiking and 1 weeks worth of food poisoning by staying in Hotel Silken, a 4 star hotel. Call it cheating, but every now and again you begin to miss the simple things like a real towel, not wearing shower sandals, and clean sheets and beds. It was definitely pricier than staying in an albergue, especially since we were so close to the old part of town where several tourists like to stay. There weren’t any rooms available when we got there because they hadn’t finished cleaning the rooms, so we left our bags with the front desk and decided to go grab a bite while we waited to check in. We wandered around and finally settled on a small restaurant next to the river to have a couple of beers and a late lunch. We enjoyed our own little slice of heaven kicking our feet up and greeting other pilgrims as they entered the city a little behind us.
After a little respite, we checked into our hotel, grabbed luxurious showers, and had a nap time. We all agreed to meet up in Caroline and Mel’s room later before we went exploring the city together and grabbing a nice dinner. While everyone else rested, I got busy trying to find the post office because Burgos was the first town I came to where I had mail waiting for me from back home. In larger cities, you can forward packages to yourself with supplies or have people send you mail from back home. I gave several post office addresses to friends and families to send me letters while I was also sending back post cards, most of which apparently never reached their destination. Unfortunately, the post office had closed for the day (it was Saturday) and I would have to wait until Monday morning to get my mail. Oh well, more time to write post cards.
I rejoined my friends at the hotel, and from there we took advantage of our extra time by looking around a bit, resupplying anything we might need, and hanging out with other friends we ran into. My favorite site was the cathedral and it is definitely worth checking out.
We ended the day at a very nice restaurant where I enjoyed paella for the first time, and we paired it with a very nice wine that Dom picked out. It was a special occasion because it was one of the last night that Mel would be traveling with us before she had to go home. She had other responsibilities to take care of like most other pilgrims on the trail. I met several pilgrims that had only done sections of the trail at a time as their jobs would allow them.
Day 13
I’m pretty sure this was the first night I actually slept the whole night through! And, Dom didn’t even snore that night! I celebrated by spending my first morning in Burgos alone, sitting at a bar eating my breakfast next to the river and watched some of the other pilgrims leave. It was good to have a rest day and just relax. The 2 days we spent in Burgos were also the first 2 days in about a week where it wasn’t windy and a little chilly. It had warmed up to about 75 degrees with sunny skies! I was so happy that I decided to wear my blue jeans around town (bad idea bringing those heavy pants in my pack by the way).
For our second night in Burgos, we opted to stay in the municipal albergue next to the cathedral. The municipal is a very modern facility with nice bunk beds put in groups of 4 to an area with a personal sink and shower. Laundry services are available as well. Unfortunately, there was no Wi-Fi available, but computers were set up (which you paid for) to use if you needed. What are you doing on the internet? You’re hiking through Spain, go enjoy a new country! If you plan on staying there, arrive as soon as possible because this is a very popular albergue. There were also some great tapas bars nearby, which served some amazing sangria.
After checking into the albergue, we split our ways and had some time to ourselves exploring the city in our own ways. I took a tour of the cathedral (one of my favorite things to do in the larger cities), and finally purchased a pair of sunglasses and some sunscreen because the days were getting a bit warmer and the sun was beaming down towards the end of our hikes.
We ended our last night in Burgos at a nice tapas bar near the albergue. If I could remember the name of the place I’d tell you because they had amazing tapas and even better sangria. As an added bonus, our friend Jo wandered up and joined us. Jo was a woman that I’d met day 1 on the trail and we had continued to run into each other at random times. I’m pretty sure that when you mentioned Jo’s name to anyone on the trail, the next phrase you would hear would be “Jo! I love her!”. She was one of the nicest and most generous people I met on the trail.
The next day, we would tackle Hornillow, but separately.
Destination: Burgos
Distance: 25.6 km
Accommodation: Day 12-Hotel Silken-Expensive, but if you split it with a friend it isn’t so bad. This place is well worth the stay! Even the cheaper rooms were really nice. 4 star hotel, need I say more? Day 13-Municipal Albergue- This was a very nice and modern albergue. Bunk beds were in groups of 4 to an area with a personal sink and shower. Laundry services are available as well. Unfortunately, there was no Wi-Fi available, but computers were set up (which you paid for) to use if you needed.
Lesson learned for staying in larger cities: the longer you stay in the larger cities, the more money you spend.
Belorado-St. Juan de Ortega Day 11
Image Posted on Updated on
After a good nights sleep, we woke up early as usual and began our routine of packing our things and and layering as warm as we could for the first part of the day, which was always the coldest. At this point during the journey, I had developed a system: 1) Spend the morning hike without music and spend my time waking up and listening to the things around me, 2) Spend the second half of the hike listening to music as a sort of reward and also because I usually spent this time hiking by myself.
The first half of this day definitely was not the easiest. The first 12 km was walking into a headwind just like we had the past several days. It was hard to keep my hands warm because of the headwind and how early we would start hiking in the morning. The next 12 km were all uphill, but at least we were in the woods so the wind was gone.
The last week had really put me in a funk since I was having a hard to recuperating from the food poisoning. Slowly but surely, my friends and random acquaintances began lifting my spirits. It was always the most random conversations that meant the most. There’s just something about being able to talk to a random stranger and find so much in common to talk about because you’re both hiking the same trail and are having several of the same experiences. At the same time though, we would be hiking the trail for completely different reasons.
St. Juan de Ortega wasn’t much of a town, but the cathedral there was, for lack of a better word, beautiful. Even for those of you who end up hiking the Camino that aren’t religious, I highly recommend visiting this cathedral. More about the cathedral later though. There was only 1 albergue and 1 hotel in the town. As usual, we opted for the albergue which was only 5 euros. We checked in, got our passports stamped, and went to check out our rooms for the night and settle in. I took one look in the sleeping area and bathrooms, and thought it looked like something out of a horror film. The room was filled with rickety beds, stone walls, no heat, and the bathrooms were filthy. I figured I’d just have to suck it up for one night till we got to Burgos and found a decent place to stay. With thoughts of my nightmarish sleeping quarters for the night, we proceeded to go to the pub next door for an after hike refreshment. This pub was also our only choice for drinks, dinner, or breakfast the next morning. While relaxing in the pub, I ran into an American I’d hiked with earlier in the trip named Solomon. He apparently had seen the albergue as well and was open to sharing a room with someone for the night in the nearby hotel. After considering his offer for all of about 30 seconds, I jumped at the offer. I spent 25 Euros (my half) on the room, took a loss on my 5 euros at the albergue I’d already payed for (no such thing as a refund for the most part with albergues), and proceeded to move my things in. I felt kind of guilty leaving behind my other companions I’d been hiking with, but none of them sounded interested in spending a little more money on a hotel room, and I wanted to have a decent bathroom with at least a slightly better chance of not catching a foot fungus or bed bugs which would follow me for the rest of the journey I’m sure. I stopped feeling guilty once I laid on the bed, took a shower (without my shower sandals, which shows how clean the place was), and took a nap in my little climate controlled paradise. Because I knew the bathroom situation in the albergue, I offered my clean shower to my friends to use. Dom showed up after a bit and took full advantage of the offer. It can go a long way towards lifting your spirits to be able to actually use a clean cotton towel to dry yourself after using the equivalent of a sham-wow to dry yourself off for the past week and a half.
I spent the very last of my money that night on dinner at the pub knowing that the next town we went to would have an ATM. My friends and I had already become accustomed to buying rounds of beer and wine for each other and paid for meals when the other was short, so I knew I wouldn’t have to worry if I came into money shortages. This was a consistent characteristic of pilgrims that I found throughout the month I hiked on the Camino. Everyone had a very generous heart and was more than willing to help each other out even if they had never met the person. It was refreshing to observe this much kindness to strangers firsthand.
After settling in, grabbing a bite with some fellow pilgrims, and reading and writing for a bit, I decided to go to my first pilgrim’s mass. The cathedral is the centerpiece of this little town, and for good reason. My good friend Dom (whom I’d hiked with since day one) was a priest and spoke fluent Spanish, so he was asked to partake in performing the pilgrim’s mass that evening. This was my 1st Catholic mass I had ever attended and it was by a priest I met day one on the Camino de Santiago; how perfect. My friend Caroline, a devoted catholic, sat next to me during the service and whispered explanations of everything of what was going on. I don’t understand Spanish, but I made sure to stand when everyone else stood, said amen when everyone else did, and sat down when everyone else sat down. I didn’t partake in receiving communion, instead I received the Pilgrims blessing from Dom. Afterwards, Dom was allowed to show us the ruins on the other side of the church and the plans to add to the cathedral a large state of the art albergue. The new addition was being built to encourage others to go on the camino and to educate people about “The Way.” Based on their current construction schedule, it will most likely take about 5 years for the completion. I hope to come back there and see the progress one day. They’ve got a lot of work ahead of them because the last time I saw that place, there were several large trees growing in the courtyard.
Destination: St Juan de Ortega
Distance: 24.3 km
Accommodation: La Henera-The hotel was a little pricy for the few amenities available, but it was also the only hotel around for several kilometers. There was no wifi, but the beds, hot water, real towels, and complimentary breakfast made up for the rest of the cost.
Buen Camino, Peregrino! 