700 miles walked later... We made it!!

After a couple of days of walking in the rain we finally made it! We have a nice picture of the cathedral, a nice picture of us in front of a small portion of the cathedral, our faces and the cathedral... But not one of us and the ENTIRE cathedral! (Note to self: never ask a non-pilgrim tourist to take the most critical photo of your darn long walk!). Oh well... We are just happy to be here and not have to get up early to walk tomorrow. We filled up three credentials each and now have our Compostellas. The day before we stayed in a small Alburgue in Santa Irene. It was very nice. We were given towels, had a great meal, and had a nice fireplace to dry our boots by. We started out for Santiago by 7:30 in the morning. At this time of year it is dark until sometime after 8:00. Normally this isn't a problem but we had to walk through dense woods in the DARK! We only had a tiny keychain light, which was worthless except to keep us from tripping over rocks.

After we arrived in Santiago, took care of Compostella business, found our room at the Seminary to stay, we wandered around and ran into some of our other pilgrim friends. One pair of pilgrims in particular were very surprised to see us... Jeanpaul and Bertand from France. We met these two Frenchmen about 7 weeks ago. They can't speak English or Spanish, and we can't speak French but we speak weak Spanish. About every two or three weeks we would run into these two goofy fellows and struggle to communicate our surprise at running into each other again. At the brief times we met them we always had a good laugh and then we were off again. We saw a number of other pilgrims friends too. Good fun! Next stop Madrid.
It was a Buen Camino!













Jeanpaul and Bertand from France. Shocked that we made it this far...

Location:Santiago de Compostella,Spain

O'Coto

Molinaseca to Cacabelos to Herrerías to O'Cebreiro on horse, to Triacastela. Then to Sarria, to Gonzales, to O Coto.

Had another fun few days. Last weekend as we walked towards the mountain that leads up to O'Cebreiro, we walked past a sign, "Do you need horses?... 5kms". A while later we walked past the same sign again, and then again and again. We probably walked 15 Km's and we never saw the horses "5 Km's ahead". Finally when we stopped for the night in Herrerías and wandered around the village we came upon the horse stable. We signed up for a ride up the hill. It was Great! The best form of transportation yet that we've taken on the Camino. We had a great time talking with our Canadian and German friends as we rode and they walked up the hill. (Some pilgrims were faster than my horse, Carlotta. Carlotta seemed to be hungry and just wanted to stop and chow down quite a bit). It was a great day for a ride. Once in O'Cebreiro we started off again on foot.

Well off again... Lights are about to go out.







A well seasoned grape mashing stick.




190 km to Santiago, 559 back to Roncesvalles.





Our room in herrerías.








Victor, Bonnie and Carlotta...


Half way up the mountain, in a small village, Bonnie and Carlotta knew exactly where to go for a beverage.





Us with Victor the cowboy, in O'Cebreiro.






















A particularly interesting arrow... Next to a nose.


Local fellows in O'Coto that happened to be having lunch at our Casa Rural. After lunch they started singing at the table (this is also after a little Liquor de Herbias). It was a lot of fun.

Location:Carretera Santiago-Guntín,Melide,Spain

A few days later...

Another few days of walk, walk, walk. Stayed in Astorga in the attic of a great Alburgue, near the church. Toured the Gaudí Palace, sampled some local special pastries...Yum! Then we walked to Foncebadón... We would have stayed in Rabanal, which is a lovely village, but for some reason we were on a roll so Kristina said "let's keep going!". (That was the Ibuprofen talking I think) We walked another 7 Km's to Foncebadón, a small rustic, mostly abandoned, village in ruins. It was looking pretty bleak but then we saw a bar and a small church of some sort. We stayed in the "Parish" Alburgue with 18 beds crammed in one room. Parish places are generally 'donotivo', and come with a humble but adequate dinner and breakfast. This is our second "parish" Alburgue and we've come to the conclusion that these places are very unique and interesting. They also seem to attract a certain "crowd" of very interesting folk. One older gentleman that stayed in our Parish place (think Santa with a grey/black beard and lots of hair) decided he needed to wash Everything!!...Except that extra small speedo and his fanny pack, so he ran around for most of the afternoon/evening in well... Nothing. Also, the building is small so all socializing, drinking, journaling, laundry is done outside on the front porch. After dinner 8 of us pilgrims went to bed because hey, who wants to be maneuvering in a tight space when naked Santa is trying to crawl into his top bunk. The other 10 pilgrims, and Santa and the 2 hospitalaros had more wine to finish off... Turns out Santa is also an opera singer! So the crowd was outside the door belting out some opera! They finally settled down and went to bed too. That was all good till everyone went to sleep and then the snoring began. 10 out of 18 of us snored like, well... Drunken opera singers!! I have never experienced ANYTHING like this before...(nor will I ever again for that matter). There was no escaping it. One poor guy woke with a scream in the middle of the night...probably the same nightmare I was having. One rule of this Alburgue was that you couldn't get out of bed till 7:00am. (That's actually a great rule!). So at 7:00 the hospitalaro woke us up by turning on a CD of some type of church music. Now, it's dark out, colder than the devil, crazy choir music is playing and we're in this old stone building in the middle of the mountains... It's starting to feel like the "Shining". Kristina and I got up and we were out of there! We did not care that we had to walk for an hour in the dark and freezing cold.

Now we are in a great village...Molinaseca, in a great hotel in a room for two. Our room looks out over the old bridge and the river. What a nice feeling.





On the bridge in Molinaseca.











This farmer came to town with a trailer full of grapes. He's an expert tractor driver as he maneuvered down this narrow street and backed this trailer into a doorway barely wide enough for the trailer. Also under this same building is the pig stye with his pigs.

Location:Camino de Santiago,Molinaseca,Spain

Mazarife, Spain

Last week we ended up in Boadilla del Camino. Stayed in a great Albuergue, with a great garden, pool and sunshine. Met up with most of all the pilgrims we met in Roncesvalles 3 weeks ago.. And had a delicious pilgrims menu with them that evening. The next day we were up and gone by 6:30, two hours before the sun came up. We struggled to find our markers and wandered around the town for awhile, until we stumbled across a bar. We decided to stop and eat breakfast until the sun started to rise.

Saturday we wandered into Leon, only to find ourselves in the midst of another midevil festival. We looked for places to stay, everything was booked up, so we backtracked back to the first choice which was a convent with 150 people. Then we ventured out and found a posada that had accommodations for the next night. After that we wandered the streets. Shopping at the little stands, snacking on the foods, and watching the festivities. Couldn't stay out too late though, because the nuns wanted us locked up by 9..(there was no arguing with those nuns). Sunday we went to the posada, and continued wandering around, and took a midday nap. ( to recover from the many nights or poor sleep).

Monday we slept in until 8. Got up had one of the best breakfasts ever.( on the Camino) We then headed to the post office to retrieve the box that we mailed ourselves a couple weeks ago. Then we stuffed it it at least 2 more kilos of things that we have accumulated and then shipped it off to Santiago. Then we went to El Corte Ingles where we bought a scarf and tights.....because its freezing, and we are concerned that we will be cold in the upcoming days of higher elevation. Then we visited the cathedral which had been closed every other time we attempted to visit it. We walked to the bus stop and rode the bus to the edge of town, where we continued to walk 15 km to where we are tonight. We ran into Bertram and Johnpaul who we met 6 weeks ago in France. I think they are amazed every time they run into us. Amazed that we have caught up with them. We are too.. Tonight we are staying in the Jesus Alburgeue. All I can say is JESUS...

We have been doing our bed bug research, we have our hair up, our tights on, in our sleep sacks, lavender juice all over, and campho phinque all over us.. Ready to be eaten alive!!

Next stop near Astorga..







Guy that showed us his 1 month old donkey.


We came from way over there.























Another midevil festival


Classic midevil music?





A hand crank ride


Midevil dancing.









One man band


Rose window





Pilgrim sculpture





Pretty flower


Our room..


Glad that's not our room...

Location:Calle Encina,Villar de Mazarife,Spain