Camino Santiago Portuguese, 8: And Now, The Exciting Conclusion...Santiago Compustela!

By the time we were in Caldas, or even before, we knew we were going to make it. So the hike from A Picaruna was only sort of triumphant, if long and mostly dull, first in the outskirts, then the suburbs maybe (European cities have little in the way of suburbs), then the city itself. Somehow, we lost the trail for a bit, but the kind residents got us back on track. Our quest was at an end! Where's the ice machine?!

After another early departure...student artwork outside an elementary school

Truly scary crow

Through the morning mist, first sight of the city, maybe the cathedral

In the suburbs

Oh no, a fork in the trail; we went for the shortest route

Now in the city, which, I imagine, has its Glastonbury moments

At last, the cathedral

Us, there

The famous Parador; or maybe something else

Tour bus lecture

But first, our room at the nice Plaza Quintana hotel

And a shower; and a nap

Proper view of the cathedral

And then off to the center for peregrino accreditation

After walking all those miles, you still have to stand in line; by 2PM, the day we
arrived, some 600 pilgrims had already gotten their compostelas (check the
website for a count)

Later, at the Pilgrims' Mass at the cathedral

Closer up, featuring the more than life-sized statue of St. James
that tourists walk by and hug, even during mass

In one of the chapels

In another hole-in-the-wall restaurant, El Gato Negro, recommended for fresh
seafood; I really wanted the Coquilles St. Jacques, but it's not fresh this time of
year, so I  settled for the mussels; Vicki had the Iberian jamon plate

Only the sign of the black cat would tell you this is the place

Street scene Santiago

Next morning, leaving town, en pied, for the bus station

Couldn't find the Via Profana

More pilgrims arriving, in droves

Santiago bus station; after a transfer in Vigo, we were back in Portugal and Vila
Nova de Cerveira, where Gea picked us up and took us back to the campground

Estuary at Vigo; most marine farming I have ever seen

Camino Santiago Portuguese, 7: Padron To A Picarana

The penultimate day was a somewhat shorter hike, to within 10 miles of Santiago, to the hostel Glorioso in the village of A Picarana...

Smelling the roses as we leave Padron

A village lavandaria (washateria); every village had one, sometimes
two, towns would have several or many; all still functional, that is,
water running in and out and generally quite sanitary; but no one using
them; not surprisingly

The only detour we encountered

As I said, everything made of granite

And here is one of the many places we saw where such things are fabricated...
marble or granite

Note they're all sitting...uncharacteristically

Easily within 30k of Santiago, here is the first we've seen of the Rules of the
Camino

"Put papers in the trash bins, stay on the trail, speak quietly,
take  photos, say hello; don't pick the plants, no fires"; in
Portugal,  it was "Bom Camino," in Spain, "Buen Camino";
I had a trail name all picked out...PortuGeezer...but no one
ever asked; Vicki did not like PortuCrone

Relatively speaking, we enjoyed great weather on our Camino; temps in the 70s,
then lower 80s, rain only on this penultimate day; by the time we returned to Vila
Nova de Cerveira, the temps were reaching the 90s...and beyond

Interesting old church near A Picarana

Table mat map at the Glorioso restaurant, all the Caminos
converging on Santiago

And the Camino Portuguese, all the places we have been
in the past 7 days

The one really awful meal we had on the Camino was at a place called Milagrosa,
in A Picarana; the salad was OK, but the frites were fried in rancid oil and the
advertised pork loin was Spam

Vicki's hamburguesa was even worse; she put it down without a bite and left;
as the grill artiste in Bucharest said, "some dog, some cat, some garlic, some
rat"; TripAdvisor will hear of this; I will readily concede, however, not many
people do the Camino for the food; if you do, maybe best to eat in the larger
towns and cities; methinks

The accused

Down the highway (which the Camino follows), the Glorioso on the right, and its
hostel on the left; actually pretty nice double room, en suite, 40E; and the salade
Nicoise for lunch was decent (although they didn't call it that)

Prostitution is legal in Spain, and all along the Camino I had been wondering
to myself whether we'd see a prostitute on the trail (you see them on secondary
roads all over the country, at intersections, sitting in lawn chairs under
umbrellas); I wondered also whether they would stamp your credencial ("Rosa
Prostituta, June 14, 2017, Gracias por su visita"); and whether the cathedral
authority in Santiago accepts such stamps toward the compostela? Between the
two Glorioso properties was La Dama Del Lago, a dance club of sorts from
which no music was emitted and whose patrons tended to park behind the
building out of sight... sadly, I forgot to knock on the door and ask about
stamping my credencial...many mysteries will remain from our Camino

Camino Santiago Portuguese, 6: Caldas De Reis To Padron

Our 6th stage took us to Padron, normally the last stop before Santiago on the Portugese Camino. The 33k from Padron to Santiago seemed to us a bit much, especially for (nearly) 70-year-old bodies, so we decided we would divide the last official stage into two days. More anon.

Another early morning departure, another Roman/Medieval bridge

Nice watering feature; granite, of course

Well-wishing residents

Ah, wilderness!

How to make a retaining wall from granite blocks, 21st century style; not the old-
fashioned way; the guy bent over is working a power saw that cuts the granite

Red and yellow fuschias

Another pilgrim rest area, vending machines, tables, chairs, shade, historical
exhibits, restrooms

Sponsored, very smartly, by the local history museum; nicest
such on the Camino

We have seen and documented shoe-trees, shoe-fences, bra-fences (New Zealand,
of course), all over, but this is our first pants-tree; since it's merely a single instance,
perhaps it is not yet a full-fledged pants-tree

Incipient shoe-tree

Considering the traffic it gets, most of the Camino Portuguese
is fairly litter-free; not so in a few places, however

Some people leave their biz cards...

Interesting old parish church

Part of adjoining cemetery

Someone's back yard

Revealing scene, approaching Padron...the river, the church spires, the concrete
plant

Today's thrill

It was going pretty slowly

Aire de camping-cars in Padron; we miss our normal blister-free life-style

In the Padron cathedral, some relic having to do with the finding of St. James'
body; or, possibly, an early proto-typical toilet

Padron cathedral

Heading out, next morning, a parish church remarkable for its cemetery

90% of the flowers here are real...amazing care

Oh, in Padron we stayed over-night at the Chef Rivera hotel