Author: Thom

As we walk through the older parts of the city, the spires of Santiago Cathedral hove into view above the rooftops. Date: 02 May 2016 Place: walking into Santiago! (Galicia, Spain) The final walking day, the final map:

Our doughty band of pilgrims makes its way through the city towards our goal: the Cathedral. On the way, we pass numerous albergues for the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who come to Santiago every year. On our first Camino, I wanted to stay at the Minor Seminary whose sign you see here. Instead, we’ve stayed at a number of […]

The Camino crosses over a highway and its onramp, featuring this sign. I have to wonder if horses (and people and bikes) on the highway are really such a problem? Date: 02 May 2016 Place: walking into Santiago! (Galicia, Spain) The final walking day, the final map:

While I don’t know what this particular piece of public art is meant to represent, I do know that every single time we’ve walked into Santiago, everybody has a go at imitating it. Most times, it’s with the same burst of joy that Rebecca has here. The urban slog through the city to the cathedral seems endless, but there’s a […]

Monte do Gozo is a large hill crested by the Camino as it comes into Santiago. In centuries past, this is the place where pilgrims would first see the spires of the cathedral. There are records of pilgrims falling to their knees and singing the Te Deum. Nowadays due to urban sprawl, to see the spires you actually have to […]

As we at last approach the city of Santiago, whose cathedral is the object of our pilgrimage, more and more of our route is suburban. The final wooded sections are on a gravel sidewalk alongside a country road. Breaks in the trees reveal garden plots and homes. We are rapidly leaving behind the villages for the last time. The excitement […]

This little shrine to Santiago is near to the village of Lavacolla. Tradition has it that Lavacolla was the place where pilgrims would have their bath – apparently in the nearby stream – before pushing on to the Cathedral. I don’t know if this is an actual medieval custom, but each time we’ve passed the nearby stream, I’ve washed my […]

The Camino passes directly in front of this village church in Lavacolla, and during each of our Caminos it was locked up tight. Until, that is, our 2018 autumn Camino, when we arrived during a wedding. Needless to say, there wasn’t much exploration of the interior then, either. Notably, there are a couple of bars at the bottom of these […]

After San Paio, the Camino meanders through woodland and suburban sprawl, some of the very few examples we found in Spain. This little fellow was on somebody’s fence post. I’m constantly surprised by where the human impulse to create art leads people. Date: 02 May 2016 Place: between San Paio and Lavacolla (Galicia, Spain) The final walking day, the final […]