One Year Ago: Nearing the End

(from my journal)

O Pedrouzo
Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker

The pilgrimage is nearly done. God willing, tomorrow we will be in Santiago!

Today was an easy walk of 20km. We left Arzúa late, after visiting the lovely church there. It was crawling with cleaning ladies and the same little old church ladies you find in every parish. One of them very kindly gave me a tour of the church (in Spanish, naturally), pointing out to me the statues of Santiago Peregrino and Santiago Matamoros in the altarpieces. She was quite charming.

Mostly forest walking, and numberless nameless villages that blend one into the other.

We meant to eat lunch in Brea but somhow missed it. Instead, we ate in a wonderful little place in Santa Irene with Patty, the Irish-living American.

We walked with her a bit, though she left us for a hotel in A Rúa.

We then walked right past our destination, the town variously known as Arca do Pino and O Pedrouza. We had to strike the highway and backtrack about a kilometer. We’re done with albergues after our horrible experience at the Xunta Municipal at Palas de Rei, so we checked into a pension for the second night in a row.

All the photos: Day 30!