Author: Thom

The way that can be walked is not the eternal Way. (Lao Tsu) Santiago de Compostela Feast of Saints Philip and James That last day was busy. After breakfast, we caught a taxi to the bus station to secure our tickets for Madrid. We spent some hours in and around the Cathedral. Then a little shopping. Confession, and then noon […]

(from my journal) Santiago de Compostela 02 May 2013 Praise God, at about 3pm we arrived in Santiago de Compostela. On the way into the city, we kept running into people we knew – people who had shared some portion of the walk with us – probably a dozen reunions before we even reached the Cathedral. Entering the plaza in […]

(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 […]

(from my journal) Arzúa (a.k.a. “Cheesetown”) 30 April 2013 Today, a long, long walk. Francine was a champion – just exploding out of the gate, and again at the end of the day. By way of contrast, a strained muscle slowed me to a crawl at the end of the day. Beautiful forested rainy Galicia! Just magical. Lunched on pulpo […]

(from my journal) Palas de Rei 29 April 2013 We’ve made excellent progress the past two days through the undulating farm and forest lands of Galicia. We’ve certainly had our share of weird weather here, from sudden hailstorms to today’s gale-force winds, but overall it’s been sunny and cool. Galicia is a very Catholic country. You see religious emblems on […]

(from my journal) Portomarín 28 April So many pilgrims now. That sentence was, in fact, my entire journal entry for today. Starting in Sarria, the number of pilgrims on the Way increases by tenfold. I saw more pilgrims today than I probably had on the entirety of the Camino so far. So there were new challenges. Chief among them were: […]

(from my journal) Sarria 27 April Some highway walking, followed by a beautiful walk in the forests of Galicia. Lots of rain. Francine, having had very little sleep due to a drunken Englishman snoring and occasionally shouting in his sleep, dragged considerably. By the time we got to Sarria, she was done. We had lunch and bid Eamon adieu as […]

(from my journal) Royal Monastery of Samos 26 April 2013 Francine and I had a shorter walk today to Samos through beautiful Galician misty farmland and woods with Anja. During second breakfast, who should come ’round the bend but Eamon! Lunched in Triacastela and the mist finally more or less lifted. Arrived in Samos with Eamon and Francine and booked […]

(from my journal) Fonfría 25 April 2013 Today we traveled, on and off, with Iain, Anja, and a lovely Korean lady named Isabel (or, as I like to call her, Bob). The climb to O’Cebreiro was steep and rough, quite the toughest climb so far… but one. We lunched with Anja in O’Cebreiro, and also met Radek there. Radek is […]