Author: Thom

Yesterday was the great feast of the Ascension. In Santiago, this is a three day celebration commencing on Ascension Thursday and running through the end of Saturday. We went to the noon Mass at the Cathedral. An amazing children’s choir sang the Mass parts in polyphony. The Archbishop himself presided, and in his homily he addressed the faithful in at […]

Yesterday evening, I made a visit to the cathedral. It was all a little overwhelming for me, and I couldn’t stay long. The continuing restoration work carried out over the last four years has revealed much of the medieval and counter reformation beauty of the place which had been covered up by centuries of grime and ill-conceived re-decoration and repainting […]

Today we arrived in Santiago de Compostela! But first: how we got there.  Great conversations last night at the cozy Santa Irene albergue, and a communal dinner featuring the local fish speciality, hake. Spoke with Raffaell from Germany, who is studying medicine in Vienna. Also a fellow from Andorra, a French couple and an Italian couple from Verona.  A 7 […]

Another short day today, before tomorrow’s final push into Santiago. Last night, our albergue was overrun by a group of 29 Belgian high schoolers and their four teachers. They were all extremely polite, but up until all hours. The good news is, this meant we were well out and on the road before any of them were awake and hogging […]

Thunderstorms and vicious wind last night. The initial gust came during dinner, and I saw outside dining tables skittering across the sidewalk. It calmed down after that for several hours, but in the middle of the night, the skies opened.  Fortunately, the rain had stopped by morning. The way out of Melide is much more pleasant than the way in. […]

Great night’s sleep in Ponte Ferreira and an early breakfast. They put on quite a spread, which was much appreciated. Last night’s communal pilgrim dinner was similarly lavish, and vegetarian for a Friday for us. Another cool, misty morning in Galicia. Once again, we were determined to get as many kilometers behind us as possible before the sun burned off […]

On the road again! The city walk out of Lugo was surprisingly short. We left the old city by the Santiago gate near the cathedral, and after a short walk we’re crossing the old Roman bridge over the river. We walked along the river for a bit, passing through the old village, now neighborhood, of San Lazaro. This was famous […]

Today we took rest day in the lovely center of the city of Lugo. After breakfast with Alice and Amy, we ducked into a Dominican church to pay our respects and take some photos. And then, we walked the Roman walls. Lugo is the only city in the world that retains its original Roman walls, which circumnavigate the entirety of […]

Another short day. We left the village later than expected, mostly thanks to pilgrim camaraderie and conversation at breakfast in the albergue with the Double A’s and Wendy from the UK and Patrizia from Brazil. The village itself was larger than I expected, considering that it was supposedly too small to be on any of our maps. Dirt roads this […]

Short day today. Francine has some pretty awful blisters, so we thought we would break up what would’ve been today’s 30 km death-march to Lugo. Instead, we will walk two shorter days of about 15 km each, and then take our planned rest day in the Cathedral city of Lugo. This meant we had to bid a fond farewell to […]