Arriving in Santiago

Wednesday morning, Ina, Christian and I were the last to leave the albergue at Padron. We had a leisurely stroll of about 8 miles to the halfway point of the day's walk. It was fun to walk together and was more reminiscent of last year's walk. We walked through narrow paths that snaked through very old villages. We were trailed by the bread delivery van who we encountered througout the morning. We stopped at about the midway point for breakfast. From there Christian took the bus to Santiago and Ina and I continued on our way. The walk was pretty nice. Approaching Santiago from last year's route featured lots of construction, the Santiago Airport and some industrial stuff. The walk in from the Portuguese route was a bit nicer. I started walking with Ina but went on ahead and passed several people walking that I had not encountered earlier on the trip. It was another frustrating sunny/rainy/sunny/rainy day and I arrived in Santiago in the rain at about 2:30, p.m. Ina and I had decided early on that once in Santiago we would prefer to stay in the center of town than out at the albergue a couple of kilometers outside of town. Christian arrived early and procured a pension (Sang Kyoung--I think it was the same place where you stayed last year with Nicole --Pension Fonseca) right next to the cathedral and pilgrim office. Ina arrived awhile after I did and we all checked in. I love Santiago -- it is a town full of beautiful old town squares and outdoor cafes. Last year we spent a lot of time lounging in the sidewalk cafes. This year, the rain put a damper on that option so we had to do our extensive eating and wine consumption indoors. The three of us spoke a lot about the year before and we had very happy memories of Sang Kyoung, Catherine, Toby, Nicole, and the others from last year. We had dinner at Casa Manolo, our favorite restaurant from last year. We even remembered the waiter and he us. On Thursday morning we got up and had a good breakfast. We went to the pilgrims' mass at noon. On the way there we ran into some English ladies who alerted us that Dorron had arrived earlier that day. He had done a lot of walking to try to make it to Santiago before Ina left town. So, we ran into him at the mass and he joined us at the pension as well. Later in the day, I saw Ina off at the airport and then had dinner with Christian and Dorron. It was a really good trip but as expected, it didn't really match last year's month. The tight schedule and lack of other people made it a little different. We were really happy that Christian arrived to join us the last few days. We were delighted to meet Dorron who added a lot of fun to the trip. Will there be a walk next year? Probably not but you never know...