On the Road Again

After a rest day enjoying the sights of Santiago, we are on our way to Finisterre, literally the end of the earth. On Wednesday evening and Thursday, we spent time with many of the people we have met and walked with on the Camino. Here is some of the group we've spent the last several weeks with. 

We said good bye to those who are headed home but spent additional time with some of the folks who are on their way to Finisterre. Hans from Hamburg found a place that had €1 cervezas grande and we spent the better part of the afternoon there. 

Santiago also has a great open air market where you can get local meat, cheese, fish, produce, bread, wine andante other foods items. I wish that Richmond had something even close to this. 

On Friday morning, we left Santiago and headed to the sea. Immediately, there was a different feel to the Camino from the last week -- quiet. There were very few people and the trails were very tranquil. As we headed out of Santiago to  Finisterre, we looked back and saw the spires of the Cathedral in the sunrise. 

On Friday, we had an easy 22K walk to Negreira. Coming into town, we found that all of the stores we closed. At the albergue, the hospitalera said that there was a festival today with carnival rides, bands and other activities -- beginning at 10:00 pm.  That explained the lack of activity in town. Everyone was taking a siesta getting prepped to be up all night. 

Sure enough, the bands kicked off the music at 10:00 and played until 5:00 am. We could hear the celebrations all night long. When we started today's walk at 7:00 am, the partiers were just going home. Spanish culture is quite different than American. 

We also had another interesting experience last night.  We were walking around the town looking for a restaurant. At 7:30, none were very busy. It was at too early. 

We came upon a little wooden kiosk on the Main Street. Next to it was a canopy tent and a bunch of people milling around. We walked by and to a restaurant to check out the menu. An official looking gentleman came over to the restaurant and told us and other diners to go back to the kiosk for its "abierto grande" -- grand opening -- with local wines and food. Turns out he was the mayor of the town and they were christening a new information kiosk to try to drum up more tourism business for the town. 

We got our picture taken for the local newspaper and sampled the local wines, Alberino and other Raix Bias varietals. It was the good stuff. They also had some great tapas including tortilla and fried pulpa (octopus, a Galician delicacy). Therese even tried some thinking it was calamari. Oops. We never made it to dinner. The wine and tapas were enough.

Our second day's walk to Finisterre was long at 34K, our longest walk yet. It was another quiet day with few other peregrinos along the way. We had a bit of a slowdown for a few minutes while a farmer and his grandson herded this cows to a pasture after milking. 

Tomorrow we will arrive at the sea. We are both looking forward to it.