Lavacolla to Santiago de Compestela

WE DID IT!!!

We left Lavacolla at about 8 am. We had about 12 km to the Cathedral. We arrived at the Cathedral at about 10:45 am and Ben immediately threw his back down and collapsed. We saw a guy wearing a University of Michigan hat to take our picture. He did the Camino prior to starting graduate school. We was walking wih a couple German girls he picked during the route. They had completed the Northern route which goes along the northern coast of Spain and is about 500 km (350 miles). We all headed to the Pilgrim's Office to get our Compestela and checked our backpacks in order to attend Mass. We also were able to get another Compestela on behalf of St. Francis. A Cathedral not too far from the main Cathedral is the Cathedral of St. Francis. Every 100 years....and this is the year, they give out a separate Compestela to any pilgrim who completed the entire St. Francis route, which we did (from St. Jean to Santiago...the Camino Frances. Tomorrow we are taking the train to Madrid. I will keep posting.

On reflection of his trip, of all the hard things I thought I have done in my life...Navy Boot Camp, Marine FMF Training, Law School, Law Enforcement Acadamy, I have to admit this was probably the hardest thing I have ever done and probably the most fulfilling. Will I ever do it again? I don't know. Ask me in about 6 months. I am also very proud of Ben. Not once did he complain or say he wanted to quit. From being deathly sick in he Meseta, bad runs and allergy attacks, he kept plugging away and walking every day without a bit of regret. To anybody thinking of doing this trip, pick a right partner and I had a great one.

Arzua to Lavacolla

Today we were on a "mission from God" to get to Lavacolla at a reasonable time. We left Arzua somewhat early and had a hard day walk. We knew we had to go extra today on order to be 10 km from Santiago. We came upon Adam and Sue a couple times in the day and walked with them for a short while. Another beautiful day walking through Galacia. Had to move off the road today to let a heard of cows go by. Passed several memorials of people who died with only few km to go. Only stopped a couple times today for quick meal and drinks. Got into Lavacolla at about 4:30 and we were exhausted. Lavacolla is near the Santiago airport. We are almost to Mecca (what Ben calls it). Tomorrow we finally arrive.

Palas de Rei to Arzua

We left Palas de Rei (just a little out side of it) at about 9 am. Got a slight late start because Ben was still tired because of his allergies and we saw the ATF Agent (Adam and Sue) at breakfast and we spent time talking. Walked into Palas de Rei and found an open camera shop and bought a new memory stick. We walked about an hour or so and came up on Bob and Stepahie and walked with them until about 2 when we got to the town of Melide. We had lunch with Bob and Stephanie then said our goodbyes since they were stopping for the day and we needed to get to Azura. About an hour out of town we came upon 4 people walking...2 girls from Mexico and 2 guys from Moscow. We walked with them for a while but they took a break and we still needed to move on to get to Azura at a decent time and we had nothing reserved. We finally got into town at about 6...the latest we have ever gotten into a town we had planned but we walked almost 19 miles today. We found a nice pension and a good restaurant for dinner. We only have one more hard day of walking....tomorrow which will be another 20 miles. This leaves us only 10 km (6 miles) to Santiago. 

Portomarin to Palas de Rei

We had a very nice dinner in Potomarin and met a very nice father and daughter walking back to our Hostal. Bob and Stephanie are from Chicago and are doing the last 100 km....from Sarria to Santiago. We left the Hostal and had breakfast before taking the hill down out of town before we realized we left the memory card for the camera back in our room. It was too far back to walk so the next few days will be from the iPhone. Another nice day of walking through Galacia. Nice and cool. We came upon a group of Boy Scouts from Texas who were riding bikes on the Camino. About 30 of them including the about half dozen dads. They were having lunch at the same place we were and we left a little before them. They came past us quickly about 15 minutes later (it was all down hill). About a half hour later we saw an ambulance heading down the road. Found out later one of the scouts crashed and broke his collarbone. Too bad, they had come so far. We saw Bob and Stephanie having lunch and stopped shortly to say hello. We got to our casa rural at about 3. Ben went to sleep and I walked another km into town to check it out. Not much there and decided to stay at our place for dinner. Ben has come down with bad allergies the last couple days and is constantly sneezing. So he was pretty tired to walk to town anyway. During dinner. a couple came up to us and asked us if we were the father-son from San Diego. Apperantly they had come upon Bob and Stephanie and they had told them about us. Nice couple from Washington DC and he just retired as a Special Agent with ATF. We had a nice time with them. They were also just walking the the 100 km from Sarria. We are finding as we come across more people, we are like celebrities (or fools) since we started from St Jean.

Sarria to Portomarin

Another beautiful walk through Galacia. Left Sarria at about 8:45 am and arrived in Portomarin at about 3 pm. We are staying in a small pension just outside of town. Next stop Palas De Rei. We hit the 100 km marker today.