Santiago de Compostela

The first part of our drive from leaving San Ciprian took us up a long, steep and narrow dirt track road through a forest and through the mountains. Angie and Steve enjoyed driving through these roads and Charlie handled it like pro. It was nice driving through the green countryside and forests inland as it was a change of scenery to the coastal routes we had travelled along so far. We stopped for lunch at a small, sleepy village called Parga where we ate at the only place serving food in a Twin Peaks-esque dining room in the back of a bar.

We found a campsite on the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela and found a spot next to an English family who were staying there to complete the final stage of the famous pilgrimage walk El Camino de Santiago. This historical walk dates back as far as the Middle Ages and each year thousands of people walk various lengths and routes through northern Spain and even France, but all ending up at Santiago. People do the walks in large organised groups, small groups and you also see a lot of people walking on their own, taking time out from the world. It is also common for people who are a sick to do parts of the walk and sadly this was the case with the lovely family we met at the campsite. One of the women in the family has terminal cancer and only a few weeks or months to live, but to meet her and talk to her you'd have never have thought so. Already we realised that Santiago was a very humbling and spiritual place and we experienced that even more when we visited the town the next day. We had already seen lots of walkers pass our campsite as we were on the route of the walk, but when we got into the town it was full of people completing the route at the Catedral de Santiago de Compostela, in the main square of the old town. It was really emotional to see the happy faces of the people completing the walk. There was people singing, dancing and hugging and it was a really lovely atmosphere. Many of the walkers wore shells (conchas) which is the symbol of the Camino. So we bought some for the vans to bring us luck on our travels. After that we went for a walk through the pretty and bustling old town.

 

 

 

 

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