Day 35, A Rua to Santiago

The cathedral at Santiago de Compostela.

July 10
It's hard to take in. I've arrived. When I wake up tomorrow I don't have to walk anywhere. Despite my detached consideration of things, I felt more than a little emotional when I arrived in the square in front of the cathedral. Lucky no one was there to see the small tear in my eye, which threatens to return now - three hours later.

Or perhaps my eyes were watering when I saw the price of the lone beer in the mini bar - 4.5 euro.

I was so overcome that I rushed out to the nearest supermarket and bought three cans of highest quality Estrella Galicia for 68 cents each and stashed them in the fridge of the mini bar for future consumption (although unfortunately only one has survived so far).

As I returned from the supermarket, I spotted my Canadian friends Kathy and Monique at a bar. They had started out at 6am, arrived 10.30am and been to a pilgrim mass. Booked into an albergue, but hadn't yet found their way to it. We arranged to meet for dinner, the group may yet grow a little.

So back to this morning. Breakfast for me wasn't until 7.30am and as it's the last day I treated myself to some bacon and eggs, as well as the healthy cereal and fruit. Watched more of yesterday's Tour de France on my phone and eventually set off just before 8am. It was a bit misty, but that cleared early and it was a blazing hot day. Stopped once for a coffee but otherwise got along at a good pace, arriving after 21km at about 12.30pm, by which time the temperature was 30 degrees. The walk was very pleasant through forest most of the way, with only about 5km on city streets.

So here I am. I don't feel motivated to rush around soaking up all the atmosphere - I feel more comfortable sitting alone and thinking about how it all is. I have three nights - two full days and the morning of Saturday - before I have to get myself to the airport and fly off to Zurich, so I plan to take it slowly. Lots of people want to go to Finisterre - the end of the earth - but I don't think I will. I could make a day trip and do it by bus, but I think I'll just slouch around Santiago, being happy to be here.

I'm at the Hotel Parador. It's a bit of an extravagance. It's regarded as the oldest hotel in the world, and one of the most luxurious. I've included a few pics in the album at the bottom of the page.

Phew!

Here's today's photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/9iD3qudMULTfx8k9A

Here's the stuff from the watch:

https://app.suunto.com/move/petergibbs/5d25c9be124992592e08aa5c

I still have a couple of days here, a couple on Zurich and a couple in Hong Kong - stick around and I'll post some more.