6 October, Day 16: Arzúa - Santiago de Compostela

Distance: 41 km



The morning was again dark and rainy. We had slept very well - in our room there was only one other person. We got up at 7 and went to have breakfast next door, while we waited for light and perhaps less rain.

Ready to depart Arzúa under the rain, note my shoes, perfect for the girls of "Sex and the City"

It was drizzling when we left and we took the road, as the camino would be very muddy. Soon, it started to rain hard again. When we passed Amenal, we took the camino, which was paved from that point; there were still a few hills to climb. We reached Monte de Gozo (Happiness Mount), where we expected to see the towers of the cathedral, but couldn't find them. Still, we had our picture taken there, by the monument dedicated to the visit of John Paul II.

In Monte de Gozo, outside Santiago

We entered Santiago and, instead of going straight to the cathedral, we decided to go first to a hostel, as we were completely drenched. We decided to go to Albergue Privado Acuario, which turned out to be a little "new age"; we showered, dried our jackets and went out to visit the cathedral, get our Compostela and see the city.

Cathedral, Santiago de Compostela

We stopped to have some thick hot chocolate and a bocadillo at a little corner bar.



We first visited the Cathedral, which is as impressive as I remembered from when I came in 86 (by train that time). Then, on to the Pilgrims' Office, where we presented our credenciales (this document in which we collected stamps along the way), we were asked to fill a form and we walked out with our Compostelas; Oscar's and mine in Latin (because we had listed "religion" as one of the reasons to do the pilgrimage) and Micael's in Spanish (cause his reason was "cultural"), so MIcael said that it was actually better with his, since he could understand what it said... They also asked you about your country of origin, for their statistics and it is mentioned at the Pilgrim Mass the following day.

My Compostela

Micael's Compostela

We then looked for the Tourist office, and found two: one for the city and one for Galicia. We got a list of pensions and small hotels as well as information on a tour to Finisterre. The later, because, even though we had managed to arrive with enough time to continue pedaling until "the end of the world", the truth is we had had enough rain...

And the lodgings list was because the pilgrim hostels allow you to stay only one night and, anyway, in this particular hostel, we weren't really keen to stay longer than necessary...



So, for the following day, we found a triple room at a small pension right downtown, where the English administrator said we could lock the bicycles inside. With lodging and a place for the bikes sorted, we signed up for the tour to Finisterre, which would depart nearby the pension.



Oscar went to the train station to see if he could change the date of his ticket, while we walked to the bus terminal to get our tickets for the night bus to Sevilla and then on to Malaga. When we returned to the hostel, it was packed.


We chatted a little with another bicycle pilgrim, Barry, a Canadian; the we went out to a supermarket to get some dinner, although our choices were limited, given that at the hostel there were only a few plates and cutlery, but no oven to warm up anything and to wash the dishes, only in the bathrooms... Fortunately, it was our last night at a pilgrims' hostel, as this one was not very clean, was damp and it was overcrowded!