The long morning walk with no more than a few moments’ break really tired me. I had planned to stop after I arrived at the cathedral, but as I walked past a bakery, the wonderful odor of their goods pulled me inside. I had my choice of many wonderful-looking pastries; I easily could have selected a dozen, but I only picked two. I sat at the sidewalk patio next to a table occupied by two young Spanish women and a man. One woman looked at me as if to say, “Why do you bother walking? You know, there are planes, trains, and automobiles.” Or maybe it was, “You’re one grubby-looking pilgrim!” Anyway, I smiled and kept to myself… From Page 193, Camino de Santiago In 20 Days. Yes, I smiled as I stuffed my face with delicious Spanish pastries.
Now, I’ll continue my journey on the Camino de Santiago just before arriving to the city limits of Santiago de Compostela, the capitol of Galicia. Even if you don’t have my book, you can still enjoy this post, and learn more about walking the French Way or Camino Francés (map from Wikipedia Commons).
On my last post, On The Camino De Santiago in Spain, San Marcos and Monte do Gozo, I visited the monument at Monte do Gozo in the late afternoon on my summer Camino del Norte and late morning on my spring Camino Francés. From Monte do Gozo, we had our first looks at the city of Santiago de Compostela. As I mentioned, while the area around the monument was very busy with pilgrims and tourists, the Camino leading down the hill was relatively quiet. That’s because many pilgrims stopped at the sprawling albergue and hotel complex, at least to check-in and leave their backpacks. On both of my Caminos, I intended to stay much closer to the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral.
This is from my Camino Francés showing the route the Camino takes toward the old city of Santiago de Compostela. Let’s finished our descent of Monte do Gozo.
