Last Day

     We sadly left the beach town of Nigran after a last walk on the beach. We drove directly to a hotel next to the airport for tomorrow's very early departure to Madrid. We both decided not to even visit the town of goodbyes.

     We both simultaneously thought what it would have been like to have walked to Muxia instead of going to Porto. Within minutes, we were back on the road again driving to yet another town hugging the Atlantic.

Just a couple of selfies to show we made it to the edge of the world. Coming home!

Vigo

     We are staying at a hotel/castle a 1/2 hour drive from the port city of Vigo. It is actually the first hotel in these six weeks for us. We got placed on the penthouse room with a terrace complete with battlements and overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. It would be so perfect if we had a little heat.

Lunch on our balcony.

     Laura enjoys the ocean and we're happy we are staying directly in front of the longest beach in the whole area. Of course she cuts my lunch short and challenges me to walk the entire beach. I manage a little more than half before I return to finish my cold lunch. We are directly in front of the Ciel Islands and we would have taken the ferry there if it was the right season.

Buddies forever!

     

We also explored some tide pools and some sand turds.

We always end our Camino with helado and I surprised Laura by taking her to a restaurant bearing her name, right on the beach. She chose her dessert with one bearing her name as well.

Porto

Pictures from Porto.

Main statue at the town square. Bird was still there four hours later. May have laid an egg.

Laura is still finding arrows in Portugal. We kept bumping into the Porto Camino trail.

Can't figure this out.

Just pretty buildings.

This church is actually two different churches and the far left was a Moorish addition. Can't we all just get along like they can?

     Just wrote a whole section on Portuguese food right before this #%£<

blog blew up and it disappeared. My brother will just have to wait until we get home and get it live. 

     We did spend a few hours by the Atlantic Ocean watching the big waves blast the breakwater. Laura made me cross the yellow hazard tape and metal barriers that warned of strong dangerous breaking waves. She forced me into walking as far as possible to the base of this lighthouse. Just to shoot these pictures that did not do justice to its actual monstrosity.

This was getting exciting, scary but fun. Until a real big one ricocheted and went over the lighthouse walls and over our heads and got us totally soaked and freezing. We did not need our ponchos on the Camino until now. Fun over, too cold.

     As we walked back to the car we saw a man with a huge cart of burning coals. We got there to try and get warm. Turned out he was roasting chestnuts. Got a whole bag full of warm, easy to crack and delicious castanas. We sat under the sun, finishing the whole bag and I was happy again.

Potter World

     J. K. Rowling taught English as a second language in the very hilly town of Porto and it was here where she built the foundations for her first 3 Harry Potter books so Laura and I just had to investigate. Look and judge for yourselves.

Won't Voldemort feel right at home here? These were from the catacombs of Sao Francisco church. The bones we can see through a floor grill. Different skulls sat atop the tombs. Remember the statue of Voldemort? Really morbid down in that cold graveyard that I was afraid to utter Voldemort's name or he might show up.

Rowling spent a lot of time in this book shop. It was her inspiration for the library in Hogwarts. Maybe conjured up the moving staircases from these curvy steps.

Fountain in front of the university casts Griffindor's mascot.

Students coming out of school. Notice they only have one leg. We had to take the train on station 9 3/4 to get here.

Portugal

     Got on the bus ride to the airport in Santiago to rent a car from OK Rental Car which took an hour to find as they were off the airport. That's what happens when you rent a car for 4 days and it only cost 36€. Road signs were all in Spanish so I decided to concentrate on my driving and just ignore all the signs and road markings. We decided to drive straight to Porto Portugal, the country's second most important city. We had to go through six highway toll stations and pay a total of 22€. Some of this infrastructure money has to be going towards their healthcare.

     Well, we are officially in Portugal now. Portuguese road signs are officially worst than Spanish road signs because I do not speak or read a word of Portuguese. Not even a cuss word so driving rage doesn't have a release mechanism.

     Newsflash! Portuguese driving directions, maps and impatient drivers are definitely worst than Portuguese road signs as it takes us oodles of repetitive drive bys and u turns and non existent road signs and impossible to find numbers before we found our 30€ honeymoon suite, wish we hadn't. Going to bed now and wishing that I'll wake up in Kansas.

Santiago

     Santiago was an inevitability. All roads on the Camino lead to Santiago. Of course when we saw the city of Santiago from the hilltop, it was only 5 km away and it was all downhill from there. It was a line I told Laura numerous times a day on this entire trip. All told, the last 5 km at the end of each daily walk never feels less than 10 km and is never ever all downhill from there especially when the question of "Are we there yet?" Is asked too early.

From this hilltop, he may be pointing to Santiago but he's not saying it is all downhill.

     Santiago is a conundrum. We may have occasionally enjoyed it in the four times that we have been here. But for us, it mostly spells the end, a city of goodbyes and we don't like that. Peregrinos do not like to say goodbye. We say buen camino and don't say goodbye because we inevitably see them on the next day, at least we hope to. In Santiago, we say goodbye for the first time. Did I mention that we don't like it.?

Our Camino Family

Slightly extended Camino family. The real family is much, much bigger. Some arriving the day before, some arriving tomorrow.

It was a long journey but not long enough.

3 Days

     Yes. 3 days without writing, 3 days of walking, 3 days of good food, 3 days of poor wifi, 3 days of cardplaying, 3 days of friendship. Okay, 3 days of writer's block. Make that 4 days.

     So much has occurred these last few days that I feel bad for not writing them down and my feeble brain has already erased most of it so I will have to rely on my poor photos to jiggle them loose.

This guy kept leaning on me.

Ruins on top of the hill off the Camino trail that Laura discovered due to her FOMO-fear of missing out. It is after Portomarin.

Full rainbow after the rain.

Seafood stuffed crepes in Arzua

Pork loin marinated in garlic and parsley

Stuffed peppers

Stewed beef. All four from one dinner.

Laura doesn't quite fit in with these local ladies, mostly because she is not carrying flowers like they are.

Never appreciated walking through Galicia until the third time when I finally realized that Santiago was not the goal and I paid more heed to where I actually am.

Group dinner the night before walking into Santiago.