This is our bartender at the bar next to our alburgue, The Last Stamp. Last night the bar was decorated with spiderwebs and ghosts and goblins. It was just like Halloween in America.

This was the guy in the bunk above me. That is either an army surplus CPAP machine on his face or he is dressed up as Darth Vader for Halloween and left part of his costume on after he came back to the alburgue.

All night long his breathing machine was making that Darth Vader inhale and exhale wheezing noise that always gave me the creeps in the Star Wars movies. Needles to say I didn’t sleep much last night. I was awake most of the night wondering if Darth Vader was either going to stop breathing or jump out of his top bunk and try to cut me in half with his light saber. This morning he had the nerve to tell me that I was snoring and that I kept him from getting a good night’s sleep last night. I know that is a lie because I was awake most of the night and he slept like he was in a drug induced coma.

This morning I got up, showered, shaved, dressed and ate breakfast. After I finished breakfast I walked down to the Cathedral with Giorgio to attend the noon Pilgrim Mass. We got there at 10:30 AM and there was a line forming to enter the Cathedral. Today is All Saints’ Day and that is a big holy day and holiday in Spain. Tomorrow is All Souls’ Day, another big holy day and holiday in Spain. The Spaniards get a four day weekend out of this doubleheader holiday. And this is a country that closes down every afternoon to go home and take a nap. What a life these Spaniards live.

I thought the Pilgrim Mass on Sunday was a real spectacle. Today’s Mass topped Sunday’s Mass by a mile and turned out to be a full blown Hollywood production. Today it was standing room only by 11:00 o’clock for the noon mass. I am so glad we got there early and got a seat. Before the mass the Cardinal led a procession through the Cathedral.

I believe that is Saint James getting carried around as the procession’s guest of honor.

Before the Mass, while the procession was going on, the seven guys in brown robes did the Botafumiero incense swing. Every time I see this I get the chills. It really is quite a sight.

The pipe organ was playing at the noon Pilgrim Mass and they brought in a 40 person choir to belt out a few liturgical hymns for our listening pleasure.

This is the couple that I met at Mass in St. Jean. They just arrived in Santiago this morning.

That’s it for today.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thursday.

Good evening from Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Happy Halloween!

This morning I got up early, showered and went down to the Cathedral Square. I toured one of the Cathedral museums and at 10:00 AM was outside waiting for one of the Free City Tours to begin when I ran into Giorgio.

This picture was not taken in the Cathedral Square. Giorgio is the guy in the middle. We hugged and congratulated each other for making it to Santiago and made plans to go to dinner tonight with Marco. Marco is the guy in the picture standing to Giorgio’s right.

I took Giorgio to the Pilgrim Office to get his Compostela and hustled back to the Cathedral Square to catch up with the tour.

This is David our tour guide and the founder of the Santiago Free City Tour company. He is a great guy and was a really knowledgeable tour guide. He spent a couple of years doing graduate work at the University of California at Berkeley, a known hotbed of communists, socialists, and anarchists. I repeatedly asked David what he studied at Cal Berkeley and he was as evasive as OJ Simpson on cross examination.

We started our tour in the Cathedral Square. The building in the background of this picture is the Cathedral. You can see the west facade of the Cathedral. This is the main entrance to the Cathedral. Normally Pilgrims enter through this main entrance and walk through the famous Door of Glory built by the Cathedral’s renowned architect Master Mateo. The Door of Glory is truly a masterpiece of stone sculpture. The Bible and its main characters come alive in this remarkable Biblical storybook in stone. The central column depicts Christ in Glory flanked by his apostles and, directly underneath, St. James sits as an intercessor between Christ and the Pilgrims. You will have to take my word for this because they have the Door of Glory closed for restoration. Bummer!

As you are facing the west facade of the Cathedral you turn to your left and there is the most expensive hotel in Santiago.

This is the Hostal dos Reis Catolocos. It is a parador, not to be confused with a paramour. Although I imagine you can take your paramour to a parador. A parador is an old historic building in Spain that they have fixed up and turned into a fancy schmantsy hotel for rich American touragrinos. Rooms in this particular parador start at 300 euros a night. Yikes! That is about the total that I have spent for lodging during my 41 days on the Camino.

Directly opposite the west facade of the Cathedral is the building that houses the Santiago City Hall and the government offices for the province of Galicia. On top of this building is a statue that used to be called St. James The Moor Slayer.

If you look closely you can see hacked up Moors at the feet of the horse St. James is riding. Legend has it that when the Spanish were trying to throw the Moors out of Spain, at the penultimate battle St. James appeared out of the clouds riding a white stallion and proceeded to hack up the entire Moorish army. After this battle the Moors gave up, left Spain and returned to North Africa. I don’t blame them. Who wants to fight the Spanish Army when they have St. James to call on if things go to Hell in a hand basket during a decisive battle. After that St. James The Moor Slayer became the patron saint of Spain. St. Patrick drove the snakes 🐍 out of Ireland and St. James drove the Moors out of Spain. It appears that becoming a saint back then required a lot of hard work.

David, our tour guide, then took us inside the Cathedral. This is the statue of St. James The Moor Slayer in the Cathedral.

Notice the flowers at the feet of the horse. They were put there to hide the hacked up Moors. In order to be politically correct the Spanish are trying to remove or hide the hacked up Moors from all the statutes and paintings of St. James The Moor Slayer and don’t call him that anymore. He is now just plain old St. James.

This is the silver casket that, according to legend, contains the remains of the apostle and cousin of Jesus, St. James, formerly known as St. James The Moor Slayer. Kind of like The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.

This is the main altar at the Cathedral.

This is the altarpiece at one of the side chapels at the Cathedral.

St. Christopher lit a candle and we all said a prayer for Anna.

This is the altarpiece in another side chapel in the Cathedral.

Now we are outside the Cathedral continuing our tour of the old city center. This is a chestnut roasting wagon.

These are the two Marys. During the Franco years women were strongly encouraged to dress and act very conservatively. These two sisters, both named Mary due to a total lack of imagination by their parents, dressed up in colorful clothes and almost clownish makeup and paraded around the streets of Santiago thumbing their noses at Franco and his goons. They died in the 1990s but they are part of the folklore of Santiago.

This guy was a beatnik writer and one of the original hipsters in Santiago.

The guy to the right in the picture, not the guy to the left.

This was the original Pilgrim, King Alphonse II. He was a king in Rioja. When he found out they had discovered the remains of the Apostle St. James in Santiago he travelled, or made a pilgrimage, to check it out.

This is mile marker 0 for all the Caminos. It is located in the Cathedral Square.

That’s it for today.

I hope everyone is having a great Halloween 🎃 👻 !

Good evening from Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

This is Tom and Emily again. They were in a blog post from the Meseta.

Tom is 78 years old and has a bum hip. Emily is 23. They are from Boston. Tom’s wife was dying of cancer and Emily was her caregiver. On her deathbed, Tom’s wife made him promise her that he would do a pilgrimage on the Camino and she made Emily promise to go with him and help him. They both have the deepest and strongest faith of anyone I have met along the Way. I was doing a walking tour of the exterior of the Cathedral when I heard someone scream my name. When this happens, and you might be surprised to know how often this happens, I have become conditioned to run away as fast as my feet will carry me, screaming: “Whatever it was I didn’t do it!” In this case Emily tackled me before I could even begin to beat a hasty retreat. I was thrilled to see them and I was overjoyed to see that they had completed their pilgrimage. I showed them the backpack storage place and a good place to get breakfast and then met them in the Cathedral for the noon Pilgrim mass. This is the main altar at the Santiago Cathedral.

This is one of those open air confessionals at the Santiago Cathedral.

I have 50 years of sins to confess. I can’t even begin to do that out in public kneeling on those hard wooden kneelers. I would prefer to confess over a nice meal with a good bottle of wine🍷. My confession is going to take some time and I would think the priest would want to get comfortable while he listens to the story of my journey down the road to perdition over the past 50 years. So I took a pass on a public confession at the Cathedral and decided that attending Mass would at least stem the inexorable whirlpool pulling me down to the netherworld.

The guy on the right is Father Juan, the Bishop’s assistant, who officiated at the Mass.

After the Mass was over St. Christopher lit a candle for Anna and the Three Amigos and Emily and Tom said a prayer 🙏 for her recovery. Then I took Emily and Tom to the Sushi 🍣 place.

We each got a big bowl of steaming hot soup and had a delightful chit chat about our Camino adventures.

After lunch was over we went to the Cathedral Square for the obligatory celebratory pictures.

Then it was on to the Pilgrim Office.

We had to go to the Pilgrim Office to get our Certificate of Distance that documents where you started your pilgrimage and how far you travelled and our Compostela, or certificate of pilgrimage completion.

In order to qualify for a Compostela you must establish that you are a bona fide pilgrim, that you walked at least the last 100 kilometers, or for pilgrims who rode bicycles or horses, the last 200 kilometers, for religious/spiritual reasons and collected in your pilgrim credencial at least two sellos, stamps in Spanish, each day. In order to qualify for a Certificate of Distance you must have at least one sello in your pilgrim credencial from your starting point and one sello from each place you spent the night along the Way. So your pilgrim credencial and the sellos in your pilgrim credencial are a BIG deal. This is the first stamp I got in my pilgrim credencial.

I got this stamp from the Front Range Chapter of the American Pilgrims on the Camino, in Denver.

I got my last stamp or sello at the Pilgrim Office here in Santiago.

It was a sello that I got along the Way that caused such a ruckus at the Pilgrim Office. It’s a long sordid tale.

One day a couple of weeks ago I was walking at the end of a particularly long day, minding my own business, when I noticed a swarmy guy, who bore a striking resemblance to Snidely Whiplash, sitting outside what looked like a very welcoming alburgue called The Camino Provides. Sitting beside him was a very comely young Pilgrim by the name of Naomi, wearing very short Pilgrim hiking shorts and a very tight fitting Pilgrim hiking tee shirt. I immediately thought that Naomi was not wearing appropriate apparel for a young female Pilgrim, but I am trying not to be judgmental on my pilgrimage so I decided to keep my opinions about her hiking togs to myself. Well, Snidely bade me Buen Camino and asked me if I needed a place to rest my weary bones. I told Snidely that I had been praying that I would find a place of rest and rejuvenation at the end of what had been a long day. Snidely jubilantly proclaimed that his establishment, The Camino Provides, is the answer to my fervent and heartfelt prayer. I jumped for joy and followed Snidely into what I thought was his alburgue and sat down in the reception area with Snidely and Naomi. Snidely gave me an ice cold beer 🍺 and started filling out all the usual alburgue registration paperwork. He then stamped my Pilgrim credential and told me it would be 70 bucks. I was flabbergasted 😮 and told him that I have never paid more than 10 bucks for a night at an alburgue! He laughed at me and with a twinkle in his eye and a sweep of his arm in Naomi’s direction, told me that The Camino Provides was not an alburgue. Then I looked at the stamp he had irreversibly affixed to my precious Pilgrim credencial.

I am sure you can pick out the sello from The Camino Provides.

I immediately leapt to my feet and indignantly told him that I was not interested in sampling Naomi’s wares nor was I interested in spending another second in his foul establishment. He seemed puzzled by my outburst and said that my reputation had proceeded me and he knew I was the famous Colorado Cowboy On The Camino. I was flabbergasted and told him that I was not that kind of cowboy 🤠! I was a Pilgrim cowboy, not a Larry McMurtry Lonesome Dove cowboy. Snidely apologized profusely but said that he could not remove his offending sello from my heretofore unsullied Pilgrim credencial. I was devastated and had a deep foreboding that this sello would cause a ruckus at the Pilgrim Office in Santiago, and sure enough it did.

When I got to the Pilgrim Office this afternoon the credencial examiner asked me if I walked from St. Jean to Santiago for religious or spiritual reasons. I proudly and loudly replied that my entire 500 mile journey was one long and deeply spiritual and religious experience. He seemed pleased by my enthusiastic response and proceeded to examine my credencial and the stamps affixed to my credencial. When the credencial examiner got to the page where Snidely had affixed the stamp from The Camino Provides he dropped my credencial as if it was as hot as the fires of Hell and screamed that I was no Pilgrim, that I was a disgrace to all Pilgrims everywhere and that I would get a Compostela over his dead body. I told him the sad tale of my inadvertent visit to The Camino Provides but he wasn’t buying a word of my story. He called for security to throw me out of the Pilgrim Office. I asked if there was an appeals process and he said that I could visit Father Juan at the adjacent rectory and plead my case.

Remember that Father Juan is the Bishop’s assistant who officiated at the noon Pilgrim mass today.

I told Father Juan about my inadvertent visit to The Camino Provides and assured him that I am a card carrying Catholic, that I never eat meat 🥩 on Fridays during Lent, I always go the parish fish fry and don’t raise a stink when they say they are serving walleye when everyone knows it is pollock, and that I am a proud recent honorary member of the Roman Legion and the Knights of Columbus. Father Juan wasn’t entirely buying my story, he had a heard about me from the nuns that I had encountered along the Way, nor was he entirely convinced of my Pilgrim bona fides. But he said that to error is human, and that I appeared to be one errant human, but to forgive is divine, and he was as close to divine as I was going to get today. He granted my appeal and ordered the Pilgrim Office to issue me my Compostela and Certificate of Distance. This is me, proud as a peacock, with my hard fought but fairly won Compostela and Certificate of Distance.

What an eventful day it has been for your humble correspondent.

I hope everyone had a great Tuesday.

Good evening from Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Who is that dapper well dressed older man about town who appears to be posing in the doorway of a laundromat.

It can’t be your humble correspondent. The older gentleman in this picture is too well dressed. But on closer inspection it is your humble correspondent at the laundromat in clean non Camino clothes, not his rain jacket and rain pants, doing his laundry. What gives?

Well, on September 17th, the day before I started my walk, I shipped a suitcase of clean clothes that I was not going to lug around in my backpack, from St. Jean Pied de Port to Santiago. The luggage transfer service was going to store my suitcase at the Hostal La Salle. This morning I decided to stroll over to the hostal and pick up my suitcase and the treasured clean non Camino clothes in my suitcase. I asked the host at my alburgue, The Last Stamp, for directions. She pulled out a map, scribbled all over it and in one long Spanish sentence, that ended in vali, Spanish for OK, gave me five minutes of directions. Of course I responded by giving her a chipper vali and a heartfelt gracias. I had no idea what she said and I had no idea where the Hostal La Salle was located, but I had a map and if I could find someone who could give me directions in a language that I can understand, preferably English, I should be able to find the Hostal La Salle and retrieve my prize. I decided to head north, why I don’t know, and quickly got completely, totally and utterly lost. I tried to call my daughter Sara to help me with Google Maps, but she wouldn’t pick up the phone. I went to the Pilgrim Office and they looked at my map and sent me on a wild goose chase to the southern end of town. Still no Hostal La Salle. I then went back to the center of town where I asked the person selling tickets to the Cathedral Museum for directions. She sent me on another wild goose chase to the western part of town. Finally, I called the Hostal La Salle and got directions. You are asking yourself: “Why didn’t he do that in the first place?” Who knows? You might also be asking yourself: ” Why isn’t he using Google Maps.” Well, I’ll tell you. In the first place, I don’t know how to use Google Maps. In the second place, I don’t believe that a map on your phone is as accurate as a paper map in your hand. I believe that the old ways are the best ways. And I strongly believe that the best way to get from point A to point B in a foreign city is to wander around with a paper map in your hand asking for directions in a language, English, that most people in the foreign city you are visiting do not understand and then getting directions in a language you do not understand.

After I got directions from the helpful hostess at the Hostal La Salle, I got close but still could not find it. I finally went into a pharmacy and begged the pharmacist to sell me some pot to ease my anxiety over never being able to find the hostal that was storing my suitcase or, for that matter, being able to get back to my alburgue. The pharmacist said no dice on the pot but did walk me down the block and deposited me at the front door of the Hostal La Salle. We had to spend 30 minutes looking through four luggage storage rooms before we finally found my bag. Oh happy day! I almost cried when I was reunited with my suitcase and my clean non Camino clothes.

I then got directions back to my alburgue. It turns out that the Hostal La Salle was just around the corner from my alburgue. It took me an hour and a half to walk from my alburgue to the Hostal La Salle and five minutes to walk from the Hostal La Salle to my alburgue. No one ever said it would be easy traveling in a foreign country.

After I worked up an appetite wandering all over Santiago trying to retrieve my suitcase it was time for lunch. I was tired of pulpo and decided to eat outside the Spanish box and inside the bento box at a local sushi 🍣 place. It was very good and a nice break from grilled octopus 🐙.

I think this is a notice of an event for the Alzheimer’s Association in Santiago.

Last night I went out for a celebratory dinner with four Camino friends, Marco from Italy, Nuncia from Italy, Andrea from Sweden and Francisco from Brazil. It was raining ☔️ and it was Sunday so a lot of the bars, cafes and restaurants were either closed or too far away to walk to in the rain. We found a little bar/cafe close to the Cathedral Square and had a bite to eat and a drink to celebrate our arrival in Santiago. We did not celebrate the end of our respective Caminos because the Camino should not be a journey to an end but should be a series of lessons learned that can and should be used throughout the rest of your life. I know that I have learned a lot about myself and people in general while walking on the Way. Now, I need to use what I have learned and hopefully be a better person as I continue to travel to the end of my journey here on earth. Or I can continue to be a dick and hope for the best.

I hope everyone had a great Monday.

Good evening from Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Who is that standing tall and proud and a few pounds lighter at the front gate of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela? Of course, it is your humble correspondent. You are probably wondering, where are Abe and St. Christopher. Well, you can’t see them, but they are sitting on my shoulders, Abe on the left and St. Christopher on the right, savoring the moment.

Last night St. Christopher demanded that we get to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela for the Sunday Pilgrim Mass at noon. So we planned on an early wake up call at Pedrouzo and a forced march to cover the 20 kilometers from Pedrouzo to Santiago so we could arrive in plenty of time to get a seat for the noon Pilgrim Mass at the Cathedral.

There was a group of Italians at the alburgue who got up at 4:30 AM and made such a racket that they woke up everyone in the alburgue, including the three amigos. We had planned on getting up early to start the last leg of our journey, but not 4:30 AM early. Since we were already awake we decided to get dressed and packed and start the 20 kilometer forced march to Santiago. And did I mention it was raining so hard I felt like a porter on an expedition through the jungles of Borneo during monsoon season? And did I mention that it was as dark as Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon? I exited the alburgue and immediately took a wrong turn. Then my small flashlight 🔦 flickered and died. Now I am off the Camino, completely, totally and utterly lost, it is as dark as midnight in Hell, it is raining cats and dogs and my flashlight has decided to quit on me. I can see the lights of Santiago so I headed in that direction. I spent three hours in pitch black darkness wandering around the backroads of rural Spain trying to find the Camino, and waking up every howling pack of farm dogs and every farm family at every farmhouse that I passed on my Sunday morning stroll. I am lucky I didn’t get shot by some bleary eyed farmer that I awoke from a sound Sunday morning slumber. As the sun was finally peeking up over the horizon I found the Camino, dropped to my knees, thanked God for leading me back to the Camino, and it was off to Santiago.

This is the sodden Camino, once we found it.

This is a barn along the Way where the local dairy cows were having their breakfast.

This is the fog that was sitting in a valley on the outskirts of Santiago.

This is a sign at the outskirts of the city of Santiago de Compostela.

If you have been following this blog, and there is no good reason why you haven’t been following this blog, you know what this is. It is a trail of donkey droppings. We are following the two medieval Pilgrims and their donkey into Santiago.

This is the Santiago Marathon that they were running through the streets of Santiago this morning.

This is my first view of the spires of the Cathedral at Santiago.

This is the Cathedral at Santiago. We arrived at 11:00 AM. We needed to drop our backpack 🎒 at a nearby storage facility and get in line at the door of the Cathedral so we could get a seat for the noon Pilgrim Mass.

This is the famous swinging incense burner, the Botafumeiro, or as I call it, the Big Smoker. The Big Smoker was originally used to fumigate the sweaty, diseased and louse ridden pilgrims who attended the Pilgrim Mass. That reminds me, I need to visit the delousing station at the Pilgrim Office.

We got to our seats by 11:30 AM and as I sat there I was overwhelmed by my memories of the last 41 days and my gratitude for the blessing this pilgrimage has been for me. I have to confess that I spent the thirty minutes before Mass sobbing and thanking God for helping me along the Way.

Mass was officiated by the Cardinal. I got Communion from the Cardinal. I hope I get a few Judgement Day points for that. After Mass they did the ceremony where they swing the Big Smoker. It was flat out amazing. They swing the Big Smoker from one side of the nave of the Cathedral to the other. They swing it so high it almost touches the four story ceiling. I had a great seat in the nave. The Big Smoker went right over my head as it made its pendulum like journey though the nave, over the heads of the awestruck Pilgrims.

This is a video of the Big Smoker ceremony.

This is the pipe organ they played during Mass. It filled the Cathedral with the most heavenly music.

St. Christopher lit a candle for Anna and the Three Amigos bowed our heads and said a heartfelt prayer for Anna’s recovery.

After Mass I went to the Cathedral Square to savor the moment and take some pictures. As I was wandering around the Square greeting many of the people I had walked with along the Way, I practically got tackled by Marco. I was overjoyed to see him.

When we were eating one of the particularly grim pilgrim dinners while we were walking in the Meseta, I had joked to Marco that I would sell my soul to the Devil for a stuffed burrito 🌯. Marco, bless his soul, found a Spanish version of a Mexican restaurant and we had a celebratory lunch there.

This is Marco, Nuncia and your humble correspondent chowing down on tacos and burritos, washed down by a few cold beers 🍻. And I didn’t have to sell my soul to the Devil for my burrito!

What a long and joyous journey it has been. Thank you for joining in the adventure. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I have appreciated your comments and encouragement.

I hope everyone had a restful Sunday.

Good evening from Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

P. S. – I will be wandering around for two more weeks before my scheduled flight home on November 15th. I plan to continue to post daily blogs, so stay tuned.

Rain, rain 🌧 go away, come again when I get off the Camino. They say that the rain in Spain falls mainly on the Camino. That was true today. We started walking at 7:45 AM with a clear sky and a beautiful almost full moon. I immediately got lost and spent an hour walking on the shoulder of a secondary highway. I know what you are thinking, not safe and incredibly stupid. I agree on both counts. I finally made it to Ribadiso where I could exit the highway and get back on the much more bucolic Camino just in time for sunrise.

As I was walking through the outskirts of Ribadiso these big black clouds suddenly filled the sky and the wind started howling like a deranged banshee. The rain came down in sheets and before I could get my rain jacket 🧥 and rain pants 👖 on I was soaked. And did I mention that it was very cold this morning? I am a glass half full kind of Pilgrim so I passed by a number of cafes where I could have taken refuge from the storm, but did not, secure in my optimistic conviction that the rain would stop and I would be able to get a great rainbow 🌈 picture that I could share with you. No such luck. It rained for a solid hour and did not cease and desist until I finally gave up and sought shelter in a cafe/bar.

I took off and stowed my rain gear and had my usual chocolate croissant 🥐 and a glass of fresh squeezed orange 🍊 juice. This is an orange juice machine that produces the magic elixir every morning.

The Camino runs on coffee ☕️, I run on fresh squeezed orange 🍊 juice.

After I finished my breakfast I hit the trail hoping the rain was done for the day. We passed a farm and what did I see in the front yard? You are correct, it is a tractor 🚜 .

If you look closely you will notice that this is not any old tractor, it is a Lamborghini tractor. This baby can go from 0 to 60 MPH in 4.5 seconds. Did you know that Lamborghini started out making tractors? Mr. Lamborghini was the John Deere of Italy 🇮🇹. His real passion wasn’t tractors but sports cars. He owned and raced a number of Ferrari sports cars. Mr. Lamborghini thought his Ferrari sports cars were good but not great automobiles. He set up a meeting with Enzo Ferrari to tell him, in detail, how Mr. Ferrari could improve the look and the performance of the Ferrari sports cars. As you can imagine, Enzo Ferrari did not take kindly to Mr. Lamborghini, a tractor manufacturer, telling the great Enzo Ferrari how to design and build sports cars. These two proud, hot headed, Italians got into a monumental argument that culminated with Enzo Ferrari telling Mr. Lamborghini that if he thought he could design and build a sports car that was better than the world renowned Ferrari sports cars, he should shut up, leave his office and design and build this sports car. Enzo Ferrari was flabbergasted when a couple of years later Lamborghini started to manufacture and sell sports cars that rivaled, and in many aspects, surpassed Ferrari sports cars.

This is a Ferrari.

This is a Lamborghini.

I would say that they both make a pretty sweet sports car.

I got some feedback the other day on my blog post that had a picture of a witch and a caption where I said that apparently in Spain they celebrate Halloween 🎃. One of the people who is following the blog, corrected me and said that they do not celebrate Halloween in Spain, they celebrate the Day of the Dead. I hate to get into an argument about this point but the closer we get to Halloween the more evidence I see that supports my earlier statement that Spain does celebrate Halloween.

A witch in the cafe/bar where I sought shelter from the storm.

After I ate breakfast I stopped by a Super Mercado to pick up some snacks for the road. I bought some peanuts and a bunch of carrots 🥕. I put the carrots in an outside pocket of my backpack next to Abe’s perch on the backpack. As we were walking along the Way we encountered White Lightning.

Abe spotted White Lightning first and ordered me to stop and then asked White Lightning if he would like a carrot 🥕. What horse doesn’t like carrots? White Lightning said that he would love a carrot. Abe made me give White Lightning all my carrots. I was more than a little pissed 😤 about this because the carrots were going to be my lunch. But, feeding the carrots to White Lightning made Abe and White Lightning happy, so I swallowed my anger, disappointment and growing hunger and continued my journey along the Way.

This is a bar/cafe that has decorated the inside and outside of the premises with empty and autographed Peregrina beer bottles. It is quite a sight.

This is the garbage collection station in Arzúa. People throw their garbage down the chutes and the garbage lands in the underground bins. The garbage collectors raise the bins and then wheel them over to the garbage truck and empty them. It is a pretty slick system.

I normally get upset when I see the Camino mile markers defaced by graffiti.

The side of this mile marker was also defaced by graffiti.

I still don’t like graffiti in general, but I am OK with this graffiti.

This is a eucalyptus forest. Eucalyptus trees have a bad habit of losing their branches in a wind storm.

This afternoon we were walking in a Eucalyptus forest when a big storm blew up with howling winds and driving rain. The deafening crack of the wind tearing the branches from the trunks of the eucalyptus trees and the loud thumping sound as these branches hit the ground scared the crap 💩 out of me. I am glad to be dry, safe and sound in my bunk bed at the alburgue in O Pedrouzo. Tomorrow I walk the last 20 kilometers and arrive at the Cathedral in Santiago. Feet 🦶 don’t fail me now.

I hope everyone is having a relaxing Saturday.

Good evening from O Pedrouzo, Spain.

We enjoyed a good night’s sleep in our sleeping pod at the nice, clean and modern albergue in Palas de Rei. Now it is off to Castaneda, a 23 kilometer hike. The ball of my left foot is getting a little sore so I decided to have the alburgue in Palas de Rei send my bag to the alburgue in Castaneda. It is only 3 euros and will make today’s walk so much easier.

It was overcast this morning so no pictures of the sunrise, but I did get a few good pictures of the moon.

This is called a horreos. It is a Spanish grain storage structure. Based on the size and the ornamentation this would have been a rich family’s horreos.

This is a poor family’s horreos.

Another picture of the moon over Galicia.

This is a fog rainbow 🌈.

This guy is from Germany and his name is Hermann, Hermann the German. He made this contraption in his garage and has done the entire Camino hauling this cart behind him. He said that he carries at least two six packs of beer and camping equipment in the two bags on the cart. He wants to make sure he does not run short of beer 🍺 on his Camino. You gotta hand it to this German for keeping his Camino priorities straight.

This is Gabriel, like the angel Gabriel, from Columbia.

I stopped him and told him he had the best hat on the Camino. He said it is a genuine hand woven straw Panama hat. He said it is the Hugo Chavez model and it comes from an on line hat company that you can find at http://www.hatsfitforadruglord.com. I asked him what he did for a living and he told me he is a drug wholesaler and exporter. I was going to inquire further about his business, but Abe told me to shut up and walk on down the trail.

I told you that pulpo, or octopus 🐙, was big in Galicia. I know this is a stupid picture but I had to take it.

We stopped at this church and lit a candle and said a prayer for Anna.

Another grape arbor.

We are now in the province of Santiago.

More cows and more cowbells.

More cats on roofs in Spain.

Shots from along the trail.

Beautiful bougainvillea.

I hope everyone had a great Friday.

Good evening from Castenada, Spain.

I can’t even begin to tell you how nice it was to sleep in a real bed with a real mattress, real sheets, a real pillowcase and a real blanket in a room all by myself, and Abe and St. Christopher of course. I don’t fit in most bunk beds and in most of the alburgues the mattresses on the bunk beds are way beyond shot. I got a good night’s sleep last night and for that I am very grateful. The Camino does indeed provide.

I am also so very grateful for the opportunity I have been given to make this journey and walk the Way. I have not arrived in Santiago yet but this seems like a good time to reflect on the journey so far.

For me, one of the highlights of my journey was the time I spent in the church at Zabaldika. I have never felt God’s presence like I did in that church. When I was there the nun who was at the church handed me a card with the following description of the Camino. It meant so much to me then and all along my Way that I would like to share it with you.

“The journey makes you a Pilgrim. Because the Way to Santiago is not just a path to be walked in order to get somewhere, nor is it a test to earn some reward. El Camino de Santiago is a parable and a reality at the same time, because it is done both within and outside the specific time frame that it takes you to walk each stage, and along your entire life, if only you allow the Camino to inhabit you and transform you into a pilgrim. The Camino forces you to fully experience a simple life with only the clothes you are wearing and the essentials in your backpack. A simple life and a lite pack help you understand how little you need to be truly alive and truly happy. The Camino gives you an opportunity to find and develop a generous heart. Whatever you have you must be ready to share because, even if you started on your own, you will need companions to help you complete your journey. The Camino is a community of pilgrims from all over the world. This Camino community cares for each other and takes a genuine interest in how each and every member of the community is doing along the Way. The Camino makes physical demands on you. You must get up before the sun rises in spite of tiredness or blisters. You must walk in the darkness and cold before dawn, with the moon and stars as your companions and lighting your Way. You must walk in the heat of the day with the blistering sun relentlessly beating down on you, kilometer after kilometer. However, if you walk with an open heart and a contemplative soul the Way will help you, almost force you, to be constantly amazed by your new life, to welcome each and every new day with a sense of joy and gratitude, to interiorize, to be quiet and enjoy the silence, to really listen to and understand others, to admire God’s natural world and to understand what a blessing it is, and to be grateful for the company of your companions along the Way.”

On the culinary front, I must report that I had pulpo for the first time last night.

Pulpo is grilled octopus 🐙. It is a Galician delicacy and I found it to be a bit chewy, but very tasty.

We got up and started walking at about 7:45 AM. It was pitch black and the fog was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. Up ahead of us I saw four guys walking with high powered headlamps. I left my headlamp at home to save weight in my pack. That was probably a mistake. I ran ahead to catch up with these guys and started to walk directly behind them so that I could use the light of their headlamps to illuminate the trail ahead of me and avoid any slipping, tripping or stumbling hazards. They all realized what I was doing and the guy to my left turned his headlamp to his right to illuminate my path and the guy in front of me put his headlamp on backwards to illuminate my path. These random acts of kindness on the Camino bring on tears of gratitude for the generosity of my fellow Pilgrims and gratitude for the opportunity God has given me to experience the Camino and learn from this experience.

When the sun finally peeked over the horizon and made a weak effort to cut through the fog, there was enough light to see the path without the headlamps. These four young men stopped to turn off and pack their headlamps. I thanked them profusely and wished them Buen Camino. Abe thanked them and told them I was a putz for leaving my headlamp at home and expecting other Pilgrims to light my Way. They agreed that I was a putz but commented that it takes all kinds to make a Camino. Abe gave each one of these four guys a penny to commemorate their walk on the Camino with the Greatest President There Ever Was Or Ever Will Be and said that I would get their mailing addresses so he could send them an autographed picture when we get back to the good old USA 🇺🇸. They insisted that the autographed picture was not necessary and they went on their Way.

This is our 9.:30 AM breakfast stop.

I had a full, stick to your ribs, All American breakfast.

This is the fog that we walked through all morning.

Now that we are in Galicia we are seeing a number of these grape arbors. The next three pictures are for Jim and Susie, the only people I know who have a grape arbor.

This guy was husking corn 🌽 and feeding it to a calf.

I call this shot Cornhusker on the Camino.

Get a load of the hat on the calf. What a hoot.

This is a shot of the trail.

They are making ristas in Galicia.

The beautiful hydrangeas are still in bloom.

We stopped at this church and said a prayer for Anna.

This sign makes it very clear that the house is protected by a vicious guard dog that will rip out your throat if you even think about coming onto the property.

This is the pack of vicious attack dogs guarding the Cornhusker’s home. To be fair to the dogs it was siesta time when I took this picture and nobody does anything in Spain during siesta other than sleep.

This is my sleeping pod at the alburgue in Palas de Rei. It seems to be pretty comfortable.

I hope everyone had a great Thursday.

Good evening from Palas de Rei, Spain.

Today was a milestone day. Yep, you are reading that Camino marker correctly. We are now only 100 kilometers from Santiago!

One hundred kilometers sounds like a lot of kilometers, especially if you are walking up and down hills carrying a 25 pound backpack 🎒. But we have walked 700 kilometers from the beginning of this journey in St. Jean, so 100 kilometers doesn’t sound like much more than a stroll in the park on a beautiful Fall day.

We left the alburgue this morning at 7:45 AM. The sun doesn’t come up until 8:45 AM but I wanted to get an early start and get into Portomarin early in the afternoon and relax and have a cold beer🍺.

The minute we walked out of the alburgue we were enveloped by swirling fog so thick that between the fog and the darkness it was almost impossible to see the yellow arrows that mark the Way. A couple of guys from the alburgue were walking ahead of us with high powered head lamps and we followed them, hoping that they would not lead us astray. The sun finally peeked up over the horizon at about 8:45 AM but the fog stayed with us until almost 11:00 AM.

Here are a few shots of the countryside we passed through this morning.

This is a wonderful donativo cafe where we had an early lunch. The cafe was located in the courtyard of a beautiful set of farm buildings and the food was phenomenal. All the food was homemade with natural ingredients. It was one of the best lunches I have had on the Camino. What a nice break from the now dreaded jamon bocadillos, or ham sandwichs. I had seconds, thirds and fourths and left 10 bucks in the donativo basket and told Abe to keep his pie hole shut. I told him that I did not want to hear a word from him about the size of my donation!

These are old grain storage bins, called horrios. Every farm has one of these. They are elevated off the ground to keep mice, rats and other vermin out of the grain. It doesn’t look like they could store more than a couple hundred bushels of corn 🌽 in one of these things.

Apparently they celebrate Halloween 🎃 in Spain.

I did not know they had Texas Longhorn cattle in Spain.

Notice the madras shorts and the sparkly tassels on this guy’s hiking poles. No doubt he is a 100 kilometer Pilgrim fresh from one of the fancy hotels in Sarria.

This is the approach to Portomarin.

This is Portomarin.

This is the river on which Portomarin is located.

After we crossed the bridge over this river we had to climb a long flight of stairs to get to the town of Portomarin.

You have got to be kidding me! I just walked 20 kilometers with a 25 pound backpack 🎒 on my back and you are going to make me climb this set of stairs to get to the alburgue! Come on you wiley Spaniards. Give a poor, tired, hungry and thirsty Pilgrim a break at the end of a long day. Put in an elevator or an escalator. Is that asking too much?

This is the view from the alburgue.

When we checked in Abe and St. Christopher found out the alburgue has private rooms. They begged me to get one so I decided to humor them and splurge on a 40 euro private room.

This is our bed with a real mattress and real sheets

This is our very own shower with clean towels and those little bottles of shampoo and conditioner.

Abe and St. Christopher are so excited to be staying in this deluxe alburgue room. To borrow a line from my father, the three amigos will be farting through silk tonight!

It is laundry day today.

And that is where the trouble began. These are the washing machines at the alburgue.

The guy who checked us into the alburgue showed me the washing machines and told me that I had to go to the bar/cafe in the alburgue and buy a Spanish version of a Tide Pod from Javier, the bartender, to wash my clothes.

So I went to the bar and in my best Spanish I asked Javier for some laundry 🧺 jabon, which is the Spanish word for soap. This is Javier

After I asked Javier for the laundry 🧺 jabon he smiled and nodded his head and went back into the kitchen. After about five minutes he came out and proudly put a jamon, or ham in English, sandwich on the bar in front of me. I told him I wanted jabon not jamon. He kept nodding his head and saying Si Si, or yes yes, and pointing to the hams he had hanging behind the bar.

At this point I got really frustrated. I tore off my shirt, grabbed the ham sandwich and using the top of the bar as an improvised washboard I demonstrated to him that you can’t wash clothes with a ham or jamon sandwich, you needed jabon, or soap. He still didn’t get it. So I took the ham sandwich and Javier into the washroom and tried to wash my hands with the ham sandwich. I clearly demonstrated that you can’t wash your hands with a ham or jamon sandwich, you needed jabon, or soap. Finally I got through to Javier and he gave me a Tide Pod to wash my clothes and let me keep the now badly tattered ham sandwich, gratis. Nobody ever said that the Camino would be easy.

It is Anna’s birthday today. Happy birthday Anna. Anna is back in the hospital today getting another chemo treatment. If you have a spare prayer, please say one for Anna.

I hope everyone had a great Wednesday.

Good evening from Portomarin, Spain.

This is a water font just outside A Balsa, the village where we stayed last night.

These are shots of the scenery on the walk from A Balsa to Sarria. It is so unbelievably green here in Galicia. Everyone says it looks a lot like Ireland 🇮🇪. I have never been to Ireland so it would be difficult for me to say that Galicia looks a lot like Ireland. But I have heard this comparison made by a couple of Irishmen walking the Camino, so I guess I have to trust their opinion on this matter.

This is a donativo cafe that is run by four guys in their early thirties.

When you walk through the gate of this open air cafe one of the young men asks you if you want a cup of coffee and then he disappears into the kitchen. In a few minutes he appears with your coffee and a couple of slices of fresh baked banana bread. I don’t drink coffee but I had a double helping of banana bread, a couple of hard boiled eggs, a bowl of cereal, a couple of bananas and a couple of glasses of orange juice. I left a five euro bill in the donation box and Abe pitched a fit. He called me a cheapskate and embarrassed me into dropping another 20 euro bill into the donation box. Abe said these were four young men who were making a real difference on the Camino and that I should support what they are doing. Abe is probably right. There was some real magic at this place. The minute you walked through the gate you felt like you were at home, minus the corned beef sandwiches of course.

This is Sarria.

We got to Sarria at about 2:00 PM. Sarria is where everyone starts the Camino if they are only interested in walking 100 kilometers and getting a Compostella in Santiago. Real hard core pilgrims describe Sarria as the Disneyland of the Camino. That is probably not fair to Sarria or the 100 kilometer pilgrims, but we decided to walk through Sarria and spend the night at the first town west of Sarria.

This is a roadside cross in Sarria. We stopped and said a prayer for Anna.

We got to Casa Carmen in Barbadelo at about 3:30. This is the alburgue pooch. I almost sat on him while I was waiting my turn to check into the alburgue.

It is wash day in the horse pasture at Casa Carmen.

Another Bible verse along the Way.

The Cliff Notes version of this Bible verse is that a servant was given some money by his Master and he invested it and grew it ten times. The Master was pleased. Duh, with that rate of return of course the Master was pleased. Another servant was given the same amount of money and invested it and it grew five times. The Master was pleased. Of course the Master was pleased. Warren Buffet, the Oracle of Omaha, would be thrilled with that rate of return. The third servant wanted to preserve the principle and buried the money he was given. The Master was good and pissed with the servant who buried the money. The moral to this story is, if God has given you a gift you had better not bury it. You had better use it and multiply it or God is not going to be happy.

I hope everyone had a great Tuesday.

Good evening from Barbadelo, Spain🇪🇸.