Day One Hundred Twenty Five - May 10

Today we arrived at Vigo Spain, the port city for Santiago de Compostela. Janice booked a self guided walk of the last ten kilometers of the Camino de Santiago. We were required to meet our guide in Santiago the morning of the hike.

This is where it gets interesting. While reviewing the port information for Santiago de Compostela (Vigo), Janice assumes that we are docking there. No, we are 97 kilometers away and the schedule time for the tour is 9:00.

The previous night emails are sent to Get Your Guide informing them that we are 97 kilometers away and not in the city. Retruned emails advise that the tour can be delayed by 15 minutes.

Okay great, we book train tickets for a 08:00 departure in Vigo and return at 15:30. The train rides is only 50 minutes which should give us enough time to get there.

Both Janice and I rise early on Tuesday with a 06:15 wake up and breakfast in order to be the first off the ship once we are cleared supposedly at 07:00. However, due to issues with the ramp as we had to use the port's, the ship was not cleared until 07:25. Luckily we found a taxi right away so there was just enough time to board the outbound train.

We finaly arrive at the office at 09:20 to meet our guide Paulo who is waiting for us. She will direct us to the place where we will start and advise us of where we will meet along the way.

Right now I want to give you a little bit of infomartion of the Camino de Santiago.

There are several routes to follow in your pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela as follows-

• Camino Frances- this is the part of walk that we will use. It starts in St-Jean-Pied-de-Port on the French side of the Pyrenees to Santiago. Its duration is 770 kilometers or 478 miles and may take up to five weeks to complete. It is by far the most demanding and only one in five complete their journey
• Camino Portugues - this is considered the second busiest after Camino Frances and runs from Lisbon to Santiago. Its duration is 660 kilometers or 373 miles and may take 3 plus weeks to complete
• Camino del Norte - about five weeks is necessary to complete this camino. The Northern Way runs along the Spanish North coast has a duration of 600 kilometers or 373 miles
• Camino Primitivo - is considered the original way following the footsteps of the first recorded pilgrimage to St. James tomb. Some considered it one of the toughest as the first 10 ten days or so are either up or down. Its duration 320 kilometers or 199 miles can be completed in two weeks.
• Camino de Muxia-Finisterre - once you have completed your pilgramage some walkers continue their journey to the fishing ports on the coast of Muxia or Finisterre. This may take an additional three or four days. In the past when a person finishes in either of these places they would burn the clothes they have been travelling in. This is not being done anymore, I mean the burning of your clothes.
• Camino Ingles - known as the English way and the shortest duruation of 115 kilometers or 71 miles can be completed in five days. It begins in Ferrol and finishes in Santiago.

The above information was found searching the internet.

Now back to the walk, our guide dropped us off at the ten kilometer point and mentioned she would meet us half way. The road or path is lined with cement markers with yellows arrows and yellow scallop-shells directing us which way to travel.

The first five kilometers were walked through forest covered areas. Along the way we past or were passed by other pilgrims completing their journey. Some of these individuals had their backpacks with them for the entire time they were on the camino (whom we called real pilgrims), while others had just a daypack and had heavier luggage moved from one place to the other by a service.This is probably the recommendation that an individual should take if he or she wishes to do one of the above journeys. Janice has mentioned she might be interested in doing one of the walks but time will tell if it remains on the bucket list.

Paulo met us at the five kilometer point and we made our way through a small village towards Monte do Gozo where you can see the first view of your destination - the Santiago de Compestela Cathedral. We had our pictures taken here with our fingers pointing in the direction of the church. Also here you can see two statues of pilgrims as well pointing their hands in the direction of the church.

The final five kilometers was basically downhill until you reach the city of Santiago. When you enter the city a sign Santiago de Compostela is prominent and hikers usually stop to take pictures with it. Since we had not completed the whole camino I just took a picture of it.

We now walk down the final steps into the massive plaza where Santiago de Compostela Cathedral is and where Paulo is also waiting for us. She has brought two scallops shell necklaces for us along with walking poles and two hats with the brows turned up. She informs us that this is what the original pilgrims used. So we took pictures before returning them to her. The scallop shell necklaces were ours to keep.

Thanking her again for the day we departed the square only to return after a bit of lunch.

The Santiago de Compostela Cathedral is a massive place and unfortunately we did not have enough time to explore as much as we would have liked.. They do say that the tomb of the apostle St. James is buried in the cathedral and is therefore an important centre for Catholics.

We returned to the train station for our trip back to Vigo. There was not sufficient time to explore the city except to get back on the ship as we were to leave at 18:00 for Brest, France, 455 nautical miles away.

Tomorrow May 11 is a sea day as we sail across the Bay of Biscay.

I have been informed that some of you may have not seen any of the pictures posted on my blog. Once you reach notice that a blog has been posted, you can click on the photo tab directly beside the blog to see any pictures that have been posted.

Janice reminded me that there is a way to shrink the photos down so that they can be downloaded faster. She must have told me this earlier but I forgot. I should be able to download more pictures of past port days now.