18/5 Wednesday Lavacolla to Santiago 10km
Having carried my 13kg pack over 800km I decided my aching shoulders had earned a bit of slack so I plan to buy some kind of light hold-all and use a baggage service for my continuing walk to Finisterre.

I also did a little forward planning of accommodation as I need to begin considering flights home from Santiago.

The evening meal worked well with Tanya assisting in the kitchen. I’d bought a tin of anchovies and Tanya suggested gently toasting thin sliced bread on the griddle and adding some raw red pepper. It turned into quite a sophisticated entre.

Anna from Bulgaria, Alan from Ireland, Adriana from Rumania, Frank from Belgium and Eric from Austria completed the guest list with Stein, Tanya and I. Camino experiences were swapped.

The dorm was up at 7am and with no breakfast on offer I was out on the road and in the drizzle before 8am. I was comfortable walking alone initially but it was 4km before I spotted a Spanish cafe for breakfast. Despite being on the Camino it was clearly a traditional local place and served up a very good tosta con tómate.

Moving on to Monte Del Gozo the rain stopped but the viewpoint had no view of the distant cathedral. The way was getting busier and I met many of the folk from last night’s Albergue briefly.

Walking on into the city was much like walking into any other until I was close to the old centre where one of the cathedral towers came into view. Here I bumped into Rebecca again which was nice.

Passing the side of the cathedral, you walk under an arch which leads out onto the Plaza de Obradoiro - traditional meeting place and point of celebration for arriving peregrinos. Within minutes there were the three South Korean ladies from last night and Linda and Tony from the night before.

I decided to go into the cathedral and stay for the pilgrims’ mass as Patrick was helping to officiate. As I went to sit down there were the French ladies I met several days ago as well as Heike, Robyn and Annette. Lovely to be around good Camino friends on this big day.

After mass I found my nearby Albergue, organised my planned luggage transfers and found Decathlon to but a cheap hold-all.

I needed a pilgrim stamp for my credencia but the only place to get this was the official office that gives our the Compostela certificate. So I queued and did the online paperwork. Compostela collected it was back to the Albergue to clean up and write the day’s blog.

When I got to the dorm one occupant told me he was getting up at 4am for the airport and that his wife would snore loudly all night. I asked the receptionist for a move!