First day out of Santiago

Yesterday I was so lucky to be able to visit the Pórtico de la Gloria of the Cathedral from the scaffolding. If you are not a fan of romanesque architecture, you will not know what I'm talking about, but it was awesome. There is a several-decades-long study/reform/preservation effort going on with the 12th century Pórtico de la Gloria, one of the jewels of the Spanish Romanesque, and for some reason, the company doing the work has decided to let several groups of ten people per day up there, hard hats and all, to see the incredible statues up close. It was awesome, and I was just lucky to be able to find an open slot on the day I arrived -- other people told me that they had made reservations months in advance. Anyway, it was amazing.

Today I met up with my Spanish friend Yolanda promptly at 7:30 am in the Praça do Obradoiro, the square in front of the cathedral. It was eerie, there was absolutely no one in the square, and I had a few minutes alone with the cathedral from afar. We had a relatively short 22 km day, to Negreira, where there is a very nice albergue.

It was kind of a shock for Yolanda and me, having walked the Via de la Plata, because we have seen today more people than we saw for weeks on the Vdlp. Instead of the Germans on the Vdlp, there is now a predominance of French people. All of us are going to Finisterre, the end of the world, and some of us will continue on to Muxía, a beautiful fishing village about 30 km north of Finisterre. I am still not sure where I will go, but I know I will be in Muxía on Saturday, and back in Santiago on Sunday.

This town has a very touching sculpture, which I remembered from the last time. It is kind of a 3-D thing, on one side you see the man leaving to go find work, with a child reaching through the window trying to pull him back. On the other side, there's a woman inside the house holding a small child and crying -- so many people from this part of Spain left to go find work elsewhere, and most have never come home. It makes you think about the immigration debate in the US and elsewhere -- no one, or very few, WANT to leave their homes, they do it for their families. We should remember that, and we should recognize that we would do the same thing if we were in their situation. Enough preaching.

Today I was able to soak my feet in icy water in the most beautiful spot of the entire camino. A wide river, with beautiful old homes all around, right next to two very old mills with the millstones still there, an ancient bridge, some white water, it was just amazing. And great for the feet. I guess my time here is growing short, only three more days of walking.

One of these years, I am going to arrive in Santiago and say -- enough, already, I'm done with the Camino. But it won't be this year, I'm sure of that.