Streets of Santiago

Sometimes you don’t know how tired you are till you stop! But during a slightly mosquito ridden night in our little apartment, we realised it would be good for us to plan at least one extra rest day in Santiago to give ourselves a bit more recovery time. So today has been a slow day, knowing we have more time to enjoy the city tomorrow.

We are staying in a small apartment owned by a friend of Dione, where a few others of our pilgrim band are also staying. It’s been great to continue having friends to share the experience. We are in Rua de Entremuros - the street between the walls, which means that our street borders on the outer wall of the old city. 

It’s a narrow street, only wide enough for pedestrians - there are no gutters and like all the streets in the old city, it is paved with large, smooth blocks of stone. It feels exotic and exciting to us that around any corner you might suddenly stumble upon a small plaza, a stone chapel, an archway, or a tiny cafe with tables spilling onto the street. Sometimes, when there are no other people in view, you can imagine it unchanged since medieval times.

 This morning, we had a late breakfast near the pilgrim office and found this lovely church dedicated to the fifth anguish of Mary (!). It was almost square and had a huge central dome set distinctively with a kind of Jerusalem cross.

We passed the luxurious Parador hotel with its beautiful garden tucked away in a side courtyard.

This is the street of many famous tapas bars - our friends Geoff and Annemarie will recognise the Bispo sign on the right!

One of our tasks today was to buy train tickets back to Madrid for when we finish the Camino Ingles. It took two visits to the station since we didn’t realise we’d need our passports with us. But we did find lunch in the form of great bread, fresh tomatoes and a slice of empanada to have back at home between attempts. Neil went back later while Sarah had a snooze!

We feel some reflections brewing on our time thus far, but we still have not really had space to process things. In some ways, physically, the Primitivo was unexpectedly hard and Neil in particular has had quite a lot of pain with bad blisters, a shin splint, swelling in his legs, gashed hand and a bruised rib cage. Much of this was connected with the fall, which led him to favour one side of his body more when walking. And probably the extent of the ascending and descending in the first few days, and the distance and heat of the last few days didn’t help! Accepting and savouring the pilgrimage we’ve had (as distinct from the one we might have imagined ourselves having) has been part of how we’ve sought to respond and it feels as though our previous experience has helped with this.

Life in Spain is still amazing and we are surprised how little Covid seems to be affecting things. We had to wear masks when we visited the doctor and pharmacy, but the pilgrim hostels operate almost completely as before. You’d think dormitories of bunk beds filled with people from around the world would be nightly super spreading events, but we heard of no one getting sick or expressing concern.

As we said, we feel there are more reflections to come, which we hope to share in quieter days ahead. Our little pilgrim band is in the process of dis-banding as people either walk on or make their way home, but there are still a few of us in Santiago and we plan to share dinner again tonight for which are grateful.

It’s a glorious summer evening and we’re finishing this post sitting at a small bar, in one of the many small plazas, enjoying a drink and small tapas. We leave you with some images of our evening wandering.

The garden in front of the Seminario Mayor where Neil stayed at the end of his pilgrimage last time.

The church of San Francisco attached to a huge convent. Within a hundred metres of Santiago cathedral are five or six more enormous churches.

And in more temporal vein, the tapas bars are coming alive for the night!

Buen Camino,

Sarah and Neil