Camino: Lavacolla to Santiago

Hotel Ruta Jacobea

It was cloudy and dark when I awoke, and from the view out the window, I thought it might still be raining this morning.  No, it turned out to be a heavy fog that hangs like a damp wool blanket over Lavacolla and the Ruta Jacobea Hotel.  

I think everyone is excited. It’s game day!

We start off by turning the wrong way out of the hotel parking lot, but the group soon figures it out and we march off happily, under instructions to stay together. 

We walked out through some houses and soon find ourselves near the small stone church, Iglesia de Benaval, where a mass is underway.  There was some debate, but about half decided to wait for mass to end and seek a stamp.  Mass was blessedly short, but it turned out there was no stamp to be had. The woman told us to get it on Mont de Gozo.

Iglesia de Benayal

We walk uphill in the early morning freshness, past farms and houses with large gardens.  It is a beautiful morning -- clean and crisp air and the sun burning off the fog.  

 As we get higher, you notice the fog still hangs in the valleys.  We passed some nameless but very large office complexes before I realized that they must be the Television Espana and RTVE Galicia installations that Alex had mentioned.  We also stopped briefly for a stamp at a small bar that was serving coffee and beer to pilgrims.

Joe, Carl and I walked for a distance, telling stories and enjoying the cool but sunny morning. I had little sense of exactly where we were, but the yellow arrows continued to indicate the Camino.  Apparently the government of Santiago district does not mark the Camino as carefully with stone distance markers as the A Coruña authorities did.

At a corner there was a small souvenir stand with a sign promising a “sello.”  Carl got one, so I did too, both of us feeling guilty that we could not see anything to buy in compensation for the lady’s trouble. But she wished us a cheerful “Buen Camino!” nonetheless. And, she told me it was just 400 meters to the Mont de Gozo. 

Monte de Gozo

And sure enough, there at the top of the hill in the sunshine by the big abstract art statue, were Alex and Cate with torta de Santiago cake and Aquarius juice for us before the descent.  We could not, however, see the spires of the Cathedral from here because of the heavy fog or clouds in the valley.

We went down through the large (800-person) albergue that was built to accommodate pilgrims during the last Jacabeo year in 2010.  We needed to use the facilities and take pictures with the “pilgrim looking at her feet” statue.

From here our path was pretty much down city streets as we crossed the bridge over the highway and entered Santiago proper.  There were scallop shells embedded in the sidewalks, and we passed a large modern sculpture arch that honored many historical and mythical figures who are thought to have walked the Camino, ranging from John Paul II (about 2 miles of it) to the writer Dante Allighieri.

Just as we began to enter the old city, I spotted Marcia waiting for me with Alex on a stone bench.  We all marched into the city together, taking pictures and video as we went.

The figures burning in flames on the front of the Church of the Passion (“Igrexa de Animas”)  caught my eye, as did the purple flowers in the courtyard of the Praza de Immaculada, but we kept moving forward. You now could glimpse the steeples of the cathedral from time to time as we passed between buildings.  The morning’s fog seems to have totally disappeared into a blue sky.

The main square, Praza de Obradeiro, suddenly opens. You’re walking down a side street and then you see the massive Hostal de los Reyes Catolicos on your right and the Consello in front. 


 Then, you look up to your left at the majestic Baroque front of the Cathedral with its towering steeples.  

Our group had strung out a bit, so we were not together, but each of us put a symbolic foot on the stone in the center of the plaza that marks the zero kilometer of the Camino.  (Now that you can’t put your hand in the place on the Puerto de Gloria where thousands of pilgrims before you put theirs -- it was wearing away the stone column and is now forbidden, except in the case of movie stars like Martin Sheen -- the stone in the plaza has taken its place.)  

I can’t remember if we took a group photo or not.  But, my GPS recorded that we did walk the last 8.05 miles of the Camino today, in just under three hours.

Alex wanted us to move right on over to the Pilgrimage Office to get signed in for our Compostella, the Latin-language document, each with the pilgrim’s name inscribed in Latin, that certifies that you made the trip.  The next day it became clear that the Cathedral uses this information to draw up the list of countries from which pilgrims arrived and the cities from which they began their pilgrimage. Alex wanted us to do this before the large crowd from the Cathedral’s noon mass came out and did the same thing.

We had a short wait on the stairs and then the staff there were very solicitous in taking down our information and providing the hand-lettered scroll. Gosh, think how many times they do this, day in and day out, with such cheerful good humor and efficiency. The DMV and TSA could learn from this.

In line at Pilgrim's Office

We moved over to a Restaurant A Curtidoria for lunch.  It turned out to be the same one Marcia had eaten in the day before.  I had a pasta dish putanesca sauce (olives, tomato and capers) followed by beef tenderloin. Dessert was fig ice cream, if I remember correctly.

We went to the Fresco hotel, Hotel Compostella, after lunch so I could retrieve my suitcase.  Marcia and I walked it across town to her hotel, As Artes, which was about a block from the Cathedral and well within earshot of the bagpipers and tunas who play for money in the main square. Then we kind of wandered around, taking pictures and Marcia showing me the features of the city where she has spent about three days before my arrival.

In the evening we walked across town to the market area, Los Abastos, to a new, fashionable restaurant (Abastos 2.0) run by young chef Manolo and his team.  Alex and the chef have cooked up the idea of a cooking demonstration based on the fresh foods that the chef found in the market that day, and the things he can do with them on the spot. We are, I think, the first group to do this.  We begin with razor clams (long and thin) which he cooks in boiling olive oil just a few seconds until they pop open – delicious!

He then moved on to things like a sushi-type of dish with Wasabi, clams, berberechos, and finally a Gallego comfort food of whipped – no, let’s say “foamed” – potatoes with chorizo and Arzúa cheese.  

 A feature of all this fine cooking is how much of it is done by hand and with extreme care – the sous-chef bending over the plates or the food, carefully placing individual ingredients just where they need to be.  The result is not only delicious but a work of visual art.

At this point we bid farewell to Alex and Cate, who have to begin a long drive back to Bilbao this evening.  Alex gave us all a CD of pictures he has taken on the trip, while Cate gave everyone a key chain with a yellow leather Camino arrow.

This was just the right kind of dinner after such a substantial lunch, but some did not want the day to end or want to turn in so early.  

 A few of us continued on the Camino Casino, a 1890’s style café – a sort of long and narrow bistro with tiled floors, wood paneled walls, and small round tables as well as some sofas along the walls. 

This was just about right for our group.  Some tried the soft, sweet pacharan, while others ordered coffee or wine or fiery orujo.