Camino Primitivo & Camino de Finisterre

Camino Primitivo is where it all began, it was along this route the first pilgrims made their way to Santiago de Compostela, it is the first and the oldest of the pilgrim routes. Officially, the trail starts in Oviedo, but for many it is Villaviciosa that marks the beginning, where a path splits from the Camino del Norte and continues towards Oviedo as the primitive way. The route is about 300km long and goes through Asturias and Galicia on its way to Santiago de Compostela, it joins the Camino Frances in Melide.

Camino Finisterre is a shorter camino that takes the pilgrims to Finisterre and the end of the world. This camino differs from the other routes since you here are walking away from Santiago de Compostela instead of walking towards the city.

In the Summer of 2015 I travelled to Spain to walk the Camino Primitivo and the Camino Finisterre, here you find my story from the camino.

Day   1 (12.07):Sebrayo - Villaviciosa

Day   2 (13.07):Villaviciosa - Pola de Siero

Day   3 (14.07):Pola de Siero - Oviedo

Day   4 (15.07):Oviedo - San Juan de Villapanada

Day   5 (16.07):San Juan de Villapanada - Bodenaya

Day   6 (17.07):Bodenaya - Tineo

Day   7 (18.07):Tineo - Campiello

Day   8 (19.07):Campiello - Berducedo

Day   9 (20.07):Berducedo - Grandas de Salime

Day   10 (21.07):Grandas de Salime - Padron

Day   11 (22.07):Padron - Castroverde

Day   12 (23.07):Castroverde - San Roman da Retorta

Day   13 (24.07):San Roman da Retorta - Melide

Day   14 (25.07):Melide - Arca O Pino

Day   15 (26.07):Arca O Pino - Santiago de Compostela

Day   16 (27.07):Santiago de Compostela - Negreira

Day   17 (28.07):Negreira - Logoso

Day   18 (29.07):Logoso - Finisterre

Day   19 (30.07):Finisterre - Muxia / Santiago de Compostela

Camino Primitivo & Finisterre @ 12:00

Camino de Finisterre // day 19 // Finisterre - Muxia / Santiago de Compostela

Camino Primitivo / Camino Finisterre day 19.
Distance: 27.0km (472.8km), time spent: 7:08 (144:38).
Weather: Sun and nice weather, some wind and clouds.

I am so early up that I am too sleepy to pay any heed to the fact that this is my last day of walking for this time. Nobody else is awake in the albergue when I quietly goes down to the kitchen below. In the streets, it is quiet and dark, only lit up by the streetlights. In the sky, the clouds of yesterday has left the end of the world.

Dawn in Finisterre, on the way out of the town.

The walk to Muxia is the first one on this Camino where I start before it is light, something that again bring back memories from last time. I can clearly remember how good I enjoyed to start walking in the dark and then go for a little while before the sun begun to illuminate the landscape around me. Behind me when I go is Finisterre slowly lighting up.

A sandy beach between Finisterre and Muxia.

Still, it takes some time before the first sunrays shines upon me. As before, the Camino goes on a mix of paved road and forest tracks. The route passes through several small villages, but between Finisterre and Muxia there is only one village where there is food and drinks available, Lires.

Two horreos with a view to the sea.

It is a pleasant walk, but since I now are located so close to the Atlantic, I would have enjoyed it more had the route gone closer to the coast. You are not bereft of the view of the ocean however. It is a beautiful day and my mood is hence significantly better than yesterday.

Which way to turn? Scallop-markers leads both ways.

Most of the pilgrims I meet comes from the opposite direction, it is many that has chosen to go to Muxia first and then finish in Finisterre. I keep company with an Italian girl the last kilometres to Muxia. Where the route first goes up and over an area with less vegetation, where there afterwards is a long descent until you can see the ocean through the trees. I feel that my feet are tired on the way down.

The Camino going through a tunnel made of vegetation.

We are both satisfied on the last part that goes along the sea. Muxia is a place that almost could have been on the coast of northern Norway, houses situated on a harsh coast do have a tendency to look alike. I would like to have been here an autumn- or winter-day when the storms comes in from the ocean.

Walking across an open landscape before the descent to Muxia.

When we arrive at the centre of Muxia, the Italian girl goes to find an albergue; she plans to stay the night here. I would love to do the same, but I have to travel back to Santiago today since my plane leaves for home early tomorrow. I make my way towards the church at the cliffs, which marks the endpoint of my long walk. To get there, I mistakenly climbs over a small top lying between the town centre and the church.

The church and the sea. In stormy days, the waves can reach the church walls.

Out by the cliffs there is a strong wind. Though it is nothing compared to how stormy it can be here, I have seen a picture where the waves are crashing into the walls of the church. The church, Santuario de la Virgen de la Barca, is a fantastic endpoint. While the waves are breaking against the cliffs and the wind ruffles what little hair I have, I sit and look out towards the sea. To me, there is nothing more to go, I am at my 0.00km-mark. It now feels complete, 19 days and around 470km after I set out from Sebrayo. I have brought with me a cold beer to celebrate in the wind; I have again taken my shoes and socks off.

Santuario de la Virgen de la Barca.

Afterwards in Muxia, I meet again Lucy and Annie. I had hoped to see them again here, but instead of walking here, they had taken the bus. Now they sat and waited for the bus back to Santiago de Compostela. I join them on the bus back.

Once in Muxia you can finally put your feet up in the air and say you have done it (for good this time), these feet has carried me around 472km from Sebrayo to here during 19 days.

In Santiago I have booked myself into the very pleasant hotel I stayed in for four years ago, A Casa do Peregrino. Now I am alone in the city, all the others I have met have left (Lucy and Annie had an appointment with some friends, so I had to keep myself with company). In the amusement park I go for a ride in the ferris wheel, as compensation that I did not get to see Santiago from the roof of the cathedral. The bright neon lights quite the difference from the calm ambience of the Camino. The view is great.

View over Santiago de Compostela with the cathedral from the ferris wheel in the park.

I celebrate my walk in A Taberna do Bispo, which is a tapas-place I can strongly recommend. Their fried brie-tapas with blueberry sauce is perhaps the best tapas I have ever tasted. In the evening, there is free concert in the city outside the cathedral. A little bit cheesy Spanish rock, but what does it matter, I have a good time. Inside the domes on the other side of the cathedral, a folk music ensemble are playing. A great finish of a wonderful walk.

<- Finisterre

Camino de Finisterre // day 18 // Logoso - Finisterre

Camino Primitivo / Camino Finisterre day 18.
Distance: 30.6km (445.8km), time spent: 9:14 (137:30).
Weather: Grey, dense fog, lighter in the evening.

During the night the clouds increased in density and lies packed around the houses almost like cotton. I have planned to continue to Muxia after finishing the Camino Finisterre, so this is not my final day off my walk. Nevertheless, being the end of the Camino Finisterre this does feel as the final day, as that the extension to Muxia is but an encore. And I do like to finish my walks in nice weather, which may be the reason why today's walk did not become so great emotionally. Somewhere along the way, something went wrong.

Dense fog between Logoso and Hospital, ghost like trees in the clouds.

It is a despondent world to start walking in; the fog is like a thick soup. I keep myself well into the raincoat. There were lots of clouds yesterday as well, but a far cry from what meets me today. The most uplifting in the morning, is the information I get in an information office about the Camino in Hospital, I do not need to stress tomorrow to reach the last bus back to Santiago de Compostela. In the bar here (Hospital), I meet again the two American girls from earlier, Lucy and Annie.

Walking through an empty landscape.

Shortly after Hospital, you arrive at the junction where the two routes separates, one route leading to Finisterre, the other one leading to Muxia. The bar in Hospital is the last opportunity to get food or drink, from here it is a long walk until Cee where there is nothing. Today the weather has a negative impact on me, for reasons unknown.

Walking over the Montes de Buxantes in the sea of clouds, with trees looking like overgrown vegetables.

Across the Montes de Buxantes, the world disappears into the grey fog. Usually, I sometimes enjoy walking in this kind of weather, but not today. I struggle keeping my mood up. This turns out to be the only time on the Camino where I actually feel lonely, even though I can hear voices around me. The walk is long and after a while it feels like I am walking past the same tree over and over again.

Corcubion seen from the outskirts of Cee.

The Santuario de Nosa Señora das Neves, a chapel from the 15th-century, and a cross out in nowhere breaks up the monotony, without making it any better. Where there is supposed to be a view towards Cabo Fisterra, there is now nothing. I come down to Cee with a mind just as foggy. From the ocean both waves and sea mist rolls in over the land.

View over towards Cabo Fisterra and Finisterre beneath a grey layer of clouds.

In Cee, I follow the Camino where it goes in a quite odd route through the town, before I leave it by and go back to a place that I visited earlier. I need a beer to calm myself, to get a breather. It helps a little bit, but in Corcubion where I have planned to eat lunch, I use a long time finding a proper place (in most of the places the dishes was of size that of a dinner, I wanted something easier) and I lose my mood again. I believe that I am tired and sleepy.

0.00km left to go, at Cabo Fisterra. It is as far as you can go.

I recognize the Camino here from last time I walked here, it is a pleasant walk, but it was nicer then. As it also was on the Camino Frances, it is enjoyable to recognize those places I pass by. My mood is better after the huge portion of food that I finally had to succumb to in Corcubion. Looking over to the end of the world beneath the grey clouds is also not so bad a view either.

Once in Finisterre you can finally put your feet up in the air and say you have done it, these feet has carried me around 445km from Sebrayo to here during 18 days.

In Finisterre, I find myself an albergue before I go to Cabo Fisterra. I choose Albergue Finistella, which is a good enough private albergue, I do not wish to be bound by the bed times of the public albergue here. I leave my backpack behind and only take what I need in my small travel light pack out to the lighthouse.

Celebration in Finisterre.

Out at the Cabo Fisterra, the lighthouse and the 0.00km-mark I forget everything of my bad mood. There is no sun in the sky, but there is a beautiful light over the sea anyway. Melancholic. I sit down on one of the cliffs below the lighthouse, and repeats the ritual in front of the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela; I remove my shoes and socks. I lift my feet towards the ocean; they have carried me here as well. On one of the rocks there is a man sitting and playing guitar. It is a cliché, but you do get somewhat contemplative sitting here after a long walk on the Camino.

Sunset at Cabo Fisterra.

As expected, I cannot find again my shoes that I buried here four years ago.

One of the pilgrim's rituals at the lighthouse in Finisterre, to burn a piece of clothing that you have worn on the Camino. Here my socks are going up in flames together with other clothes.

In Finisterre, I meet again Lucy and Annie and I join them for a celebratory dinner at one of the restaurants in the port, together with the group they have walked with. In the evening, we meet out by the lighthouse again. Without the weather clearing altogether, it is now more openings in the layers of clouds. Through these, we get a wonderful sunset over the sea. Darkness descends. We make a fire and I burn up my socks in it (one of the rituals at the lighthouse after a Camino is to burn one of your clothes that you have worn on the walk). In addition, I 'buried' my toothbrush on the mast together with all the other paraphernalia the pilgrims has left behind there.

I did not have a very good walk out to where the worlds end, but the afternoon and evening became a worthy ending of the Camino Finisterre (though I have not finished it quite yet).

La Fisterrana.

<- LogosoMuxia / Santiago de Compostela ->

Camino de Finisterre // day 17 // Negreira - Logoso

Camino Primitivo / Camino Finisterre day 17.
Distance: 36.7km (415.2km), time spent: 10:14 (128:16).
Weather: Grey, overcast, rain and glimpses of sun.

I decided early in the evening yesterday that it was to a small place I would walk to today. In my Cicerone guidebook I could read '...all the way into and through tiny Logoso...' and I just knew inside me that it was there I would walk to today. A long walk, but it turned out to be well worth it.

On the way out of Negreira you walk past this elaborate wall, next to the Pazo de Coton.

Weatherwise, it was little indication of how great the day would turn out to be, it was a grey and sad weather mostly, with small glimpses of sun in between. Still, the weather was a part of what made the walk so great, it was a long walk in a landscape that appeared desolate, where the sorrowful clouds only enhanced the atmosphere.

Walking through a moody forest after Zas.

Ironically, it is when I leave Negreira that I first see something interesting in the town. Before the route crosses the river Río Barcala you pass by the elaborate walls of Pazo de Coton, a medieval palace with a chapel from the eighteenth century, Capela de San Mauro. In the walls, there are small stalls, but what they are used for now I do not know.

Below Pedra Edrada there was for a short while blue sky and a rainbow that stretched itself across the sky.

I am a little bit ambivalent in the first hours of the day, the walk beneath the clouds has a melancholy beauty over it, but at the same time I walk and think about how it would have been had I walked here yesterday in the nice weather. I pass by small villages and hamlets that seems abandoned to fend for themselves, through lonely forests in quietness. Going over a hill with rolling verdant fields, I wish I could see what is hidden behind the clouds, at the same time as I enjoy the current view. Above the windmills the sun is breaking through the clouds for some moments, a rainbow bends across the sky.

In Vilaserio, most of the pilgrims gathers at the local traditional bar, but a little further away an older lady waves at me. I walk over there. It turns out to be a small and pleasant café run by an elderly couple in their own garden, here I can sit in a comfortably chair while I drink a café con leche and eat a toast. Walking past the albergue and the bar at the place, I yet again regret not going here yesterday.

Baiuca de Xan in Vilaserio, a small café run by an elderly couple in their own garden.

After Vilaserio, it is more desolate walking until Santa Marina, where the clouds ruffles the trees. I meet again Vincente in one of the bars there, happy to see that he has made it. He now sends his backpack ahead of him and is now walking only in sandals, the shoes he originally used was too small. They speak Danish at the table next to us.

Each time I move up into a little higher ground, blue sky and sun appears in the sky. As soon as I get lower down again, the clouds closes its embrace again. Around me, there are several hills that I want to climb to the top of, but from the Camino there are no good paths leading up to them. A lake appears in the view, Encoro da Fervenza.

Fonte de Cornado, a water source on the 'desolate' stretch between Vilaserio and Santa Marina.

After Abeleiroas, there are some rocky hills breaking up from the ground, which reminds me a little of the crags I walked across on the Hadrian's Wall Path in England. I leave my backpack behind and climb on top of one of the crags. There is a small wall on top of the crag. A small watchtower, Mirador de Corzón, where you can look out over the landscape, with an onerous layer of clouds above it. In the horizon, I can see the unmistakable signature of rain coming towards you, wind blows around my ears.

View towards a green world turned almost grey in Mazaricos, a lonely tree.

It is in Olveiroa most of the pilgrims usually stop on their Camino to the end of the world, and it is nice and small village consisting of several old buildings of stone. A private albergue here runs both a restaurant and a tiny store. The public albergue here looks pleasant as well. It would have been a nice play to stay. I schedule one hour to relax and have some food in the village. In the bar beneath the public albergue, I meet Klaus and three other walkers.

View from the Mirador de Corzón, a veil of rain in the horizon.

That I move silently is confirmed when I scare the woman working at the bar when I go to pay, she has not heard me coming in and makes a startled cry when she turns around and sees me. From Olveiroa there is about four kilometres left of the day to walk for me. To me, it becomes a fantastic ending of the walk for today.

In Olveiroa beneath the public albergue. The village is known for its buildings of stone.

On the way from Olveiroa, the feeling I had when I walked on the meseta on the Camino Frances comes back to me. Just me, alone and a desolate scenery. Around me, the clouds enshrouds the hills. The wind soars foreboding where I walk in solitude. I pack my jacket tighter around me. A feeling of leaving the civilization. This is what I love. Raindrops slow, but sure begins to form in the air. Beneath the route a river runs through, you can hear the hum of it through the wind. The river ends in a small lake with a dam.

A sensation of desolation on the walk between Olveiroa and Logoso, just me, alone and the howling wind.

I come to Logoso just as the rain starts for full, and it is the small albergue here that I encounter first. Logoso is just as I wants the village to be, it is a tiny place only consisting of a small number of houses. It is warm and nice inside the albergue, I feel at home.

In the evening, the rain increases. It is a good feeling sitting inside now and looking out while the raindrops fills the air, while I thinks about the today's walk. I eat dinner together with Diana, a Danish girl that has ran the whole of Camino Frances and is now running the Camino Finisterre and Muxia as an encore. A sporty and nice girl, and it is also nice to speak my own language again, we can understand each other. It has been a marvellous day.

Logoso. The private albergue O'Logoso, a small and very pleasant albergue.

<- NegreiraFinisterre ->

Camino de Finisterre // day 16 // Santiago de Compostela - Negreira

Camino Primitivo / Camino Finisterre day 16.
Distance: 20.5km (378.5km), time spent: 5:36 (118:02).
Weather: Light overcast, then sunny and blue sky.

I never got to do the Camino Finisterre the last time I was here. There was not enough time before our flight back home after arriving in Santiago de Compostela. Instead, I ended up doing something in between, where I took the bus to Cee together with three other pilgrims and walked the last kilometres to Finisterre from there. A very nice walk, but I left with a slightly bitter feeling that I did not got to do the whole walk. Now, I finally will go to the end of the world.

Standing outside the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela in the morning at the start of the Camino Finisterre. It feels different standing here at the Praza do Obraidoiro and will be walking away from it.

Due to the celebration yesterday and the huge size of the breakfast in Hostal Alfonso, I get off to a late start however. In the morning, the streets are quite empty and I walk with a rather strange feeling. It is almost quiet on the Praza do Obraidoiro, but there are some few pilgrims here smiling satisfied with the knowledge that they have completed their Camino. The weather is grey and little welcoming when my first steps takes me away from the cathedral.

Camino Finisterre leaves Santiago through small and pleasant streets.

It is a strange feeling to walk away from Santiago de Compostela, the city that you have walked towards for so long. And I keep wondering if it is only me, but is it not so that every route that leads out of big city on a Camino is more pleasant than the route leading into it? Small pleasant streets follows me on the way out of the city, where the city ends the route goes down into a small valley past remains of uninhabited houses. When I emerge up from the valley, I can see back towards Santiago and the spires of the cathedral.

It is quite clear to where the yellow arrow is leading the way.

Another thing that I go and think about, is that I now will be among a complete new group of pilgrims, it is less likely that I will meet again some of those I walked together with on the primitivo. Those who also had planned to go to Finisterre wanted to stay for some days in Santiago beforehand. Already from the beginning, there are new faces to relate to, these will in turn have the advantage of knowing each other from the Camino Frances or whichever Camino they walked.

Looking back at Santiago de Compostela and the spires of the cathedral, a weird feeling.

The walk today is a pleasant one and goes mostly on a mix of gravel roads and asphalt, the hardest climb comes after a break in the bar in Augapesada. I get to know two American girls that passes me while I takes a photo of a bush that apparently is for sale according to a sign.

The Camino Finisterre goes through scenic paths like this one.

The highlight of the day is Ponte Maceira, a picturesque little village. If it were an albergue here, I would not have continued walking. A river runs through the village, Río Trambe, with a wonderful Roman bridge going over it. The sun has come out of the clouds making it even more idyllic. The restaurant here serves a juicy and tender burger, in addition to one of the tallest sellos that I have seen.

Roman bridge going over grass in Augapesada.

From Ponte Maceira, there is about four kilometres to go to Negreira. I am surprised when I pass by Klaus, whom I last saw back in Lugo. He had chosen to go straight through Santiago de Compostela to avoid the crowds of people there. I can both understand and not understand him.

Walking over the Roman bridge in Ponte Maceira.

In Negreira, there is nothing else than a baking sun in the sky. I decides to stop for the day here, gets a bed at Albergue Lua, and regrets the decision shortly after. The weather is very good and there is still a good time left of the day, so I could have nicely walked on to Vilaserio (about 12km more). What is done is however done and my clothes are hanging out wet to dry.

Ponte Maceira with the Roman bridge over Río Tambre.

The decision does not get any better that I find Negreira to be boring; there is nothing here, despite the size of the town. However, I might feel that there is something amiss when I no longer has the other pilgrims that I have got to know around me anymore. Klaus saves the evening eventually when I meet him again later. He keeps me company, while I eat the cheapest dinner so far on my walk. For three and a half euro, I get a big plate with salad, patatas fritas, two eggs and two large slices of pork meat. As well as a dessert.

Always watching over you on the Camino.

I enjoyed my first day on the Camino Finisterre with lovely Ponte Maceira as a highlight. If I would go it another time, I would go past Negreira however.

Smile, you are alive. From Albergue Lua in Negreira.

<- Santiago de CompostelaLogoso ->

Camino Primitivo // day 15 // Arca O Pino - Santiago de Compostela

Camino Primitivo / Camino Finisterre day 15.
Distance: 20.0km (358.0km), time spent: 5:12 (112:26).
Weather: Overcast, some rain.

In the night, it sounds like the man in the bunk next to me is dying, repeatedly, irregularly. It is impossible to sleep, just as I can feel the sleep close my eyes the man is about to be strangled. In my quiet mind, I give him the name of 'the camino death rattler'. The walls are resonating by the snoring. Deep into the night I have had enough, I pack together my belongings and sneak into the other dormitory where there are some empty beds and quiet.

Flaming morning outside Arce O Pino, before the clouds swallowed them.

When I wake up in the morning, it is still quiet in the room and no one has risen yet. In my original dormitory, the lights are on and there are no one left, except 'the camino death rattler', everyone has gone. I can hardly hide the fact that I escaped to the other room when I bring back the pillow and bedbug cover. A message from Douglas woke me up, in which he said that he had started walking, he thought I had already gone when he woke up. It is a big yawn that sit and eat breakfast in a bar in the morning.

After Arca O Pino, the route goes through a magnificent forest with tall and amazing twisted trees.

The last walk into Santiago de Compostela is really something of an anti-climax. There is actually very little special or exciting about it, except the fact that you will be at the target you have walked towards for so long. The trail is most pleasant in the beginning out of Arca O Pino when it goes through a forest with lofty eucalyptus trees, but when you come to Labacolla, the airport of Santiago de Compostela; it is mainly an eventless walk.

Pilgrim paraphernalia on the fence to the airport of Santiago de Compostela, Labacolla, marking that they are almost at the end of their walk.

The worst of what the Camino can offer is not what I want after this sleepless night. Where I yesterday did not have any problems walking among the many pilgrims, I do have it today. Today, I meet the groups of youths that only walks from Sarria (100km is the minimum distance you have to go to get the Compostela) and they are making a lot of noise. A lot of noise. It is as if they cannot do anything without noise around, they are hollering, screaming, laughing and singing falsely in high voices.

On the way to San Marcos and Monte de Gozo, grey clouds in the horizon.

I am suddenly walking in the middle of such a group and to get away I have to pick up my pace, which I rather would have been without. At Labacolla, I sneak down to one of the bars, hoping that the kindergarten continues further. I wash my hands in the river that runs through Labacolla; for pilgrims of old, this was the place where they washed themselves before they walked the last part to the grave of apostle.

San Marcos, the last village you pass through before you come to Santiago de Compostela.

Towards Monte de Gozo, there is a long line of pilgrims on their way. I can hear yelling and screaming from that direction and seek refuge in the bar at San Marcos for a beer to calm my nerves with. Which almost are stuck in my throat, when Frank comes rushing, almost flying. I think I barely has seen such a purposeful pilgrim before. As Douglas and I thought, he was not ready to stop so early in Lugo and had rushed on the following days. Now he wanted to reach the pilgrim's mass in the cathedral.

Once in Santiago de Compostela you can finally put your feet up in the air and say you have done it, these feet has carried me around 360km from Sebrayo to here during 15 days.

It would be nice to attend the mass. The last four kilometres from Monte de Gozo to Santiago are very little exciting, so I do some rushing of my own as well. This has maybe been the worst walk so far on my Camino, but when I walk through the streets in the old town of Santiago de Compostela, the experience fades away. I get a sort of exalted feeling, but not in a religious way. It is only the realization that I again will be standing in front of the mighty cathedral in Santiago and has completed another Camino.

Amusement park in Santiago de Compostela, a lot of noise compared to the Camino Primitivo, not so much noise compared to the Camino Frances.

To walk into the Praza do Obraidoiro again feels like a worthy ending, only that for me this is not the end of my walk. Tomorrow I will be on my way again. There are significantly more here now than it was when I came together with my dad in the fall 2011. Spread out on the place there are pilgrims sitting, having finished their walk. I sit down, takes of my socks and boots. The pilgrim's mass in the cathedral has begun, but I am satisfied just sitting here outside of it. I can however not enter the cathedral with my backpack. A parade walks by. Pilgrims walks by. Tourists walks by. I stay sitting on the Praza do Obraidoiro for almost an hour.

Chandelier in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.

The queue to pick up the Compostela is long. Walking through the streets of Santiago de Compostela again brings back several memories from last time. The city and the streets are still just as nice as then, but there are considerably more people here now. There is an amusement park in the park just above the hotel that I am staying in, Hostal Alfonso (a very pleasant small hotel), which was not there last time (maybe it is only here during the summer). As a pilgrim, there are also certain rituals that you have to do (such as resting on the place outside the cathedral upon arrival). I visit the cathedral and gives the statue of St. James a solid pat on the shoulder.

Celebrating the Camino in Santiago, from left: Frank, me, Francisca, Joe, Annie, Douglas, Joanna and Joanna (Michal, Jose, Madi, Lucy and Mateusz are missing in the picture).

In the afternoon, we gather to celebrate the endpoint of our Camino, where Frank leads us on a merry chase to find a place to eat. I suffer of total sleep deprivation after the night's snorequake, and is for a moment a little bit out of it. Michal saves me and after a beer, I feel better again. Around the table are Douglas, Frank, Annie, Joe, Francisca, Joanna, Joanna, Michal, Mateusz and Jose. Afterwards, we ends up at a dancing place of things, to see pilgrims dance after walking for so many kilometres is rather strange.

I also got to say goodbye to Pablo, Caty, Rocio and Maribel.

On the way back to my hotel in the evening, I find out that I got a message from Pablo and Rocio about where they will eat dinner and that they have reserved a seat for me, the message is several hours old. Luckily, they are still in the restaurant and I guiltily have to apologize for not seeing the message until too late. I was however very glad to get to say goodbye to Pablo, Rocio, Caty and Maribel as well. Despite that I was very tired it was a fantastic evening and ending of the Camino Primitivo.

When I slips into the realm of the sleep in my quiet room at the hotel, my days on the Camino Primitivo are over. An adventure is over, another begins. Tomorrow it is up and on the way again, then I embarks upon the Camino Finisterre and the end of the world.

La Compostela.

<- Arca O PinoNegreira ->