How Many Pilgrims Does It Take to Get to Santiago?

 This is the only picture of our day from Vilanova de Arousa to Padron.  It was a great salad with sashimi!

 The day into Santiago with our many Camino Portuguese brethren.

 Great café stop. The Galicia Estrella went down good.

 The line up at the pilgrim's office to receive our Compostellas.

The swinging  of the butafumerio at the pilgrim's mass. Never fails to move me.

We failed to contact anyone in Vilanova about the boat to Padron which was a huge disappointment.  The walk from here was a hard road walking slog, that frankly,  after I had gotten my mind set on a boat ride,  did not want to entertain. John checked a taxi to the bus station which would have cost in the neighborhood of 40€. What? It was 10k up the road.  At this point that's nothing right? And it was right on the Camino.  Once we got to the bus station,  we found out that the next bus was 7pm that evening.  That's not gonna work.  Trains run much more often.  The station was luckily just around the corner.  Next train to Padron,  15:20. We thought the guy was saying 15 to 20 minutes in our English speaking minds. Sweet! Then we densely figured out that the train leaves at 3:20 and it was only 1:20.  Okay,  we are usually always starving so we'll use the opportunity to eat the menu del dia! And we are right on time for once!

Filling lunch,  on the train, and our hotel Rosalie was right there as we exited the train.  Not the best hotel by far but it served it's purpose.

Our last day was over 24k or 15 or miles so we got up as early as the lacking breakfast service would allow, and on the road.  Into the throng of pilgrims like we have not seen on this entire route.  We did meet another Colorado couple from Ft. Collins at our first café stop. Walked behind a huge school group singing loudly in the early morning.  We took it all in stride trying to stay behind them and not overtake them, thus running from them the whole day. Much more peaceful, knowing we were reaching Santiago today.

Our arrival for me was not as emotional, at least as we reached the city, as on our first Camino but I can imagine that is like many different things you do for a second time.

It has not been without a deep sense of accomplishment. Speaking of accomplishment have thought all along that I would dedicate these pilgrimages to each of my children.  That means I'm done right? At least that's what I said after Jack was born. It is really hard to compare the two Caminos,  so immensely different they are. Both equally challenging,  both with enormous beauty.  It will take a while for me to reflect exactly what that means.

Thanks for following along.