Rest Day
Weather - Rain and more rain!
The best thing about today was that we weren't walking in the torrential rain. Unfortunately, John and Linda's last day on The Camino into Santiago would have been a very wet one. We will meet them tomorrow night and catch up over dinner.
We booked a bus tour to Finisterre which is the final destination for some pilgrims and is 90 kms west of Santiago de Compostela. The pilgrimage to Finisterre is believed to pre-date Christian times and is associated with the "end of the world". It is tradition for a pilgrim to burn either their clothes or boots on arrival to rid the old life and begin afresh.
Our small hotel lobby was mayhem as about fifty American tourists all of whom seemed to have English as a second language waited for their tour organiser. When they finally left there were four of us waiting in the lobby for our tour along with our tour guide cum bus driver.
Our small bus meandered around the narrow streets of Santiago de Compostela picking up passengers. There were eight of us for the tour. The two ex-nurses from Sydney, Andrea and Margaret, joined our tour. We were very pleased to see them again as they are such an inspiration. It turns out that Andrea walked into Santiago de Compostela on her 73rd birthday and the people in the Pilgrims Office sang Happy Birthday to her. (Andrea is on the left in the photo.)
Our bus was warm and the bus driver gave us a squeegee to wipe down the insides of the windows as they kept fogging up. And the rain kept pelting down. We passed pilgrims with their heads down against the elements. It looked tortuous and we were thankful that we were in the bus.
We made a few stops on the way to Finisterre. One was to a lovely bridge estimated to be about 700 years old and used by pilgrims on their way to Finisterre.
The next stop was to the oldest and one of the biggest granaries in Galicia. It was impressive.
After the making of the film, "The Way" the small fishing village of Muxia has become popular. Muxia sits along the "Coast of Death" due to the very large number of ship wrecks along the coastline. We reluctantly ventured out of the bus and the rain stayed away for the majority of the visit to a rocky outcrop along the coast. We could easily see how ships could be in trouble in this part of the world.
When we finally arrived at Finisterre it really did feel like the end of the world. The fog was so dense that we couldn't see anything. We got out of the bus with all our wet gear and went in search of the lighthouse. The conditions were worse than Muxia. After having a quick look around and a quick photo with the lighthouse Henk, Neil and I found a small cafe and stayed indoors.
This was not the day for sightseeing. We had hot coffees and tuna pie and waited for the bus to return to Santiago de Compostela. We returned at two thirty and it was still raining.
Our bus driver was an excellent guide. He spoke many languages and was well-versed in the history of the area which was very interesting.
We spent some time at the Santiago Cathedral Museum. In the evening we returned to our favourite tapas bar and tried some more delicious tapas. Tomorrow is our last day in Santiago de Compostela and it will be the last post of this blog.
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