We only spent the one night in Santiago and today began the next phase - continuing from Santiago on to Finisterre and Muxia on the ocean. "Finisterre" means end of the earth and in ancient times was regarded as such and thought to be the westernmost point of Europe (in fact, a point in Portugal is slightly more west). Medieval pilgrims would often continue from Santiago to Finisterre to celebrate at the ocean. On our first caminos we chose to end in Santiago but have always wanted to complete this last piece of the pilgrimage.
We were up around 7am, packed up and had churros with chocolate along with our morning coffee. On the way by 8:15am. The way out of the city was so much nicer than our route in on yesterday and we were walking on a forest path in less than a mile. As we reached a hilltop we could see the cathedral with the sunrise - sunrise is ~8:45am here now. We were up and down hills walking on small lanes and forest paths. After ~11km we stopped for a light lunch of tortilla, salad and cerveza con limon (beer and lemonade). Almost immediately after leaving lunch we had a fairly steep climb of 3km. Stopped for ice cream and espresso and continued on. Weather was clear and cool in the morning and slightly warm in the afternoon. We passed through a few pretty villages, over a medieval bridge and continnued to Negreira where we scouted several albergues before deciding to stay at Albergue Turistico San Jose, a fairly large and well equipped private albergue. It was probably only 25% full so we have adjoining bottom bunks in a quiet corner. What a pleasant and beautiful walk today!
Another view of the bridge
View of the bridge
Water flowing over a dam near an old bridge
Pleasant walking
A pleasant oasis for lunch - trellis full of kiwi fruits overhead
Flowers, stone wall and waymark
The cathedral in the sunrise - viewed
from several miles away
City very quickly left behind!
View of the cathedral as we left the central square
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