Castaneda to O Pedrouzo. Distance 26.8 km ( 16.6 mi / 16.4) to go 19.6km

The 19.6km to go is based on calculations. The book shows 20.1 to the Cathedral and the stone way points show about 18 km to the city edge. Now that we've got that straight...

Today's story really started last night with something that touched me deeply. 

After "publishing" my blog entry I went to a dining area to wait for dinner time. I was joined there by Alfred H., from near Hamburg Germany. A retired design engineer for Siemens, he has been traveling the Camino for about 5 weeks now, walking a more southern route that was now united with the Camino I am walking, so he too is expecting to be in Santiago on Tuesday. Just prior to his departure, he had been to the Berlin area for the wedding of his son.

We talked at length about some of the people we had met and stories we had heard. That was when he asked if I had seen the man who walked the Camino barefoot. He said he had looked inside a little church along the route today and saw him praying.

I explained that Fr. Stephan was a German priest and that I had given him a rosary. I then went back and told him the story of why I was passing out rosaries on the Camino.

He was moved and asked if he could buy one. I told him no, but I would love to give him one if he knew someone that could use it. That was when he shared this with me:

The day after his son's wedding they had stayed at his daughter-in-law's parents house. He had gone for a walk and was joined by his son's new mother-in-law. They had a very nice long talk, and during this walk she confided in him that, if I understand correctly, she is a very religious person. Now that her daughter is married and will not be around, she has decided that, come this fall, she is going into a convent to become a nun. He would like to give her a rosary as a gift from the Camino and was excited to have not only one of Betty's rosaries but carry the story with it. He then found someone to take a picture so he could show this lady who gifted it, and he could remember the moment.

Today was almost like survival mode, but without the immunity idol!

It started out just fine, with a large cup for coffee and an entire pot placed on the table!

Can you say, "coffee Americana Grande"!

When we exited the Camino yesterday, we (Alfred and I) had to walk a fair distance to find our Pension. (That's a Spanish "n", making the word mean something similar to a B&B, not a retirement check).

We were not particularly excited about back tracking so we followed a map on his phone that showed the Camino intersecting the road up ahead.

We took off late (7:45), headed west, thinking we were pretty smart. But then we saw this:

The Camino DID cross our road, but we would have needed to scale a stone embankment! Another "shortcut" was found, but it required we go "boondocking", off road, to pick up the other trail. Alfred was willing to do this. Apparently he had not heard of the Galician Jumping Slugs!

I walked only a short distance before coming to Arzua, a good sized town.

Within one block I saw the following:

Two trucks of bicycles unloading for a tour

An entire bus load of youthful trekkers, numbering over 40!

They were all male so it was probably a boys school or a Scouting type organization. They were heading toward merging onto MY Camino!

I've heard that hiking the final 100 km of the Camino is common among Spain's middle school population (and I heard that Korea encourages this too)! I picked up the pace, thinking I could stay ahead of them but it didn't take long for their youth and fresh legs to overtake me. Walking became like hanging around a bee hive. You could hear the swarm coming, then it engulfed you, taking over the trail, the "bars", all the seats and tables at restaurants. It was not fun. With, in most cases, an interest level that was nearly non-existent, the youngsters lent nothing to the ambiance of the Camino, so I shifted my focus today to "decompression" mode. 

Similar to deep sea divers who spend time in a chamber before resurfacing to avoid the bends, this was my preparation for returning to reality.

I did, on several occasions, have people give me a shoutout as I passed a restaurant or bar. "Frog, how's it going"? One young lady, as she breezed by me, asked how my blog was going; if I'd been able to keep up with it.

There is now a familiarity of faces that repeats daily. Most of the people from the first couple of weeks have passed me by, but these folks figure to finish with me tomorrow. With about 4 to 5 hours walking left, we can be sure there will be familiar faces in the Praza de Obradoiro tomorrow. I admitted to Alicia that it would be pretty cool to have at least one person call my name in recognition, as I enter the "Golden Square".

Keep your left elbow bent my dear, I should be home before the weekend!

Bonus material:

Here's yet another bathroom fixture you don't see every day:

I elected not to have lunch there...

I had something get lost in translation today when ordering lunch. They had hamburgers on the menu at this particular restaurant, but listed them as "Completo", or something similar, indicating to me that the whole garden was included. I tried to indicate to the young lady that I wanted "no completo", no mas. She countered with an indication from the menu that "cheese" was still possible. Somewhere in the conversation my order was modified as never before - I ended up with a hamburger in a bun, and on each side of the hamburger patty was a slice of processed ham!

The fries were good, but they were French!