Wednesday, April 29- in Santiago for the last day. Rémi, Jacques, Ron and myself are visiting the city in the morning before our departure. The three of us are taking a bus for Porto, Portugal, leaving at 2pm. Jacques is taking a train bound for Madrid at 6pm. He flies home to Québec tomorrow. We visited the church again, then the seminario de Menor, the food market. Rémi also bought some shorts for the rest of our visit in Portugal.

Seminario de Menor (a school and an Albergue)

Rémi, Ron, and their new friend, Jacques.

Fish display in the market.

Cheeses and oils in the market.

Lots of octopus on display. 

We walked to the bus station and hopped on the bus for the two hour trip. We arrived in Porto around 5:30 and only had to ask one person for directions to our hotel. The great thing was that we didn't speak the same language, but we made it there by understanding sign language and a few familiar words such as Iglisa. Our rental is an apartment which is nice because there is a kitchen and a living room. The lady who registered us suggested a restaurant nearby and we were not disappointed. We started off with some sort of sausage or chorizo, then Rémi and I had cod on a salad and Ron had a typical Portuguese meat stew. Of course, our waitress chose a wonderful bottle of wine to go with our meal. 

A Mojito, who would've thought that I could order a real authentic Mexican drink. Yummy! 

Our great bottle of wine.

Our starter of chorizo in phillo another a sweet chilli sauce. 

Ron's stew.

Our cod dish. Rémi and I were very happy with our choice.

We got back to our place around 9:30, discuss our plans for tomorrow and crashed around 10:30.

Finally, last three days of the Camino for Ron and Rémi- Saunday, the 26, Monday, the 27, and Tueusday, the 28th. From Pala de Rwi to Rebadiso- 26.5 km. it was another rainy day. Te lunch stop along the way was in Melide for octopus or pulpa. It was the first try for the boys. Rémi was reluctant to try it as not all seafood agrees with him. Luckily they all enjoyed the delicacy. They walked with Jacques, Fiona, and Barry. They crossed six different rivers that day.

One of the many stone bridges to cross.

50 km to go.

The pulpa (octopus) for lunch. They have a great presentation.

Cute familly of dogs hanging out by the grain storage.

Muddy trails of the last few days.

Walk through a Eucalyptus forest. Great aroma on a rainy day. 

Typical pre-dinner drink after a long trek. 

Monday- Ribadiso to Pedrouzo - 22 km. Another poncho day and a hard climbing day as well. More banter with princess Fiona and the silver wombats.

Rémi wearing the original pilgrim's outfit.

Another direction markers. 

Rémi's leading the pack with Fiona and Barry behind him. 

Typical forest during the last three days.

Tuesday, Pedrouzo to SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA- 21km. Finally the sun came out for the last day of the journey. It was an easy but boring  walk as it went through forest and some industrial sections, past the airport into SANTIAGO. The five Aussies and Canadians walked in together around 11:30. I was there to meet them at Puerto do Camino.

A monument on Monte Gozo overlooking SANTIAGO. 

Getting closer!

I finally see them arriving.

Six of the survivors in front of the Cathedral. 

Rémi, after receiving his credential.

Ron with his pilgrim's passport.

Sticks left behind by pilgrims.

A big group of pilgrims happy to have met on the camino and have finished on the same day. 

25 pilgrims having the congratulatory supper together.

Ron and Rémi's trek these last five day from Friday, April 24 to Tuesday, April 28
Sarria to Portomarín- 23 km. it was a rainy day. The terrain was farmland with cow patches and a calf being born. Ron had the biggest bocadilla ( sandwich) big enough to feed a family of four. They met up with Jacques, from Québec and walked together for the next four days. They also met Harold, the German teacher hiking with a group of students. They passed the 98 km mark. Portomarín is on the very beautiful river Milo.

The 100 km marker on a wet, soggy day.

Another 100 km marker.

An ostrich trying to get free.

The biggest bocadilla yet. Even Ron couldn't finish it.

Cows with massive horns.

Poor mama trying to give birth. Looks like it was twins.

Saturday, from Portomarín to Palas del Rei- 26.1 km which included a lot of climbing. Another rainy day on the way. Again lots of farmland, very green pastures. Saw a lemon tree full of fruit. There was a cow cleaning a newborn. It is definitely springtime. The guys found a nice Albergue and joined up with a lot of Aussies. (Bruce, Isabel, Princess Fiona, Barry- silver Wombat, Ross and Maria). There was also Jacques and Brigit from Austria.

Marker leaving Portomarín.

River leaving Portomarín.

Over the last three or four days we have seen gorgeous colours.(purple, yellow, blue, violet, and white heather and ground cover. 

Mama cleaning her newborn. 

Rémi is just going to make it with his boots. Needed some duct tape to get him through the rainy weather. 

70 year old Jacques with the 70 km marker 

Supper at the albergue with Jacques, Fiona, Ron, Bruce, Barry, Brigit, Ross, Maria, Isabel, and Rémi.

Sunday, April 26- Happy Birthday to my younger sister Gisèle. In Santiago- it's sunny to start the morning but we know that this will not last so we are getting ready to go out soon. The long range forecast is calling for rain most of the week. We might get a break on Tuesday. Monique's flight to Paris leaves at 4:30 today. She will overnight in Paris and fly home Monday to be ready to go back to work on Tuesday. She's had a great Camino. She's hoping to get back here soon to finish the last 100 km and get her accreditation.
We went off to have breakfast and stopped at the same place as yesterday. We both had a tortilla which is a smaller version of our omelettes. We then walked to an Albergue that used to be a seminary and today is a school and hostel. Beside it was an old church. It's a great viewing area to see most of Santiago..

Albergue and school. Built in the 1950's.

Convent of Belvis

View of the city from the Albergue.

It had just stopped raining when we reached our destination. The rain was on and off all the time.

We headed back into the old city towards the Cathedral. Mass was soon going to finish. There was 

already a line up started for visitors to enter as you cannot get in once the service has started. We moved on to get a bit of shopping in before Monique's departure. She bought a pendant and chain as I had yesterday and I bought a ring, from the same jewelry store.

This ring has two of the symbols seen on the camino; a shell, and a sword. 

Monique's bus to the airport was just across the street from our hotel, so an easy walk. Her flight leaves for Paris at 4:30. 

I am back in the hotel for a while, again to rest the foot and stay out of the rain as it started up again. I will probably head out later to find supper and call it a night. I will book a rental car for Portugal and reserve a hotel in Porto for Wednesday night. We will either take a bus or a train to Porto on Wednesday. 

Saturday, April 25- in Santiago for Monique and me. It is a rainy Saturday. Wearing my poncho. (Ron and Rémi walked from Portomarín to Palas del Rei today walking about 27 km). MinqueMonique and I went to the pilgrims mass at noon. You have to get there early to get a seat in a pew. There are many tourists, pilgrims, and locals. It was nice even though it was all in Spanish. At the end of the service there is a huge incense burner. (Botafumeiro) it was originally used to fumigate the pilgrims after their long journeys.

Before mass started. A sea of people ahead of us.

The incense burner is in the middle of this picture. It is swung like a pendulum with incense coming out of it at the end of the service.

We went shopping after the service. We both both jewelry commemorating our journeys on the camino. I bought a charm of a shell with chain and Moniqe bought a bracelet, again with the symbol of the Camino. Then, it was lunch time. It was after 2 pm. We stopped in a very nice restaurant. They advertised paella and it actually looked decent. After ordering a few glasses of vino tinto we decided to share a seafood paella. It was sooooo good.

We got to share this. There were mussels, pulpa (squid), shrimp, and calamari. It has stopped raining so off we go exploring again. Will finish this later.

We returned to the hotel around 4 pm and have a drink of wine while we catch up on Facebook and emails. It's 7:30 before we venture our again to go try the delicacy of the area - pulpa. It's squid. Neither one of us is sure to pull it off. It'll depend on the presentation. We had already picked out a restaurant so we headed there. Of course it's busy as most people only eat around 8 or later. A waiter needs to explain most of the menu to us. We choose calamari, a shrimp and scallop dish, a salad ( need some veggies), and a pulpa dish. Here are some of the results.

These are the calamari and the second dish is the pulpa. Both were very good. It was 9 before we left, feeling good, but not too full so we decided to have dessert in the same place we had the paella. It wasn't worth the extra 400-500 calories. We were both disappointed. They always look so good...

Lots of nuts in this one. 

This was Apple with butterscotch topping.  We should've stuck with chocolate. You can't go wrong with chocolate. 

As soon as I meet up with the boys on Tuesday, I will post their blog and pictures of the last five days. Monique is leaving Sunday. I will be on my own until Tuesday.