27km, 6.5 hours: Padrón to Santiago de Compostella

Sometimes, the body has had enough before the mind is done. This felt like one of those times. The Portuguese Camino from Porto to Santiago was 280km (roughly), much shorter than our previous stretches on the Frances and the del Norte. Though we had deliberately chosen that length, it now seemed too short. We were just now getting to recognize our fellow travellers. We had yet to create a pack of our own. But each journey is a different experience, with different pains and different rewards.

On our last day, we met a gentleman who was 78 years and walking his 8th Camino. His son, who had surprised him by joining him for the last 5 days, was limping badly, while his father was steaming along. Might that be us one day?

The weather held as we rolled into Santiago. Our plans were to check into our hotel, have lunch at our favorite Italian, walk around town, go to mass, and then eat dinner on “Spanish time” at an amazing steak restaurant we knew, El Papatorio. As things turned out, I may have ordered a little aggressively at lunch. A quick “digestive rest” turned into a long nap, and the mass passed us by. An evening stroll around town in the rain and we were done.

As we settle into our trip (by rental car) to Bilbao, our feet are thanking us for their reprieve, and dismissing any musings about the shortness of thw journey as sentimental nonsense.