Walking into green hills and mountains after the meseta was a delight. And it felt pretty surreal to be coming into the last third of our walk. Gratitude and excitement (and lots of silliness) was filling our days.
We took our third and last rest day in Foncebadon for unfortunate reasons – Javi got food poisoning. Being sick all night in a crowded hostel is pretty terrible, especially because they kick you out early so they can prepare for the next round of pilgrims. We were stranded for a bit in the morning not sure what to do because Javi was feeling too ill to walk, but (very) luckily a cute little hotel across the street had an open room that morning and let us check in at 8 am! A private room and bathroom was just what Javi needed to get some rest and recover. Whew. Thank you El Trasgu de Foncebadón!
After that incident we took it easy to the city of Ponferrada, where we started the Camino in 2013, and moved slowly through lovely mountain towns like Villafranca del Bierzo and O Cebreiro. We had some painful memories of our last trip up O Cebreiro, one of the bigger climbs on the Camino, but we felt so much more prepared this time and it was actually a pleasure.
After that things started to become a blur as time moved more quickly, and the path became more crowded with new walkers. Most people actually start the Camino in Sarria, the last place you can start for it to “count” (aka you can get the certificate of completion from there). We started to meet some of the new faces and although we preferred a less crowded path, the energy of the new folks was pure excitement (and a lot of surprise at how physically tough it can really be).
We recognized a lot during this phase since we had been there before, Javi twice. Sometimes memory can be a funny thing, though, and we often found that things weren’t at all like we remembered. But it was neat to have those very fond memories of our family trip come back to us.
As we made our way to Santiago, we decided to just stop for one night instead of taking a rest day, effectively treating it as just another night on the Camino, because we had our sights set on Fisterra. The town (also referred to as Finisterre), along with the neighboring town of Muxía, is at the very end of the road on the coast and many folks choose to move on after Santiago and keep walking. I guess we just can’t get enough of it!
Seeing the coast for the first time in 40 days was truly magical. We are both coast and ocean lovers, Javi having lived near the coast his whole life, and Laura living on coasts since she left Chattanooga at 18. It was like we could feel it getting closer before we even saw it. We decided right then and there we would try never be far from the coast for that long during the rest of our adventure, if we can help it. Fisterra was a beautiful place with a fun energy. Finishing our 40 days there was better than we imagined.
We spent a couple of nights there at a nice little hotel, and visited with friends who had made it a few days before. After a much needed fire-making session on the beach, we hopped on a bus to head back to Santiago. Being in a fast-moving vehicle was totally strange. It’s interesting the things that become so weird or fascinating after an experience like this.
Back in Santiago, we spent a couple more days touristing around, attending mass at the Cathedral, visiting with friends, and enjoying our last few days in Spain (!) before we made our next move to London.
We are so happy and grateful that we decided to include this adventure in our plans. It was challenging and long, but the experience of a lifetime to be sure, and something that we will always look to as a major highlight of this grand travel adventure of ours.