Santiago de Compostela

Camino Ingles, Day 5: Sigueiro to Santiago de Compostela
 
Another early start, with a more than decent 7am breakfast at the hotel – cake as well as tostadas! – before the last short (15km) stage to Santiago de Compostela. According to the guidebook it is “unremarkable” but we found it pleasant enough going – the path manages to largely swerve the roads and Industrial areas on the way into the city and there are still some very good forested vistas to be enjoyed from the higher points. We took it pretty steadily anyway and stopped a couple of times along the way – once at the café at the Hotel Castro, with its mural and piped bagpipe music on the terrace, and once on the outskirts of town to top up on café con leche. The entry into the Cathedral Square, through a shady arch enlivened by a (real) piper, was quite something – grand, very beautiful and not a little moving. We headed straight to the Oficina del Peregrino and picked up our Compostelas – which was a lot less hassle than we’d been led to believe (and no complicated ‘faith check’, which was just as well…) – and then just sat for a while in the Square, watching the new pilgrims arrive, celebrate and take their photos. Then we had a wander to seek out some empanadas and the local Tarta de Santiago and then we went back and sat some more. Then we checked into our hotel, with it’s romantic balcony out into the street, went to see Almodovar’s gay cowboy short movie at the very cool Cines Compostela, and ate scallops and razor clams at a restaurant near the hotel…