Sarria to Santiago - My Experience

[freedom13]

I just thought I would share some of my experiences of my camino with other pilgrims, I hope it helps a little. Fortunately I had 12 days off as I had not had a holiday in a few years.
Day 1 / Flew in to Santiago airport, we got the bus from the airport at 4.20 which brought us to Lugo, arrived at Lugo 5.50. Switched buses at Lugo bound for Sarria at 6.30, arrived at Sarria 7.00. Stayed the night at Casa Matias, the old part of the town is very beautiful.
Day 2/ Sarria to Portomarin ....amazing countryside to walk through . Stopped at Casa Morgade for a bite to eat mid morn and to watch my fellow pilgrims stroll by .The walk over the bridge in to portomarin is a sight to behold, got a little dizzy looking down . Stayed the night at Albergue Ferramenteiro [ very modern facilities]
Day 3/ Portomarin to Eirexe, stopped at Gonzar [ cafe descanso del peregrino] for lunch, another amazing setting. Stayed at Albergue Xunta [ converted schoolhouse]. A very quiet little place with cows wandering freely along the street outside the albergue. It had a nice little cafe here called Conde Valdemar.
Day 4/ Eirexe to Palas de Rei [ with detour to Vilar de Donas]. Stayed at Albergue Buen Camino, lovely Albergue with bar/restaurant underneath and had a lovely seating area to the rear for to enjoy the evening with fellow pilgrims.
Day 5/ Palas de Rei to Melide. Stayed at Albergue Xunta, big but well maintained Albergue. The old part of Melide is a lovely little town with some nice cafe/bars.
Day 6/ Melide to Arzua. Stayed the night in Albergue de Arzua, another quaint little Albergue with old rafters showing along the roof [ and balcony for to watch the world go by]. We were lucky enough to hear a choir practice in the local church here = magnificient.
Day 7 / Arzua to Arca do Pino [ Pedrouza]. Stayed at Albergue Edreira, a really nice place with very friendly staff.
Day 8/ Arca de Pino to Monte Gozo. Stayed at Monte do Gozo Xunta, massive albergue done in block-house style, had a very friendly and funny man working at the desk, very witty.
Day 9/ Monte Gozo to Santiago, lovely little walk towards the old town, great to see the steeples of the cathedral from afar. Stayed the next 3 nights in Santiago [ in Bar Tata on Rua Nova, not far from the cathedral]
Day 10/ Santiago sightseeing.
Day 11/ Day trip to Finisterre, a 2.5 km from the busstop in Finisterre to the lighthouse on the hill, beautiful views along the walk.
Day 12/ Returned home to Ireland from Santiago airport.
The whole thing was an amazing experience and I am looking forward to doing more of the camino already.

[Lipka149]

Hello there, Irish Lad !

Well done and well written ! Yeah, the bridges in and out of Portomarin are something, aren't they ??? The choir practice surely must have been wonderful !

Thanks for sharing.

[Leslie]

I think it is really funny how people get to hear about the Camino then go for a week or two and then want to go back and walk more.

I received a postcard this morning from two friends who have just finished their second leg of the Camino in Leon. They walked for about ten days this time and last time. The Camino just kinda grabs some people.

[ClaireB]

Well I for one am definietely keen to do the whole thing next time - I loved the walk from Sarria to Santiago despite the rain, blisters, snorers, 5:30am pack rustlers and bed bugs

Glad you also had a fantastic time freedom!

[freedom13]

I would love to have the time to do the whole thing Claire, unfortunately work dictates otherwise.
Hmmmm now a few stages from St Jean in September might be another thing :-]

[grayland]

The earlier stages are very different from Sarria to Santiago. Fewer people...a little more difficult stages....

[joe]

Well, I got to Santiago yesterday and recieved my compostela! I didn´t go to the Cathedral or any other places and I started walking to Finisterre today... I´ll be going back to Santiago next week after spending a few nights in Finisterre and I wanted the Cathedral experience to be something to look forward to while I´m walking. But I do have to say Sarria to Santiago for me was the worst part of the whole thing... I was used to seeing only a few people on the road up until Sarria and as soon as I arrived there I couldnt even get a bed in the first 5 albergues I went to, for me it felt like a tourist walk for those last few days, so many people without backpacks, some wearing no tops because of the heat, a couple of joggers, and lots of people covered in shells! Oh... and lots of school children. I feel like things have gotten back to normal today as I walked out of Santiago and onto the path to Finisterre, not as many people here.

[joe]

Although I did meet a lot of really nice people who only started in Sarria, they too want to come back and do the whole thing... I guess Sarria to Santiago is sort of like a test drive for lots of people

[Lipka149]

Well, I got to Santiago yesterday and recieved my compostela!

Way to go, joe ! Thanks for writing to us along the Way. It was easy to feel your energy ! Looking forward to more stories when you get time to write.

Ultreya !

[Precious1]

Camino de Santiago from Sarria
Just returned from doing the trek. It was incredible beautiful from Sarria but tough doing from 15 to 23 kilometers a day at times, and the exhaustion you feel when you get to your hostel is delicious, and after a brief rest, maybe a shower, lol you are ready to go and explore the village or town you are resting in. Having a friend to do it with is better I think than doing it alone, as it is more rewarding to share just like in life. The local people are the most hospitable and very friendly. The hostels, albergues, are great fun and I loved the minimalist, good sportsmanship, social aspect of it. .

When you reach the old town of Santiago and first glimpse the magnificent structure of the Cathedral, the destination of your pilgrimag...it is moving. Then when you get your certificate, there is a sense of accomplishment in getting this symbolic document. You are now a pilgrim for life on the Way of Saint James, which to me is the way of agape.

You don't want to miss the Mass for the pilgrims every day at noon regardless of your affiliations. I was overcome by the throngs of people crowding into the huge cathedral, the transporting music sang by a nun with a voice of an angel, and got teary eyed when one of the priests read out the names of all the countries from around the world pilgrims had arrived from...even though I speak no Spanish beyond hola, buen camino, and por favor...

Then, when they swing the great incense burner hung from the rafters before the gold embossed altar, it is a spectacle in itself but suggests things different for each person. Me, I was thinking of how this is how they fumigated the pilgrims of old who arrived tattered and sweaty ...much like it was fumigating my camino buddy and me. lol :]

Though the Cathedral of this holy man is the destination of this pilgrimage, the end of the journey by way of mileage is the peninsula on the wild and mountainous coast at Finisterre. This was thought to be the end of the earth for a long time and where James the Great landed when he arrived from Palestine and where he departed from to return, where he was crucified by King Agripa I.

Even if you are not spiritual, it can't help but be a transcendent experience. It will change you, your view of life, values and what is precious to you in this pilgrimage of life, it this fleeting time, becomes very clear. The end is only the beginning of a journey to the inner Self, and towards Transcendence.

[Precious1]

So you really thinking about going back and doing some more in September freedom13? That sounds fab. Glad you can get away from work again. Buen Camino amigo!! :]

[freedom13]

One can always dream Precious1, one can always dream .

[Precious1]

Dream big then,Freedom13!! lol
Wanted to belatedly thank you for your succinct and clear itinerary of the trek. Loved going back and looking at all the places on the map and seeing everything play back in HD. Those choir practices in Arzua are something else, aren't they? :]

[freedom13]

There is definitely something truly moving about the music in churches along the Camino Precious1 .
A lot of it I think has to do with the continuity of singing through the ages within the churches, really inspiring.

[Precious1]

Just came across this letter I'd written a friend shortly after returning from the Camino and it really stirred up some feelings..hope it does for you too.


"Hi Clareboy!! A friend from Ireland emailed me "Live your dream, not dream your life" a few weeks before we did el CAmiono de Santiago beginning in Sarria the first heydays of June. I savored your detailed rendering and evocation of the trek and was dying to experience the beautiful verdant country side of Galicia with its horreros, stone villages and churches and cows being led by farmers and their dogs and all the lovely albergues. and the convivial atmosphere of fellow trekkers.

Had a chuckle then and now, with regards to the woman doing the Camino apparently with nothing but a plastic market bag, "It would take a woman to set out for Santiago carrying just a plastic shopping bag." Really? You don't say? lol

Rereading your journal now, comparing it with my notes and and other reports, has brought back the pilgrimage vividly and the extraordinary experience of getting up in the dark to get ready in the rustling algergues, out by sunrise with the others, trekking on toward the Cathedral of Santiago somewhere always up ahead, til one first glimpses its magnificent steeples peeking out midst old narrow cobbled streets.

The push, the exhaustion, the sharing, the camaraderie, the laughing, the insights, the hours trekking alone each day for personal contemplation though punctuated by the cheerful "holas' and "buen caminos" of the passing pilgrims as I must have been the slowest trekker ever, though picking my feet in steady tempo as quickly as I could lol....... the growth, the respite of resting, then going out again to explore the host community, relishing and reveling in the local colors sounds and hospitality were splendid then and stirring in hindsight. It took a while to adjust reaching back home.

I was overwhelmed by the profusion of wild flowers, in particular those golden raining boughs, and the climbing wild roses with perfumes so subtle and rich you'd think you were in some exotic palace garden. as well as the cacophony of bird song in the province of Lugo in particular.

For me a culinary delight was the discovery fresh queso panini in a country store outside of Palas de Rei and traditional, home made chorizo. Though the octopus with red wine served in a pitcher and bowls was finger licking good too. The same appreciation for these local specialties cannot be attributed to my camino buddy. lol

To my chagrin we did not run into any local music or the opportunity to dance, though we kept a sharp ear out for it, as I had looked forward to. Next time. There was a choir recital in a church in Arzua, though, that my camino buddy alerted me to and that was music and voices to die for, as well as the angelic voice of the nun singing the day we had arrived at the noon Mass for the pilgrims at the Cathedral.

It was so incredible, though such a short time, getting to Santiago in seven days, resting up at Monte Gozo only to be fresh and sparkling attending the noon Mass for the pilgrims the eight day. The trekking as a hiking, social, aesthetic and spiritual experience is excelled by nothing else I have ever done before. That the trek has a goal, the shrine of a holy man, intimate friends with this prophet, Jesus of Nazareth, a path tread by millions throughout the ages, where many miracles of life changing experiences have been attributed, tweaked my attention from the first when by chance happened to come upon an article about the Camino in an old Atlantic Monthly article a few years ago.

I want to go back and keep on doing it. I would almost like to do the same stretch when I have more time and be able to stop more and dawdle in the incredible beauty, and loll in the grass whenever I feel like it. But the push push had it's own magical aspect,charm, and final of reward.

We spent a day at Finisterre and walking up to the light house to the zero mileage marker expanded the spirit with the broad horizon and mountainous curving sea shore around us, while resting by the quay on granite benches later waiting for the bus filled one with tranquil serenity as the waves lapped, the fishing boats rocked, and little kids clambered on the giant anchor with mountains for a backdrop. I feel it has changed my life for the better forever and the meaning and value we attribute to this mystery as we trek on in this fleeting passing of time with our fellow pilgrims to the end of land."