The Final Four - May 16 - 19, 2007
From the Confraternity of St. James Website:
Finisterre (Fisterra in Galician) was both the end of the known world until Columbus altered things and the final destination of many of the pilgrims who made the journey to Santiago in past centuries. There are various explanations as to how this continuation came about (one such is that is was based on a pre-Christian route to the pagan temple of Ara Solis in Finisterre, erected to honour the sun) but is it also known that a pilgrim infrastructure existed, with hospitals in Cée, Corcubión, Finisterre itself and elsewhere.
It was always our intention to continue to Finisterre, assuming our legs held out and the weather wasn´t just awful. We were lucky on both counts, so after a rest day in Santiago we began the 4-day walk to Finisterre; Land's End; the End of the Earth. The walk itself was not one of the most scenic stretches of el camino, but the the payoff was great. Nothing quite like finishing a walk where the trail disappears into the ocean, and at the westernmost point of Europe as well.
22km Santiago to Negreira
May 16, 2007
Over the course of our two-day stop in Santiago, we ran into a number of peregrinos that we'd met and walked with along the way. Such a chance meeting occurred as we were leaving Santiago for Finisterre. We ran into Gerrit and Keiko from Amsterdam, who we'd met during the first half of the walk. We had entered Salamanca, the half-way point, on the same day. On our last night with them, we shared a room in an albergue, and reports have it that I snored rather loudly all night. I always suspected that they ditched us after that. We took a rest day in Salamanca but they pushed on, putting them a day ahead of us for the rest of the trip. We kept running into their names in the guest registers of the albergues, but never caught up to them. Until now. We chatted for a bit, but it was already after noon and we had a long walk ahead. They were waiting for a bus to take them to Muxia on the coast. We bid farewell and pushed on.
Getting such a late start meant we were one of the last to arrive at the albergue in Negreira. This stretch of the camino picks up peregrinos from all of the other paths that converge in Santiago, something we hadn´t considered. It meant that there was significantly more competition for bed space. The albergue was at official capacity when we arrived at about 6:30 pm. The hospitalera told us that at 8 pm they would open up the room reserved for disabled pilgrims, assuming no disabled pilgrims arrived first. We listed ourselves third and fourth in line for the four handicapped spots, took showers, washed clothes and left for dinner, hoping for the best. Our luck held out -- kind of. The handicapped room was separate from the rest with its own bathroom, which was nice. But it was comprised of 2 bunk beds without ladders or any means we could figure out for getting onto the top bunks. How the handicapped were expected to overcome this remains a mystery. We decided instead to take some portable mattresses outside and sleep under the covered porch. I had one of the best nights ever in an albergue, sleeping in the fresh air. Sleeping in a dorm situation where all of the doors and windows are shut up tight was always the hardest part of the albergue experience for me, so this was a welcome relief.
34km Negreira to Olveiroa
May 17
This day was longer than we would have liked and we hoped we'd get lucky and find a room for rent at the midpoint, though the guidebooks pointed out that there were no accommodations along the way. There were a couple of bars, though, at just about the 20km point so we stopped in and asked. We'd gotten lucky in the past finding "unregistered" rooms, usually affiliated with bars. They don't want to go through the hassle of registering as a hotel, but rent rooms on the side anyway to bring in some extra cash. When we asked the barkeep if she knew of any rooms in the area she replied definitively "Nada". I made the comment that a small hotel could do quite well at that location because it was 20km from the last lodging and that is most peoples' threshold for comfort. She replied "Well, nobody ever asks." I pointed out that they don't ask because the guidebooks make it clear that there aren't any facilities. Once the word got out that there were rooms available at the half-way point, they'd be booked every night. She wasn't convinced. Nobody ever asks.
Being the last ones in worked in our favor once again. We arrived just before the albergue released its handicapped beds. The hospitalera pointed out to us that since the only others waiting for space were automobile pilgrims (which she spat out) she was going to give the space to us. This was a real gift. Not just a separate area in the albergue, but a separate newly refurbished stone cottage with two levels and room for 5, with its own bathroom. In any other setting, you'd consider 150 € per night to be a bargain for such a place. We had it to ourselves for the price of a donation. Once again, we were left scratching our heads as to how a handicapped person would deal with the place. Actually, one could, but the other 4 would be out of luck. There was a bunk bed down, and another bunk and a single on the second floor, up a narrow, steep staircase. The bathroom was handicap accessible in most ways, but the shower would have been impossible. My guess is that they have yet to accommodate the intended user.
There was a new restaurant in town where we had one of the best meals of the trip. There are small gardens in nearly every yard, and the salad fixings had been bought fresh just hours before dinner.
19km Olveiroa to Cee
May 18
Towards the end of today's walk, we got our first glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean. The trail stayed high on a ridge line most of the way, and this turned out to be the nicest walk of the four days to Finisterre.
Cee is on the coast and we had the kind of weather you'd expect from a coastal community. Not rain, but heavier than fog. It wasn't unpleasant because it kept things cool. And it cleared off just as we got to the viewpoint of the ocean. The stop in Cee also left us with just a short walk into Finisterre the next day.
18km Cee to Finisterre
May 19, 2007
Now we were finished. I wasn't looking forward to the end of this trip, but I felt satisfied. A nice walk in clear weather along the beach capped the pilgrimage. We collected a few of the pilgrims' trademark "Cocquille St Jacques" scallop shells on our way in. We found a wonderful little room with an ocean view for 20€ and were tempted to stay two nights instead of one. After lunch, we walked out to the lighthouse on the point, just about as far as you could get without dropping into the water. It felt great to be done, and a bit surreal as well.
We went to the albergue to get our credentials stamped and to obtain our "Fisterrana", Finisterre's answer to the Compostela we'd received in Santiago. One of the hospitaleras there was from Eugene Oregon of all places. Apart from the tidal wave of students we ran into out of Ourense, she was the only other American we'd met. We arrived at the albergue about 4:30pm and there was a line outside waiting to get in. They didn't open the doors until 5:00. I wondered why someone would walk many hundreds of kilometers and still choose to sleep in a dormitory to celebrate the accomplishment. Along the French Route, where there are many albergues to choose from, and rather nice one's too, it is a point of honor to stay in them. Pilgrims who defect to hotels are held in the same contempt as those who send their luggage and scouts ahead in taxis. The Via de la Plata doesn´t suffer from this ethos because there simple isn´t an infrastructure of albergues to justify it. I didn't mind the albergues, but I didn't swear allegiance to them, either. And the end of an 1100km pilgrimage seemed justification to me of something a little nicer.
The next day we took a bus to the northern port city of La Coruna, a place I'd wanted to visit for may years. It was much bigger than I´d imagined, with lots of hotels to cater to the summer crowd who come for the city's beaches. We checked into a hotel that had been recommended to us by our hotel Santiago. We were chatting with the receptionist, who immediately recognized us as peregrinos, when she mentioned that there was another couple in the hotel who had also just completed the Via de la Plata. A Japanese woman and her husband. It could of course only be Keiko and Gerrit. Not only did they land in the same hotel, they were checked into the room right next to us. We knocked around with them for the next few days before heading back to Sevilla. They never complained about any snoring.
Speaking of surreal, the one-hour flight from La Coruna to Sevilla seemed a bit impossible after spending 51 days walking to cover the same ground.
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