11th Jun 2025
It was certainly sad to be packing our rucksacks for the final time – something that had become part of our daily routine. Each morning we packed up and moved on, never staying anywhere long, always with the road ahead in mind. Now we were heading back not to another town or albergue, but to our old daily lives.
10th Jun 2025
The train ticket was cheap – just €8.50 for a two-hour international journey from Vigo in Spain to Porto in Portugal. The journey itself was uneventful: no announcements, no checks, just gently rolling countryside slipping past the windows as we crossed into a new country without much fanfare.
5th Jun 2025
You’d think it would be simple - ten days to do whatever we want, go wherever a train or bus from Santiago de Compostela will take us. Just make a decision and go.
31st May 2025
Both awake before my 5:30am alarm, we crept quietly from the dorm with our half-packed rucksacks and finished packing outside in the driveway under a helpful streetlamp, so not to disturb those still sleeping.
30th May 2025
Second people to leave this morning, quietly closing the albergue door behind us at 6:00 am. It was misty outside but warm, with a slight breeze. Lots of road walking today - little villages, small roads, main roads, and more little villages.
29th May 2025
My alarm was set for 4:55am, Gaby’s for 5:55am, though we’d planned to leave before 5:30. Still in single rooms, I texted her when I woke up - no reply. Fortunately, we were in rooms next door, so I banged on the wall until I got a response.
28th May 2025
Still an early morning, but with nowhere to go. Headed out at 9am to visit the tomb of the Apostle St James, located in the cathedral’s crypt beneath the main altar, then attended the pilgrims’ Mass.
27th May 2025
We got a good night's sleep – there seems to be a correlation between the size of the dorm and the volume of snoring: the bigger the dorm, the quieter it is. First to rise at 5:30am, we’d finished breakfast and were ready to leave by 6, with only one other person having surfaced.
26th May 2025
A quiet night and a relaxed morning. We left the albergue at 6:15 after breakfast, no head torch needed this time as the sky was already lightening under clear conditions. The trail was peaceful at first, with only a few others around, but as we passed more albergues the number of pilgrims gradually increased.
25th May 2025
After being woken at 12:30am by a drunk man trying to find his bed - he was politely evicted from the albergue - we managed to get a reasonable amount of sleep. We were first up at 5:30 and ate quietly in the kitchen, lit by the light from the vending machine.