Day 44 - Camino Finisterre: Santiago de Compostela to Negreira
Date: Sunday July 28
Start: Santiago de Compostela, Galicia
End: Negreira, Galicia
Daily Mileage: 13.3mi (21.4km)
Total Mileage: ~535mi (~861km)
After a relaxing couple of days in Santiago de Compostela, today we set out for the last part of our journey. The epilogue. To the end of the world.
We started with breakfast, as all good journeys should. At least, we tried to start with breakfast.
The business hours that most Spanish restaurants, cafes, bars, etc. list online, such as those that show up in Google Maps, for example, require a bit of cultural decoding. They are not, my dear customer, necessarily the hours that they are actually open for service. That would be too easy.
From what we’ve found, the opening hours listed are often what time the employees will arrive to the establishment, to prepare for the day. Should a customer arrive at the opening time, or some time even within 15-30 minutes of opening time, well – you may get some rude looks, or worse. They may tell you that they will open in 15 minutes. Or they may just tell you they are closed, no further explanation. Then why put these hours in Google?
Some establishments will also list a broad spectrum of hours, 12pm - 1am. But be forewarned. They probably won’t open their doors until 12:15 or 12:30pm. And they definitely aren’t serving food that early. This likely won’t start until 1pm at the earliest. Maybe not even until 1:30 or 2pm.
And, despite having hours listed all day long – many of them will be closed for siesta from 5-8pm. Or maybe 4-8:30pm. Or really any number of time variations around these hours. Your guess. Of those that remain open during these hours, they likely are not serving food at this time. Certainly not meals. Maybe some very small snacks. Dinner service typically doesn’t begin until 8pm at the earliest. At some places, not until 8:30 or even 9pm. Meal times can be a real hassle sometimes.
And so, when we arrived at a cafe this morning around 8:30am – the opening time listed on Google – I knew that it may not actually be open. But it was worth checking, as there aren’t too many places open before 9am, and this one was on our way to the cathedral plaza, where we would begin the next leg of our journey.
The door to the cafe was partially open, though we couldn’t see anyone inside. There was a lot of noise coming from the back kitchen. When Shawn saw someone near the bar briefly, he popped his head in. “Estas abierto?” He asked. Are you open?
“CERRADO!” A woman screamed at him from the kitchen. CLOSED! Jesus. Relax. You don’t have to be a dick about it. Why is your door open then?
And that is how fun it is when you need to tip-toe around some of the meal/opening hours here. How about this. How about when you list your business hours online, you actually list what hours you are open for service, not just what time you plan to show up to start preparing for service. Who is this information helpful to? No one. No one cares what time you arrive to start prepping the kitchen.
If we weren’t hiking, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but when we are trying to get out of town in the morning, we sometimes have to check a couple places. Or when we’re going through a town before 1pm and we need to get lunch before moving on. A bit of searching around is often required.
At any ate, we continued onto the cathedral plaza, actually the first time that Shawn had walked through it since we weren’t allowed through it with our backpacks the day that we arrived.
The plaza was cool with shade at this hour. Still just after 8:30am, there were already pilgrims arriving for the day, cheering each other, taking photos, and celebrating their arrival.
We snapped a few photos once again and I started my watch for our next adventure.
This, however, was short lived. Not too far from the plaza, we stopped a cafe that actually was open, the same cafe that we’d eaten a late breakfast at the day we had arrived in Santiago de Compostela, deflated that we couldn’t enter the plaza. After coffee, fresh squeezed orange juice, and bagel sandwiches, were were now ready to continue on with our journey for the day.
We have planned only a four-day stretch for this next section. While most of the days will be right around 20 miles, this first day was a bit shorter – only 13 miles, which was a nice way to ease back into walking after the two day break.
Last view of the Catedral de Santiago de Compostela in the distance.
Having set out a little later in the morning, just after 9:15am, most pilgrims that were starting the Camino Finisterre today were likely already on the road. While we saw a spattering of hikers in the first hour or so, the trails were mostly quiet, which was nice. We also saw several people on bikes on the paved sections. E-bike seems to have become a popular option among the bike crowd.
Like most of our journey through Galicia, this route was again very well marked with the directional concrete pillars and signs. The route included a lot of nice forested trail as well a bit of paved road. While there was a good amount of shade, there were also plenty of unshaded areas, which were growing hot very early. Even at 73º (~23ºC) by midmorning, the day seemed very hot. These temps would climb to high 80s (30-32ºC) throughout our hike.
Walking by hórreos, raised granaries. Also, notice Shawn’s nifty new backpack.
Shawn spent most of his hike in awe of his new Deuter pack. After having hiked along with a travel pack for our entire journey, he’d picked up a hiking pack in Santiago de Compostela and was very pleased with it, expounding upon how well it formed to his back, how great the various features were, and how comfortable it was to walk with – as if he’d never owned a hiking pack before. Throughout the day, he would say, “Have I mentioned how great this pack is?”
He had actually started the trail with a travel pack that he thought was also going to work well for hiking. It did not, but he made do. But, then he melted that pack. This may have been a blessing in disguise, but if it was, he didn’t act on it. He picked up another travel style pack, rather than a hiking pack, once again. This one carried a little better than his previous pack, but was still not designed for hiking. It had too much material and bulk. And so now, with only four days left in our hike, he decided to pick up a hiking pack. Of course, we’re continuing our travels after the hike, so it will still be put to plenty of use, it’s just funny that while we’ve been hiking, he’s been using more of a travel style pack and now that our long hike is coming to an end, he’s picked up a hiking pack for the remainder of our travels. We all learn in our own time. 🤣
About halfway through the walk for the day, temps already sweltering, we stopped into a small cafe along the route. A Sunday, this would be one of the only open businesses we’d come across along the route. We ordered our typical agua con gas with cups of ice. (In Spain, a cup with ice means one large ice cube. No more. No less.) We also each got a cold can of Aquarius, an electrolyte drink, kind of like Gatorade but with far far less sugar and no yellow #5 dye – so, surely better for us than Gatorade, and we also like the taste better.
We downed all these beverages pretty quickly and were back on route, which began with the only significant climb of the day – small fries with a fairly gradual incline over a mile and half, even punctuated with some flat sections. Though hot, the remainder of the walk was mostly nice, through mossy shaded tree-lined trails and quiet rural areas.
At one point, a man came by, huffing it up the road at a slow run. With long, thick, dirty dreadlocks partially tied up into a bulky bun/ponytail, he was deeply suntanned and had a large backpack and guitar case on his back. In tow, two equally scroungy looking dogs ran behind him – all parties looking in need of a bath. But the most distinctive feature of this man: he was barefoot. His feet were huge with the pressure and swelling of both the barefoot lifestyle and the stress of long days of walking/running with a heavy load. The soles of his feet were darkly dirt stained, looking at this point very similar to the soles of shoes – rough and leathery with use. He looked the part of a modern caveman, really.
I had seen this man in the plaza yesterday, with his heavy pack and guitar, his dogs, his huge roughed feet. He was so distinctive, I had told Shawn about him last night, and now here he was, running by us. Shawn looked back at me. That’s him, I mouthed and nodded. The man’s low grunts sounded painful as he ran. I imagine the pavement must have been quite hot as the day slowly crept its way toward 90º (32ºC). Not to mention, he was carrying quite a load on his back. It was not a cargo most people would run with.
We would see him again up the road when we stopped to take photos of the Ponte Maceira, a historic bridge over the Tambre River about two and half miles outside of Negreira, our stopping point for the day. With a spray of purple flowers and weeds growing out of the cracks, the arched stone bridge was a beautiful site. Dating not quite as far back as the caveman era, like our running man, the original bridge was constructed in the 13th and 14th centuries and reconstructed in the 18th century.
The area around the bridge included a number of other historic structures, including the Chapel of Sant Blas (18th century), hórreos - raised granaries similar to those we’d seen in Asturias, a water mill, and old circular dovecotes (pigeon shelters).
There was also the Pazo de Baladrón that dated from 1945-1955. Translated as ‘palace’, pazos were essentially manor houses located in rural areas. Built mostly between the 17th and 19th centuries, many have their origin as medieval defense fortresses, so have elements such as towers, battlements, and loopholes. I wasn’t able to find much information about Baladrón. Though built in the mid-1900s, it may have also had its origins in a much earlier time period.
Chapel of San Blas
A sign near the bridge described Ponte Maceira as “the small big paradise on the Way to Finisterre-Muxia” and “one the most unique historical sites in Galicia and all the Ways of Santiago.” The mini-paradise part did seem at least partially true, as many hikers were relaxing in the cool waters of the many small pools that formed around the river and low waterfalls near the bridge. We had certainly seen a lot of noteworthy historic sites, though.
After taking our time to take some photos and walk across the bridge, we continued toward Negreira, the majority of the remainder of the walk hot and exposed, with some sections along busy roads on the outskirts of town.
I do not know anything about this. Fun to find in the forest though.
Walking into the town, we stopped into the very first place that had food. A pizzeria. I was very hungry. We ordered a pizza, which ended up being more of a size for one person vs two, but we shared it, figuring we would get some snacks at the supermarket later.
We were wrong.
After leaving the pizzeria we discovered that though Negreira was a decent sized town, with many grocery stores – more than most towns we go through, really – not a single one of them was open on a Sunday. Not ONE. Not for a single hour. Spain takes its Sundays very seriously. Too seriously. Most towns look like ghost towns on Sundays. They are always such a pain for us.
Honestly, at this point, we should know better and plan ahead for Sundays. Often there is SOMETHING open, though. One supermarket that will be open for a few hours in the afternoon. Something.
After checking into our lodging and showering, I went back to sleuthing Google maps. Lunch had not been that filling for either of us and, at this point, restaurants wouldn’t open for dinner until 8pm. It was only just after 4pm. I tried all kinds of different search terms – supermarket, grocery store, mini market, ice cream, etc., etc. The Spanish versions of these words. Everything that came up was closed on Sundays. The search term that finally yielded a successful result? Snacks.
Something labeled as a candy store would open at 5pm. Bingo.
As with everything in Spain, I did not get my hopes up. It might not actually be open. And even if it was, it might not have much.
But, just after 5pm, we tried our luck. It was scorching out now. 93º (34ºC). Luckily, said candy store, named Piruletas a lo Loco – or ‘Crazy Lollipop’ – was only a couple blocks up the road. And it was open! And fully stocked!
If you were looking for something healthy, other than a couple bags of nuts, you would have been out of luck. But otherwise, it did actually have a pretty good selection of snacks: ice cream bars/sandwiches, cold drinks, bulk candy by weight, a variety of chips, popcorn, and other crunchy snacks, and an assortment of packaged candies.
We each grabbed an assortment of snacks both for the rest of the day and tomorrow, since we wanted to get an early start in the morning – likely before any cafes would be open. We took our haul to the register - chips, crunchy snack mixes, gummy bears, other candies, two ice cream treats each, and ice cold Aquarius drinks. We were like kids in a candy store! (Never go shopping when you are hungry. Or when the only place open in town is a candy store).
Don’t judge us.
And so, that is how we found ourselves walking down the baking sidewalk after 5:30pm, stuffing ice cream treats into our faces. Beacons of health. Don’t worry, we ate an entire bowl of tomatoes yesterday. Once this hike ends, I’ll probably need to stop eating so much ice cream, though. Womp, womp.
We spent the rest of the evening inside, hiding from the heat.
Tomorrow is forecast to be even hotter than today. With closer to twenty miles to knock out, we plan to get an earlier start so we aren’t caught out too late in the afternoon. Wish us luck...