Villamaior to Santiago

Yesterday evening was cold and damp so I didn’t venture out any further. Casa de Amancio seemed a bit tired with not much renovation done since my last visit. It did have one redeeming feature though: heating. I’ve stayed in so many rooms this trip which had radiators that were never turned on, even on the chilliest of days.
View from my room across the garden area.

For dinner, I enjoyed some warming leek and potato soup, followed by grilled hake. Then I watched a few of the Jubilee celebrations on YouTube.

This morning was more of the same cold drizzle. It was not the best weather for ending the Camino. The first landmark to be seen was the HQ of Galician Radio and TV. For some reason, they don’t advertise the fact on their gateposts:

After an hour, I came to Monte de Gozo (Mount of Joy), so-called because it gives pilgrims their first sight of the spires of Santiago Cathedral:

New arrivals recording their first sighting.

For myself, I’m really pleased to report the existence of public toilets up there. It has been a long-standing grouse of mine that there are none on the Camino, even though there is clearly a need with so much pilgrim traffic. The Spanish tradition is to go into a bar and buy a drink if you need to relieve yourself, but there are times when this just doesn’t work. In France they have a few long drop toilets on their Chemin. Spain really needs to address this issue. Rant over!

Just after the Mount is an enormous albergue. It resembles a concentration camp:

Block after block: I am standing opposite Block Number 30. More and more go down the hill.

It took me another hour to reach the canter of Santiago and my hotel: Virxe da Cerca. I stopped one last time for a coffee:

I checked in at the hotel and then went to get my Compostela. The office has moved to a street down the slope by the Parador. There is a complicated system of taking a number and then sitting in a waiting area till your number is called. Mine was 544:

Waiting. Masks are obligatory.

Clutching my hard-won prized possession, I went for a celebratory lunch at the Parador. This included a slow cooked pork knuckle and a couple of glasses of red: