In our guidebooks, the last walking stage is from Padron to Santiago, but it’s a 16 mile day, so we decided to break it up. We’ll take a shorter walk today, stopping in Milladoiro, and leaving only eight kilometers for tomorrow, so we can enjoy a short walk and reach Santiago in the morning.
It was another bright sunny day, and we still travel through some lovely country. Our hotel didn’t have breakfast, so we walked a little over a mile for our first coffee/tea and then another 5 miles for a real breakfast. Sara needed protein for the big climb of the day – so we had an egg sandwich. We enjoyed walking more forested paths before we entered, Milladoiro, the suburbs of Santiago.
Our guidebooks described Milladoiro as the newest and largest suburb of Santiago. Nevertheless, we were surprised to enter what looked like whole new city. We see many six-story apartment complexes filling block after block. To my American mind, a suburb is full of single-family homes with grass yards. We’re beginning to understand that here in Europe, the “suburbs” are different. Not all can afford the luxury of a single-family home with a big backyard, so apartment living may be more of a norm and more convenient. Or, it could simply be about available land to build enough housing.
We ate a lunch and dinner at a pleasant café. In the evening, there was lots of activity and plenty of places to eat and drink. And more diversity than we had seen elsewhere in Spain. And, of course, there were other pilgrims, mostly walking through, on their way to a late arrival in Santiago.
We found a pub named “Dublin” that looked like an Irish Pub. After all, the song does insist that there’s an Irish Pub wherever you go. But this place did NOT have Guinness on tap. Is it possible to have an Irish Pub without Guinness on tap? No, no no! That’s just not right. We enjoyed an evening drink elsewhere.
Santiago tomorrow.
