June 1, 2018

Another day, another early start in the dark. We’re almost getting good at this. Last night’s albergue conditions were pretty good for sleeping and after the previous night, we needed a really good sleep, or at least as much as you can get in a shared dorm situation.

Once again the weather conditions were cool and ideal for walking, although the forecast rain was threatening most of the way. The trail conditions were also mostly good, apart from some road contact in various places, but it was not major. The quality of walking tracks has definitely improved since Porto, and they really needed to.
The walking was easy most of the way, apart from the odd hill, which made you work a bit harder, but that’s OK. The pilgrim traffic has increased exponentially over the last few days, and this continues to be the case; we are meeting people from all corners of the globe and all walks of life. Last night we had dinner with a Portuguese family who were traveling together; they consisted of 2 sisters, a father and a cousin. We also met in the same place, a German family consisting of a mother and her teenage son, as well as her ex inlaws and her father; we found this a bit ‘different’ but there you go. They were all happily traveling together, living in dorms and partaking in Camino life.

By the time we arrived at the outskirts of Padron, the weather turned sour; a steady light rain fell all the way into our destination, the albergue Cruces De Iria.
Of course, the albergue was not open till 1:00pm, and with the steady falling rain, we agreed to have an early lunch at a local cafe.

The albergue was well appointed and comfortable, so we did the usual pilgrim things. The hospitalero at this one was particularly kind and even gave all the people staying there overnight a presentation about the history behind the Camino, how and where it all started and what central part his particular town (Iria Flavia) played in the evolution of the Camino story. Apparently Iria Flavia dates back to the first century BC, but it was only in the first century AD when the apostle James purportedly sailed up the local river and started to preach the Gospel.
The apostle then went back to Jerusalem where he came to grief at the hands of King Herod. His disciples then took the remains of the apostle back to this area, where he was buried; the site was left undisturbed for 800 years, until a local bishop, following some sort of star found the remains on the site of where the Santiago De Compostela cathedral is now located; and so the legend began.

Iria Flavia was the birth placece of a famous Spanish poet named Camilo Jose Cela, who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1989. His most widely known novel, titled The Beehive has more than 300 male characters representing life in Spain during the Franco era.
Weather conditions had by improved, so we took a stroll around Iria Flavia and Padron.

Dinner was at a local restaurant, where we had a pilgrims menu, consisting of 3 courses and beer or wine, all for about $15 Australian, which is extremely cheap by ant standard. Meal times also provide opportunities to meet other people and exchange personal stories. Tonight was no exception as we met a Canadian gentle man who shared some of his story with us. This was his third Camino, but he had merged and mixed a few paths together. He seemed very interested in the history and origins of the Camino and was wondering if we had any further information on the question. We gave him all that we had; we wished him well and expressed our hope that we catch up in Santiago De Compostela.

We aim to get an early night tonight, as tomorrow we are walking to Santiago De Compostela, which is about 25kms away. The idea will be to get away early as it will be quite busy on the trails.