The rain in Spain falls mainly on us!
RAIN, yes shouty rain. All of it. On us!
Had a lovely breakfast At La Lecheria (the converted dairy), and great chat with a couple from Germany & the Netherlands, who both spoke perfect English. He was also a biker so lots to chat about there. They were roughly following, but not doing the Camino.
We left, the rain came down in huge amounts, and our detailed itinerary for the day went out of the window. We dropped the dozen plus stops, and cut to the chase: straight to Santiago de Compostela. A sad choice to have to make but we were drowning! There were some amazing climbs & descents on route, with ears popping regularly.
Our trusty blue microfiber wipey cloth that has served us so well over our journey escaped today. Yes folks, that's right: the blue cloth blew away!
The rain stopped for a while when we arrived at Santiago de Compostela. We fortunately managed to park quite close to the Cathedral. There was scaffolding up at the very front of the Cathedral, must take a lot of upkeep, a beautiful old church like that. We entered through a side entrance and were very pleased to be back in our favourite Cathedral, and the destination of our Camino. We took some good time to walk around and absorb the beauty of the building. Stopped a number of times to pray. We visited St James' remains. All in all, a very moving, and beautiful time.
After the Cathedral, we picked up some souvenirs and pressies, then sought out the cafe bar that we visited last time we were here: Bar Suso. Staffed by Marcus & Natalia, it is a great place to visit. Good food, drinks, and really friendly service. Great music too! Honestly, if you find yourself in SDC, pop in & treat yourself!
We walked back to the bike, and yes, you guessed it, the heavens opened yet again! So off we set. However this time the SatNav had an inadvertent treat in store for us: it took us the reverse of the route we were meant to have used to get to SDC - so we got to pass through some of the pilgrim villages in the end. About half way to our hotel, I noticed the tell tale rainbow pattern of spilt fuel on the road, and not a bit either - loads of it, for 100s of meters! On both sides of the road! Then a road crew spraying something on the fuel. The spillage went on for at least a couple of Km, and looked pretty serious, maybe an issue with a fuel tanker? Ironic there is no fuel in France, but the roads are awash with it in Spain!
We were following the directions from our SatNav merrily, when it guided us up a very narrow & rough tarmac path. Eventually it led us to the alleged turning to our hotel, however: there was a sign on the junction directing us onwards! This vague trail of breadcrumbs carried on for ages, with no indication of how much longer till the hotel. Finally. A dirt (mud) track, parking in a field & we were there. Or were we?... No sign of anyone, or a reception area! After 10+ minutes we finally found a chap who took us straight to our room. No nosh or drink, luckily we had eaten earlier in SDC. All a bit “unusual”, let's leave it there, shall we…
As I may have subtilly mentioned earlier, the weather was "somewhat inclement", temperature low of 8, high of 18 degree C. 392Km of hard wet riding. Glad to eventually get to our hotel for tonight.
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