11 miles, 29,973 steps, 4 cats 

Another mostly flat walk today — wooooo. Just more farms, cows, chickens, vineyards, cobblestones, churches (not as many churches as in Portugal, though), cats, dogs… Glad for the flatness because my knee started and ended the day in some pain. But I n-between was all good!

Stopped about 30 minutes before Padrón for a hamburguesa and a beer. Burger was a 1 out of 10. Not even sure what kind of meat it was :(. I wanted to have some protein since I had 2 pan con chocolate (chocolate croissants) for breakfast. So good! 

Here’s where you get to learn some of the history of the Camino. Padrón is cool. It has a nice little old town center with winding alleys along a river. The large church (originally built in 901!) is a few feet from the site where tradition says the boat carrying the body of St James landed, before he was carried to what is now Santiago de Compostela where he was buried (and the reason for this whole pilgrim journey thing). 

So all the history here in Padrón is obviously about James. I thought about going to the Santiaguiño Do Monte, which is a rocky hill where supposedly James preached and hid from his pursuers before being martyred in Palestine and brought back here, but it was a long walk uphill—so, not happening. Sorry Santiago. 

I did see the stone that they tied the boat to when they brought him back. It’s displayed under the altar in the church. 

Later I found a restaurant that I had heard about — very popular among Camino-walkers. A Catriña is a Mexican restaurant with pretty tasty tacos. The margarita was wayyyy too sweet. But they get a B+ for effort! (I also had to have a side of Padrón peppers because I always love them and had to have them in their natural habitat.) 

The next (final) two days are relatively short walks. The trail is pretty full of people now, with lots of good energy as we get close to the end. It’s fun to see some of the same faces at the coffee and beer stops or chilling under a shade tree. (I saw my friend 81-year-old Eric crossing a bridge—he was on the other side of the road so I didn’t get to say hi. He was also going in the opposite direction for some reason lol. Hopefully just backtracking to a nearby cafe.)

Fingers crossed that the rain holds off!