Stage 33- Starting the Finisterre Way Santiago to Cee

Yes, I can get two more certificates to clutter my desk drawer: Santiago to Finisterre and Finisterre to Muxia!

Now I start the next phase of my pilgrimage and push to the sea

May 31, 2025- Santiago to Negreiro. Distance 13.52 miles. Weather- hot- high 70s and sunny- fog/drizzle in the morning .

This was a forested walk with some road walking. There were fewer people and andifferent vibe because walkers already made their goal of arriving in Santiago. We walked through many villages, but all the cafes were closed- quite a change from the last section when everything was open and crowded. There were no “pop-up tat” tables selling souvenirs.

We did manage to find a nice place to stop for lunch where we had a Bochadilla and something to drink.

We had one really big hill which actually was enjoyable because it was covered from the sun and had switchbacks instead of being straight up.

Along the way we crossed the River Tambre on a lovely 5 arch Roman bridge with a view of a castle (no name known) and the Church of Santa Maria de Portor.

Negreira is a Roman- era town which was built and fortified in order to protect its silver mines. It was destroyed by the Normans and then rebuilt in 1113.

Our hotel was quite a change from our 5 star hotel in Santiago, the Hotel Milan was very basic and 1 star. The room was very big and included a crib- maybe for Chris?

Dinner was basic pilgrim fare and not exciting so there are no photos. It included luke-warm Galician soup and Russian salad. We might eat out tomorrow night…

June 1, 2025- Negreiro to Vilaserio. Distance: 8.48 miles. Weather: high 60s, windy and partly cloudy. Breakfast was better than we were led to believe from the TripAdvisor reviews- a good thing. At least the coffee was hot.

We are 2 days in our mediocre Hotel Millan to split up the 19 miles to A Picota and our next hotel. As we left town, we passed through the PAZO do COTÓN (archway) , which served as both a palace for Negreira’s nobility and fortress. This includes some of the city walls and is connected to the Chapel of San Mauro.

Today was all uphill mostly through oak/eucalyptus forests alongside babbling brooks. This was interspersed with walks through fields and alongside a quiet road. Looking ahead a bit, this seems to be the last group of hills before descending to the sea in a few days.

We stopped for a snack in Piaxe- at the top of a big hill before returning. It was a short day In order to get back for the F1 race. There were no buses so we had a taxi back to the hotel. Tomorrow we’ll try to catch the bus to where we left off today. We couldn’t face another pilgrim meal at this hotel so went out for a pizza and beer. Unfortunately no photos because we ate it too quickly….

June 2, 2025 - Vilaserio to A Picota. Distance 10.47. Weather - highs in the 70s, windy and overcast.

Our hotel in A Picota is off the Camino. Thankfully, once again, we have 2 days to walk to Cee coming up so we can split the 15 miles to Cee into 2 days.

Today was a lovely walk starting with a ride in the local bus - “Monbus”- to Vilaserio to start where we ended up yesterday. The undulating route took us through oak and eucalyptus forests and quiet road walking. Things are changing as we get closer to the coast- no more storks. We’ve started to see seagulls, pines and plants similar to those in California.

At the end we had to take the alternative route to get to the hotel. This meant missing several things in the normal route, but there was no one in the trail. We had quite a hike over the hills and through the windmill farm, but the views were amazing.

The hotel is much better than the last one. Allergies are much worse…Dinner about the same- no photos. We had tomato salad made with olive oil, vinegar and tuna fish- very salty and vinegary. I had Russian salad for my main, which had way to much mayo. Chris had steak with fries that looked awful.

June 3, 2025- Hospital to A Picota. Distance - 7 miles. Weather -70s, breezy and sunny. No, we didn’t end up in a hospital. We split up the 15 mile walk to Cee. About half way was a village called Hospital and we found a bus to take us there from A Picota in order to walk back. Walking the hike backwards to our start caused its own challenges- my OCD was on edge going against the yellow arrows. Breakfast was very nice, certainly better than in our last hotel.

This area is known to have Vakner- a dangerous beast that kills people. We didn’t see any today, but there is still a possibility tomorrow.

The funny thing was meeting people from our hotel walking “with” the trail. They couldn’t figure out what was going on, why we were going backwards and how we got ahead of them.

The path itself was lovely, there was a walk up to one ridge where we saw a guy standing on, and fixing, one of the big windmills. There was an interesting crenellated bridge and some lovely babbling brooks. We stopped for lunch at a cafe in Olveiroa. We finally got smart and split a lunch-more than enough food- mixed salad and Galician stew. We saw a rather bizarre group of peregrinos which included a blind man with a cane and a man in either his swimsuit, or underwear. The only other interesting part of the walk was seeing progressively bigger traditional grain storage on top of “mushrooms”, used to keep the mice/rats out, the Santiago de Olveiroa church with typical Galician cemetery, and the Olveiroa bridge where the locals lost to Napoleon’s troops in the early 1800s.