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The longest Camino day

4th October 20266th October 2026 funtime65

Day 6 (last day): It’s when you forego the train, leaving outside your hotel window, that you really do trust in Him, on this the longest Camino day.

It is my cross to bear to carry my full backpack the full 25kms (or 6 hours), for the last leg, from Padron to Santiago de Compostella.

On the right track: But we’ll be walking

And be there in time for 4.30pm to catch the only Sunday bus to Porto for my red-eye flight back to Edinburgh the next morning.

American dad and lad Jim and Jamie are ahead of me, as they have been all week, before sunset.

But I am waiting in the Hotel Rosalía lobby on Big Brother Ed… he ain’t heady he’s my brother.

Despite spending last night, leading the belated celebrations for Aussie Allan’s 77th birthday, with his travelling companion Peter.

Pick your dish: Peter picked the Pedron peppers

At Pulperia Rial in the old centre, where I feast on the regional speciality pulpo, on a wooden plate obviously, and Rioja.

I carb up with Irish sisters Nuala and Maura at breakfast but we bemoan the lack of Brennan’s bread.

The bread of life

The cat’s whiskers: Aussie Allan and Funtime Jimmy

We will meet again on the Way and because they’re Irish the talk comes round to food.

And they inform me that to tell the difference between Catholics and Protestants you ask where they keep their toasters.

Catholics leave theirs on the workplace while Protestants put theirs in the cupboard.

Completely random but the kind of invaluable knowledge you take away from walking the Way with the world’s walkers.

All this talk of food has made me hungry.

The ways of the Way

Just a few steps to go: Santiago in the distance

We break bread again, obviously, with Aussies Allan and Peter who will probably end up in our excess luggage.

And learn too the ways of the Way when a local offers to buy half of Peter’s monster cheese and ham baguette for €3.

Or at least we think that is what is happening because at this stage lifting the piano that is my backpack is making me hallucinate.

God though has shone on us and given us a gentle wind to blow us to Santiago de Compostella.

When it’s no racing cert

And most importantly with enough time to pick up our certificate.

For completing a 100km stretch of the Camino with Camino Ways.

Although after filling out a needless form on a computer we are faced with a snaking half a mile queue for our cert.

Instead we accept that if God knows that we walked his Way then that is enough.

The front doors of the cathedral aren’t accessible either and we are told too late that we needed to go through a side entrance.

But having embraced the Pilgrims Mass when I walked the last 100 of the Camino Frances.

And ducked out of the way of the Botafumeiro incense holder which is currently out of action I am not suffering FOMO.

Leaving behind the city of brotherly love

I will, alas, miss out on spending a night in Santiago and then Porto with Big Brother Ed.

As I have a bus to catch back to Porto this afternoon and then a flight the next morning to Edinburgh.

Now being brothers I’d never tell him this so you’re sworn to secrecy.

He has, in truth, set a way, a path, for me to follow from my earliest days, and still does.

Even if sometimes he leaves me behind, he is ultimately always there for me in the end.

MEET YOU ON THE ROAD

Countries, Europe, Pilgrimage

Following the yellow arrow road ten years on

27th October 202527th October 2025 funtime65

You spend a week on 100kms on The Way then find yourself following the yellow arrow road ten years on.

Actor and trekker Robson Green is the latest to put his boots on and head for Santiago de Compostella.

For his World’s Most Amazing Walks series for British TV channel U&Yesterday.

And share his Camino, which, of course, is his own.

There were touch points we recognise from our CaminoWays odyssey.

The passport, the pulpo, or octopus, and the cathedral botafumeiro incense holder.

As he traversed his way across Galicia from O Cebreiro to St James the Greater’s remains in Santiago de Compostella.

But because every day is an education on the Camino we learned some stuff we’d missed back then.

And they were all yellow

Such as the derivation of the yellow arrow symbol.

We already know why peregrinos, or pilgrims. wear scallop shells on their backpacks.

Although we prefer the more lyrical explanation, which he didn’t share, which is that James was carried ashore on clamshells.

But we just imagined that the yellow arrows which guide even the most accidental of tourists, to their destination.

That it was a Galician or Spanish Tourist Board signpost.

Starting out from O Cebreiro, of course, Robson, immediately learned that it was the handiwork of its most famous citizen.

Father Elias Valina, who stocked with an inordinate amount of yellow paint took off on his travels in 1984.

Along the French Way daubing yellow arrows everywhere to help peregrinos.

And you’ll be thankful to the padre for keeping you on the straight and narrow.

The big cheese

Armed with this knowledge Robson drops by, among other high points, a Queso Tetilla cheese in the shape of a booby.

The reason for it, the great storyteller keeps until the end of his trek in the great cathedral itself.

Which, Robson would be aghast if we spoiled.

Walking in his footsteps

Does my ass look big? We’re all peregrinos

The Geordie starts out his eight-part series in his backyard of the north-east of England.

Walking across to the other coast along the 2,000-year-old Hadrian’s Wall.

Before taking in the Danube River, along the Wachau Valley in Austria.

The north coast of Normandy, to the D-Day landings beaches.

The Great Glen Way through the Scottish Highlands, from the foot of Ben Nevis to Loch Ness.

Where eagles draw: The Trail of the Eagle’s Nest in Austria

The Douro Valley in Portugal, the Jurassic Coast on England’s south coast, complete with Sea-Rex.

And after his Camino odyssey, the Trail of the Eagle’s Nest in Poland.

A 100-mile route connecting a group of medieval castles perched across the limestone highlands.

Of course, through the miracle of modern technology I started my journey at episode seven and the Camino.

And one of our own

I am, of course, binge watching the rest and will break it to The Scary One that that is our mission for our Sixties.

To complete all of Robson’s treks, and more, not least our own neighbourhood walk, the John Muir Way.

And surprise my old walking companion, Wendy the Wasp Whisperer on the tenth anniversary of our misadventures this month.

Countries, Europe, Pilgrimage

James or not you’re quids in on the Camino

17th July 202417th July 2024 funtime65

Now I’ve a name that opens doors in travel but I’m happy to share, so whether you’re a James or not you’re quids in on the Camino.

With my old amigos CaminoWays who are offering a 10% discount on all new bookings made before July 31.

All to mark the feast of Saint James and Galicia’s National Day on July 25.

Of course, the Camino draws Jameses, Jamesinas, Jacques, Iacomos and Santiagos, and all variations in between to St James’ Way.

Santiago de Compostella is, of course, the final destination for all pilgrims, or peregrinos, Jameses or not.

With the Catedral the final resting place for Jesus’s disciple, James the Greater.

Fun and James

For those for whom Sunday School and school are a distant memory you may have forgotten that there was a James the Lesser.

Though for those of us you share that mantle then all roads lead to Rome and his grave in the Basilica dei Santi Apostoli.

Life as a lesser James, in my case as a James Junior has in truth been a blessing because of the father who inspired me.

A devout Roman Catholic I believe he was still looking over me on my own Camino from Sarria to Santiago.

Like many of us of my generation, and those before us, the convention was to pass a father’s Christian name on to the son.

And so this James felt a special connection with Jimmy G, all other Jameses before me and my nephew James.

As I dedicated my Camino in their memory.

Galicia belongs to me

Now everyone has their own reasons for doing a Camino, spiritual, social or athletic.

And I have yet to meet anyone who regrets it.

Companies such as CaminWays specialise in the great pilgrimage and its sister trek to Rome, the Via Francigena.

Both of which I’ve been guided on by forces human and spiritual.

Now any time is a good time to reach Santiago.

But for those who can stand the heat at this time of the year, and water and Estrella lager does help, then the eve of St James’s Day is a special time to arrive in the old city.

At midnight, locals and visitors alike gather at the Praza do Obradoiro to enjoy the traditional fireworks and display projected on the facade of Santiago Cathedral.

Swing low Botafumeiro

While on the big day Santiago Cathedral hosts its High Mass, usually attended by the king or one of the royals.

Although the real stars of the show are the red-robed priests who swing the incense holders, the Botafumeiro.

Now the fun and James comes to a close with the sky lighting up with fireworks on July 31.

Now to activate your discount then STJAMES24 is your key to open the door to savings.

So James or not you’re quids in on the Camino.