Santiago to Finisterre

Santiago to Finisterre
Ah - Finisterre! In 2006 I walked from Santiago  and at that time the walk was something just over 90 km. but like so many places on the camino the route has been changed somewhat and is shorter now by a few km.  - more like 86 or 87 km.

Since it's still raining we decided to take the bus out to Finisterre  in the hope that we might get a peek at the sunset at the 'end of the earth'. In the past going to Finisterre has always seemed to me to be a more fitting ending to the camino than being in the very touristy city of Santiago de Compostela, lovely as it is. So after my son left Santiago ( what a wonderful experience to have had him walk with me for a few days!) we hopped a bus to Finisterre and stayed at the Hotel Playa Langosteira, which in spite of the name is not actually on the playa (beach) but a block or so away from it. It is a long bus ride to Finisterre in spite of the relatively short distance and took about 3 hours. But the people were kind and helpful and our stay there was enjoyable. The downtown area has developed considerably in the past few years but the statue in honour of the workers in the town centre is the same.

For some reason when I was here before I didn't notice how beautiful the beaches are and how much white sand there is in the whole area. It is really stunning.

This whole area would be a great spot to enjoy a family vacation although I guess the weather can be unpredictable. But as you can see it did clear up for us one day and it was wonderful to be out in it. That was the day we wanted to walk the 4 km up to the lighthouse to see the sunset so we were very grateful. It has been written that this is the spot where the Celts came to dance in the buff for the gods to encourage them to bring the sun up again for the coming days or seasons.  It seemed like a worthwhile purpose and I considered adding strength to it but somehow I couldn't see any self-respecting gods wanting to keep the lights on for my old nude body dancing around and in fact I thought it might risk a blackout until they were sure I had gone home - so I declined. (Eek - try not to even imagine it!)

Quite by happenstance we went to watch the sunset on the summer solstice so as the sun went down, the full moon came up. It was magical sitting where people have come to this same spot, which they believed was the end of the earth, to watch the evening dim and the sun set - with the hope that it would rise again in the morning. It was wonderful and I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. This fine pilgrim was on his way up to the lighthouse at the same time that we were.

The final marker.

It really did look striped like this.

And now the full moon!