You know how when you're pushing through a really tough workout, or through a particularly difficult stretch at work, you don't let yourself feel how beat you are until you're able to relax? Well I took a day off yesterday and it actually made me realize how tired I was. I didn't want to do anything. I went out for a 90 minute stroll around town and all I could think of was going back to my hotel and not moving. So I ended up spending most of the day luxuriating in my wonderful room, with a king size bed, multiple pillows, good AC, and a large shower with a strong flow of hot water. It was great.

It also gave me a chance to plan out the homestretch. I decided, with 72 miles to go, to do it over 7 days, not push myself. I arranged rooms all the way into Santiago, where, if all goes as planned, I'll arrive on July 7th. I know I shouldn't count my chickens and all that, but it's really seeming like I'm going to make it. After that I might take a bus to Finisterre, stay there overnight and return to Santiago before flying to Madrid on the 12th. I'm flying back to the States on the 14th, so that'll give me a day and a half in Madrid. One more chance to visit the Prado.

The Camino has changed dramatically and suddenly, just like the guidebooks and buzz have warned. To get the certificate at Santiago you have to walk the last 100K and loads of people start in Sarria, which is the closest town to the 100K. For the first time today the path was crowded for the whole walk. There were very few moments when there weren't tons of people ahead of me and behind me. And noisy. Large groups of high school kids, extended families, tour groups (I took a group photo of a bus load of about 50 Irish folks just starting out in Sarria at about 6:30 AM), as well as lots of individuals. I found myself alternatively thinking it was a good thing and trying to accept that it will be different for this last phase, and irritated that I will no longer have the silent reverie that I've so cherished.

Partly because of that I ended up walking for a couple of hours with an interesting couple, or non couple. I was trying to figure out their relationship. Both very attractive and interesting 40-somethings, they had walked together, at a very fast pace, all the way from the Pyrenees. She was an antiques dealer from Woodstock, NY, he a family therapist from Germany who is just finishing a year sabbatical from work, during which he has spent 3 months in India and Nepal studying and trekking, 5 months in Iran studying Farsi, and is now completing his second Camino, 12 months apart. They seemed like old marrieds, playfully bickering, pointing out character traits and flaws in their nearly perfect bodies, really at ease with each other. I asked them at one point, so are you a couple? And they both said, kinda, sorta. I joked that they had been together long enough to already start thinking about a divorce, and it hit a nerve, in a good way--they both started cracking up and they got a great kick out of it, even repeating the joke several times as we walked. But it turned out they've been staying in municipal albergues and churches the whole time, so the relationship is non-sexual. Interesting. They'll always have the Camino.

The walk today, about 14 miles, was mostly through tiny villages, which were really just clusters of small working farms. Very few public buildings, and unlike most of the route, almost no churches. Vegetables, some corn, mostly dairy. Tons of cow shit, again occasionally incredibly pungent. The entry into Portomarin was dramatic. You walk across a very long low stone bridge over the Mino River and, at the end of the bridge, up a very steep flight of stone stairs thorough the gate into the city. I was really beat by the time I arrived and all I wanted to do was get to my pension as quickly as possible so, aside from it being hilly, my impressions of the town are very vague. Once I gather my energy I'll go out, have a look around, and find some dinner. I'm going to break the next stage into two days, so they should be easy, only 8 miles per day. Looking forward to not having to push too hard.