Day 14 | Camino Portuguese | Padrón to Santiago | March 31, 2024 | Easter Sunday

It's day 14...the day we walk into Santiago! The excitement and anticipation is palatable! We started by taking the bus from Padrón to O Milladoiro. Between our heel issues and Ann Marie being sick, we just didn't want to push ourselves too much...and there was the cold and rain to deal with on top of it all! We had the layers we needed, but we decided that it wasn't worth the chance of getting worse, thus the bus. When we reached the fork in the road for the two routes, we choose the Conxo route. It adds 0.6 miles, but passes by the beautiful Monastery and Church of Santa María. We walked into the main square of Santiago about 1pm...in sunshine! After a week of rain, the skies cleared for the magical moment of stepping into the square. Of course it didn't last too long, but that's okay. We so enjoyed watching all the other pilgrims that walked into Santiago on Easter Sunday and listening to the bagpipes. Today, we only walked 5.38 miles (8.66 km), but continued walking around Santiago when we arrived. We went to the Pilgrim's Mass that evening which is always a moving experience. Unfortunately though, the Botafumeiro, the enormous incense burner, was out for repairs so it wasn't swung this evening. That was such a bummer! We found out that it's going to be out of service for several more months and probably won't be back until later this year. We were so happy we saw it on our first camino back in September 2022! We will be staying in Santiago for three nights this time and are excited about exploring the city a bit more than we did last time. We will be staying at Hotel Compostela. #caminoportugues #caminodesantiago #camino #santiago #pilgrim #spain