Day 53: Santiago de Compostela | 0km
24 July 2026
My body, especially my behind, was very happy to take a day off. I no longer get sore after a long day of riding, but fatigue still builds up, and a day’s rest is a good reset. I spent the morning backing up photos, editing some, writing, and planning the upcoming routes. As I leave the Camino del Norte behind, I’ve been through snow, mountains, winds, heatwaves, dehydration, and hunger, so I wonder if there are any new types of obstacles ahead that I haven’t yet faced.
One that worries me and could potentially derail the route a little or a lot is the wildfires in southern Portugal and Spain. I’ve already changed my route slightly to always stick as close to the coast as possible, where hopefully temperatures and the risk of fire are lower. Peering over the live maps of fires in Europe, it seems like the best option. I’m also very reluctant to face the extreme temperatures inland that I’ve already been through. Riding before the sun rises just to make the final destination before lunch is not a good bike touring strategy, and I desperately want to avoid finishing this trip on a sour and tired note. I’m monitoring the weather apps daily to avoid dangers, so let’s see what happens as I get further south.
After Irene finished work, we headed out into town, and as we walked past the cathedral, hundreds of other pilgrims were arriving and soaking in the moment of triumph. We stopped for a few minutes to observe the crowd, which was made even more cinematic by the bagpipes playing in the background. Galicia actually has a strong bagpipe tradition, despite most people probably associating the instrument with Scotland. We roamed around the streets in search of a lunch spot, but it wasn’t a long roam before we found a great spot that served cachopo, a massive breaded and fried beef dish that’s traditional in Asturias. Although Santiago is in Galicia, it looked and tasted very good.
I was famished and slightly dehydrated, so the one beer I had with lunch was enough to make me feel a bit tipsy. Following lunch, we strolled some more, and as we walked past a pastry shop, both of us stopped to look in the window. There was a display of creamy and extravagant croissants and cookies. We, or I should say I, couldn’t resist, so I got myself a huge croissant filled with Dubai chocolate. It reminded me of the cookie-croissant hybrid I had in Paris. I normally don’t enjoy overly sweet things, another sign of getting older, but my cravings on this trip have been a bit different. Some days I crave endless food, and other days I just feel like I’m stuffing things in my face because I know I have to, not because I have any appetite. On this rest day, though, my appetite was high, so I took any opportunity to eat up.
After strolling around the city for a few hours and soaking in the joyful atmosphere in Santiago, I was getting very tired and didn’t feel like walking much more. The energy to be a tourist had completely gone, but I felt bad that Irene had come all this way just for me to be so tired. I suggested a more passive tourist activity that I had been looking forward to for a long time: The Odyssey. Christopher Nolan’s latest epic was, against all odds, playing in a nearby movie theatre in English, so we got a cab to the mall, made ourselves comfortable, placed the massive bucket of popcorn between us, and enjoyed a great movie. The film opened in Spain just a week earlier, on 17 July, so the timing worked out perfectly.
I’d never seriously compare myself to Odysseus, but I couldn’t help but reflect on my own odyssey as I watched Matt Damon struggle to make his way back to Ithaca over a ten-year period. My journey, although longer than his, would gladly only take ten weeks.