Camino de Portuguese Day 16: A Picaraña to Santiago
Hiking the Camino de Portuguese from A Picaraña to Santiago de Compostela | Finishing the Camino de Portuguese | A Day in Santiago de Compostela | June 2026
We awoke today with a renewed feeling of excitement and energy, as today would be our last day on the Camino de Portuguese. After spending 2 weeks slowly making our way towards the cathedral in Santiago, today was the day we would finally arrive at our destination! We quickly packed up our things and got on the trail as the sun was beginning to rise. We only had 16 kilometers to go today, but a heat wave was moving in with a high of 100 degrees Fahrenheit predicted, so we wanted to get a head start so that we could arrive before the heat of the day really set in.
The trail crossed the road, then followed a path through the woods to Faramello, the trail especially dark with a thick layer of trees blocking any light that was beginning to appear. In Farmello, we walked through the town and on into the neighborhoods surrounding it. At this point, we were close enough to the city of Santiago that we knew most of today’s walk would be residential and growing more urban as we neared the city center, making us extra thankful that we had taken the time yesterday to go out of our way to enjoy the mountains right off the trail. We found little things to appreciate about today’s walk, such as watching a baker drive around and deliver bread to the homes in the early morning, walking passed beautiful private gardens and seeing people’s pets outside, and finding homes that had food and water refill stations sitting out for pilgrims. As we neared the city, the houses grew closer together and the noise level picked up.
Before we knew it, we were walking under the freeway, and soon on a long, busy city street walking passed stores and businesses, knowing that at any moment we would get our first close up view of the cathedral. It didn’t feel like I expected it would — I was expecting to see a lot more pilgrims and to feel the combined anticipation of everyone about to arrive at the end of our journey, but instead we felt out of place as we were mostly surrounded by morning commuters and general tourists.
Finally, after about 4 hours of walking, we made our way up the last road, through one last alley, and found ourselves in the giant open area in front of the cathedral. We did it!! We walked to an open spot in the center of the plaza and turned to take in the grandness of the cathedral. It truly was a sight to behold, in both its size and all the details and decor around it. Someone came up and offered to take a picture of us, which I was so thankful for because in the excitement of the moment I might have forgotten.
I will say, finishing the Camino right here did feel a little anticlimactic though. There were tons and tons of people in the plaza, but maybe only a third of them (at most) were pilgrims. The rest were giant tourist groups or school groups, with the pilgrims scattered here or there. So it didn’t have the collective feeling of accomplishment that I had expected, seeing as most people had taken a bus to get here. There was also the immediate question of “what do we do now?” Which I knew would be a problem for us, once we finished the trail and no longer had that purpose guiding us through each day!
First things first, we wanted to go register at the pilgrim office and receive our Compostelas. The office for that is a few streets away, so we navigated to that location, stood in line, and then met with one of the volunteers to show our credentials, give our information, and chat about our experience. We paid for our certificates, then again found ourselves outside saying ‘what next?’ We knew we wanted to tour the cathedral, but couldn’t do so with our giant backpacks, so we walked over to our hotel to leave them there until check in. We grabbed the things we would need for the day, then walked back to the cathedral and jumped in the long line to enter. After slowly making our way up to the front, we thought it was our turn to enter when suddenly the workers closed the doors and turned us away. Sorry, mass had just started, come back in an hour and a half! We wandered back to the front and sat in the shade of the building across from the cathedral and people watched. We wished we could have seen some of our friends from along the trail — I had seen 3 pilgrims that I recognized from a handful of our Albergues in passing, but in hindsight it was amazing that I even spotted them because there were so many people here!
When mass was nearly over, we walked back to join the line again and this time we made it inside. It still smelled pleasant from the incense that came from the thurible used during mass. We took our time enjoying all the little details before getting in line to see the remains of St. James. There wasn’t much to see, but after walking so far, it felt wrong not to! We took as much time as we could inside, as it provided a respite from the rising heat outside. But when we knew we would be able to check into our hotel, we ventured back out into the sun and made our way back to our hotel for tonight.
For tonight’s hotel, we had decided to use points, and Curtis had gotten a decent deal with a Marriott hotel, the Hotel Palacio del Carmen. What he didn’t realize that this was actually a 5 star hotel, possibly the nicest place we’ve ever stayed. Considering we were just excited about having a private room and bathroom after 10 nights in Albergues, this felt very luxurious! Best of all, it had AC, which was much appreciated today! We settled in for a few hours, waiting out the heat of the day before venturing out again for dinner.
That evening, we went for a walk around the nearby park, and started looking for a place to eat. We had every intention of eating at a restaurant with traditional Spanish dishes, even though it meant waiting until 7:30 when it opened, but when it didn’t open at that time we gave in and decided to go for what we really wanted: sushi! I had a roll, and Curtis tried fried duck, and both were delicious and felt like a great reward for today’s accomplishment. We picked up some gelato on our way back to the hotel, and enjoyed a very comfortable night in the nicest place we’ve ever stayed.
The next day, we had until 3pm to spend in Santiago before our train was scheduled to leave, and it was going to be even hotter today than the day before. We rose early to enjoy the hotel breakfast, which was free for us and easily the best hotel breakfast we’ve ever had (which is saying a lot because we’ve had some good ones in Europe!). They had a Spanish omelette and the Tarta de Santiago, which were both things we had wanted to try anyway while here, and plenty of other foods.
After that, we set out on a little hike that Curtis really wanted to do. It was located within the Parque da Granada do Xesto on the West side of town, about a 6 mile round trip hike from our hotel. We got an early start to beat the heat, and I got to leave my backpack behind because all we needed was water. We walked through the quiet neighborhood streets until we reached the park, then followed trails that switchbacked gradually up the slope of the mountain. We made our way up to the shorter of the peaks, which also had a road to the top, which was my goal for this morning. We took some pictures and took in the view, and then Curtis went a little further to the more prominent peak while I rested here. And I have to say, this felt like a much better finish to our pilgrimage than the busy Cathedral was. Here I was able to see the whole city, with the cathedral in the center, surrounded by rolling hills in all directions. I was also able to really sit with my thoughts and contemplate all we had done over the last 2 weeks. I can’t recommend this spot enough to anyone who, like us, is overwhelmed by cities and crowds and just needs some peace and quiet in a beautiful spot after completing their Camino!
We made our way back to the hotel, and hung out in the AC until checkout at noon. Since it was so hot and busy outside on this Saturday afternoon, and we had already done the things we wanted to do in this city, we decided to just sit in the shade at a park with a view of the Cathedral. Our train ended up being cancelled, but they just put us on another one leaving an hour later. The rest of our time in Santiago was uneventful, a quiet ending to our long journey to get here. I guess it really wasn’t all about the ending, it was about the friends we made and the places we saw and the lessons we learned along the way.
