Day 13: Caldas de Reis to Padrón, Oct 31

Our penultimate day was largely in the woods, often above a rushing river. We enjoyed a lovely coffee stop about an hour into the day—a welcome break since we’d had tea with breakfast at our albergue. The cafe was packed with pilgrims when we arrived – we’d obviously all had the same idea – and then quickly emptied out. I guess we were on the late side. Since joining the main Camino Portugues, we kept hitting these bunching up moments. But then at other times, it seems you’re walking alone. 

At one point, as we walked around the outside of a church, I noticed how many of the graves and wall niches had fresh flowers. I was just thinking how lovely this was, when the penny dropped. We were heading into the All Saint’s Day long weekend. Soon we saw people arriving to clean their loved one’s grave and then leave flowers. For the rest of the day, we saw this at each cemetery we passed. 

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the day, though, was that there was no rain. No rain at all during the whole walk—and no ponchos. Almost unbelievable.

It was a short day so we arrived at our lovely and very new hostel (Albergue & Rooms Murgadán, €49, private bath) at 3:00. Of course, not long after we’d showered and changed and headed out to explore this sweet little town, it started to pour. We stumbled on the botanic garden and had a look around before the rain became too intense. After that we visited a couple of small churches – a good way to get out of the rain –  then picked up some groceries for breakfast since we’re not sure what will be open with tomorrow being a holiday. 

We found a cafe that opened for dinner at 7:30 and enjoyed watching the kids and young teenagers come in to trick or treat. We’ve seen that before in Spain, where trick or treating seems to happen more at businesses. We walked the long way home to our albergue so we could see more the Halloween happenings, but headed to bed early since the hostel has an 8:30 checkout time and the final day is a longer one.