In Search of the Good Life...: Day 26 (6/6) Palas del Rei to Arzua

Happy Birthday, Taylor!

This was the biggest day (in terms of mileage) on the Camino in 2026. Because we stayed on the eastern outskirts of Palas del Rei the night before, it tacked on more mileage today, making the first and only 20+ mileage day.

Honestly, not too much to say about today other than we did a ton of walking. And then some more walking. And then we hit the 10 mile mark and did more walking. Sounds like everyone was feeling pretty fresh up until about mile 16, which is when people's bodies started giving signals that it was time to stop walking. Only it wasn't. But eventually it was. After several more miles of walking. 20.5 miles, to be exact.

With the exception of some light rain for the first 90 minutes, I was excited that we had good weather for today's walk. If it had been boiling lava hot as it was in the middle of our trip, it would have made the 20 mile walk that much harder.

We were among the last to arrive at Hotel Arzua around 5:30. I'm going to finish this post tomorrow, but I can't conclude this post without talking about the "laundry anarchy" that happened while I was in Hotel Arzua. Stay tuned.

Also, welcome Faith and Clara--they're students who did the 2024 Camino program (and Faith also did 2022 and served as a hospitalera)--they enjoyed their experience so much that they're back for an encore! It's so great to see them reconnect with the Camino and for our students to have an opportunity to meet and interact with them.

I have a photo below about Santiago Cake: here's a description (sorry, y'all, it's from Wikipedia):

Torta de Santiago (in Galician) or Tarta de Santiago (in Spanish), literally meaning cake of St. James, is an almond cake or pie from Galicia with its origin in the Middle Ages and the Camino de Santiago. The ingredients mainly consist of ground almonds (almond flour), eggs, and sugar, with additional flavoring of lemon zest, sweet wine, brandy, or grape marc, depending on the recipe used. It is the most well-known of the cakes of Galicia.

Torta de Santiago has a round shape and can be made with or without a base, which can be either puff pastry or shortcrust pastry. The top of the pie is decorated with powdered sugar, stenciled with a silhouette of the Cross of Saint James (cruz de Santiago), which gives the pastry its name. The origin of the cross being decorated on the cake dates to 1924 when the "Casa Mora" began to adorn the almond cakes with the silhouette. The cross is a symbol of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimages, and the cake is said to reward pilgrims upon the completion of their journey.

Photo credits: Cory I