Writer C Fong Hsiung

My first day of walking from O Cebreiro to Santiago de Compostela started early. Today my three friends, Carla, Giulia and her husband John, and I would walk 21 kilometers to our destination in Triacastela. Although I had a rough night adjusting to a six-hour time difference, my mood stayed high as I anticipated an adventure. I met my friends at 7 AM for breakfast outside the hotel’s restaurant. The mist chilled my bones as I waited. Minutes later a middle-aged man welcomed us with a cheerful smile. Together with a woman about the same age, they served us breakfast at a rectangular wooden table already set for four. When freshly baked bread, prosciutto, cheese and café con leche arrived, Carla and Giulia declared all was well again in our universe. They had a less-than-pleasant experience during the check-in process yesterday. The food didn’t disappoint. The coffee especially, hit all the right spots for me. I remembered how much I enjoyed the café con leche--coffee with lots of whole ...

In September 2022 I walked 128 kilometres from Baiona to Santiago de Compostela with five friends. My first Camino took place along the Portuguese Coastal Way. One of those friends, Giulia and I planned that pilgrimage as a retirement gift to ourselves. I enjoyed the first experience so much that when she suggested doing it again, I agreed. So two years later, three of those same friends, Giulia, her husband John, Carla, and I packed our bags and landed in Porto on September 5, 2024. This time we walked the last 162 kilometres from O Cebreiro to Santiago along the French Way. It was sunny and pleasant when we arrived in Porto but got cloudy and overcast as we crossed over to Spain. We arrived in O Cebreiro, a quaint hamlet in Galicia, late in the afternoon. Our driver dropped us in the middle of, what seemed, the only road. Looking around I felt that had we arrived in a horse-drawn carriage and dressed in 18th or 19th-century garb, we’d have fitted right in. One would think we’d easily...