Whatever time you arrive in Santiago de Compostela, you will probably find someone crying in the Praza do Obradoiro. They have walked for weeks, or days, or the last hundred kilometres the pilgrim rule requires, and the cathedral at the end of it is as big and golden as they hoped. Santiago has been the goal of the Camino since the ninth century, when a hermit was said to have found the tomb of the apostle James here, and the city grew up around the shrine. The cathedral you see now is largely Romanesque in its bones, with a baroque front that glows when it is not raining, which in Galicia is a fair part of the year.
Riders come as pilgrims of a different kind, by road rather than on foot. The best arrival is from the east, through green countryside of oak woods and granite farmhouses, down roads that dip and rise like the Galician coast itself. The approach is easy and the corners generous, with surfaces that are mostly smooth, though the wet leaves of autumn can make them slippery. Once you reach the edge of the old town, park legally and leave the bike. The historic centre is largely pedestrian and the stone streets are polished to a glassy finish by rain and feet.
A few things are worth doing before you get back on the bike. Walk into the cathedral, where the giant botafumeiro, a silver incense burner, is swung on special occasions. Buy a slice of tarta de Santiago, the almond cake marked with the cross of St James. Eat pulpo a feira, octopus with paprika, or simply a bowl of caldo gallego if the weather is wet. And look up: the rooftops and gables of Santiago are worth the stiff neck.
The region label mentions the monastery of Sobrado dos Monxes, a former Cistercian abbey in the countryside to the east, and it makes a good detour if you have time, with its enormous church and cloister set amid farmland.
Santiago is a city of ninety-five thousand, so fuel, food and rooms are everywhere. Book ahead in summer and around the feast of St James on 25 July.