Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
304 km from Santiago de Compostela to Santiago de Compostela, about 5 h 09 of riding. It goes by way of Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes, Chemin de l’Intérieur, Cathédral de Lugo and back through Chemin de l’Intérieur. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Santiago de Compostela
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Santiago de Compostela is where the day begins. Next is Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes.
2. Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes
Pilgrims walking the Camino del Norte toward Santiago reach Sobrado dos Monxes tired and footsore, and the sight of the huge granite Baroque façade of the monastery, rising out of a quiet Galician village, must feel like a miracle. Sobrado was founded as a monastery in the tenth century, became Cistercian in the twelfth, and grew into one of the most powerful abbeys in Galicia. After the dissolution of the monasteries in the nineteenth century, it fell into ruin, until Cistercian monks returned in the 1950s and began restoring it. Today they run a pilgrim hostel in part of the buildings.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes comes up about 57 km into the recorded legs. Next is Chemin de l’Intérieur.
3. Chemin de l’Intérieur
Pilgrims have been crossing this green upland of Galicia on their way to Santiago de Compostela for more than a thousand years, and the scallop-shell waymarkers still guide them through the villages around Vilalba and Guitiriz. This is the Terra Chá, the flat land, a high plateau in the north of the province of Lugo where the northern pilgrim routes come down from the Cantabrian coast toward the interior. The Ways of Saint James in northern Spain are part of a UNESCO listing that recognises not only the famous French Way but also the coastal and inland routes that run through this region.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 103 km into the recorded legs you reach Chemin de l’Intérieur. Next is Cathédral de Lugo.
4. Cathédral de Lugo
Lugo is one of those cities that tells you its age before you have parked. A ring of Roman wall, two kilometres of it and still complete, circles the old town, and walking along the top is the best way to understand why UNESCO listed it. The Romans founded Lucus Augusti here at the end of the first century before Christ, drawn by hot springs on the Miño river, and the baths are still in use by the riverside. The wall's gates, rebuilt and re-cut many times, let you walk in and out of the old quarter as people have for nearly two thousand years.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Santiago de Compostela closes the day.
Leg by leg
Santiago de Compostela to Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes
Santiago de Compostela → Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes to Chemin de l’Intérieur
Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes → Chemin de l’Intérieur is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chemin de l’Intérieur to Cathédral de Lugo
Chemin de l’Intérieur → Cathédral de Lugo is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cathédral de Lugo to back through Chemin de l’Intérieur
Cathédral de Lugo → back through Chemin de l’Intérieur is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Chemin de l’Intérieur to back through Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes
back through Chemin de l’Intérieur → back through Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes to Santiago de Compostela
back through Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes → Santiago de Compostela is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.