Tower of Hercules and Santiago de Compostela

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Tower of Hercules

   On a rocky headland at the edge of A Coruña, a city of about two hundred and fifty thousand people on the north-west corner of Spain, stands a grey stone tower nearly fifty-five metres tall. It is the Tower of Hercules, and it is the oldest Roman lighthouse in the world still in use, which makes it a good deal older than almost anything else that works in Europe. UNESCO inscribed it in 2009.

   Read the complete Tower of Hercules write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Tower of Hercules is where the day begins. Next is Chemin de l’Intérieur.

2. 2. 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.

   Read the complete Chemin de l’Intérieur write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Chemin de l’Intérieur comes up about 77 km into the recorded legs. Next is Santiago de Compostela.

3. 3. 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.

   Read the complete Santiago de Compostela write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 185 km into the recorded legs you reach Santiago de Compostela. Next is back through Chemin de l’Intérieur.

4. 4. back through Chemin de l’Intérieur

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Chemin de l’Intérieur write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Chemin de l’Intérieur, late in the day. Next is Tower of Hercules.

5. 5. Tower of Hercules

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Tower of Hercules write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Tower of Hercules. That is the ride.