Today was another day with no services, of the few small villages I walked through none had a bar or cafe so I pretty much walked straight through to Muxia.

It wasn’t an exceptionally interesting day: almost all road walking with a little forest path and a long dirt road up to the windmills and miles and miles of descent down to the main road leading around the coast and into Muxia.

I arrived a little after 11am and had my first sit down at a wee cafe with coffee and churros as my little go-with snack.

Muxia is a fairly modern town built mostly of concrete block buildings but either because of the bright sun or all the colorful paints used it’s fun and attractive versus depressing and blah.

My hotel is located on the other side of town from the Camino entrance, but ideally situated just down from the main harbor and with a magnificent deserted beach out front. I quickly did some hand laundry so it’d still catch the sun on my balcony, and rinsed off my beloved Hoka trail shoes so they’d be presentable for city walking in Amsterdam and London, then set out to explore Muxia.

Muxia is also at the base of a little peninsula like Fisterra. It’s pilgrim claim to fame is that the stone boat carrying the Virgin Mary washed ashore here and believers claim you can still see part of that boat! The church of La Senora de la Barca (The Lady of the Boat) was built nearby and ever since people have been coming to pay their respects.

It’s a 1 mile walk along the waterfront out to the tip where it’s said the stone boat washed ashore. There was a very helpful man in a red sequined hat who offered to show me the rock I was already looking at for €1. I think I graciously declined but who knows what I really said in my poor Spanish.

Besides the chapel there’s an eye-catching but somewhat mysterious sculpture of something splitting in two, and another 0.0 km marker. This is my camino end point, both literally and emotionally. I now feel I’ve “finished” my walk. Fisterra might geographically be the farthest one can go, but it’s a busy, built up place that feels too frenetic for a Camino to finish there. Muxia is calmer, more a sleepy fishing village than tourist hotspot, and therefore a more fitting, contemplative finale.

After sitting for awhile, enjoying the waves crashing against the rocks and pondering the meaning of life, more mundane matters such as food started to take precedence so I strolled back to town to find some lunch. A pilgrim I merely said hello to this morning on the way here asked if she could join me, and we had a delightful repast together. Coincidentally she had gone through extremely similar physical issues as I the last couple of years so it was remarkable listening to her story and her describe the Camino she just finished. She said it was just like listening to herself as I described my past couple of years and talked about planning and accomplishing my walk. Nice to know I wasn’t the only one going through such a difficult time.

After lunch I returned to the beach outside my hotel to sit and take in the view for a while, chatting with other pilgrims doing the same. Everyone is “decompressing” – there’s no more walking ahead, no route to plan, no accommodation to book. Just the afternoon to enjoy.