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Free lunch in Santiago

LTfit

Veteran Member
Donating Member
I've arrived in Santiago 8 times before but I usually arrive in the afternoon. Yesterday's plan went haywire and I ended up walking a massive stage to Lavacolla, just 10 km from Santiago. This a.m. I was up and out early bringing me into Santiago already at 8.15! Since the Pilgrim's Office only opens at 9.00 in the winter I ended up being second in line which made me eligible for a free lunch at the Parador !

Three out of the 10 (including me) are vegetarian so they offered us a lovely lunch of Pumpkin soup, vegetable paella, wine and Torta de Santiago! It was a nice way to end the Camino. We were an international group of Finns, Germans, Spanish, Korean and Dutch.

I was lucky to miss the rain early this morning, now the wind and rain are pounding the streets of Santiago!
 
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LTfit said:
Three out of the 10 (including me) are vegetarian so they offered us a lovely lunch of Pumpkin soup, vegetable paella, wine and Torta de Santiago! It was a nice way to end the Camino.
Click to expand...
@LTfit
You were lucky. I too am vegetarian, but I was served the usual meat meal, most of which I refused, and eventually I was brought some vegetables. But I enjoyed the company and the chance to have a meal in a more upscale restaurant.
 
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I can't help but miss the times when these meals were still in principle and by common understanding reserved for the poorer pilgrims -- but it's clear that professional beggary and systematic abuses have destroyed those times.

I will still always cherish that one time when, arriving very, very late into Santiago and without even my Compostela, they let me be the 11th pilgrim.
 
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Albertagirl said:
@LTfit
You were lucky. I too am vegetarian, but I was served the usual meat meal, most of which I refused, and eventually I was brought some vegetables. But I enjoyed the company and the chance to have a meal in a more upscale restaurant.
Click to expand...

Did you tell them that you were a vegetarian? I did so upfront and they were quite polite and accommodating when two others joined me. Times are changing in this respect along the Camino, I was surprised to see vegetarian and vegan options along the Francés, something unheard of just 8 years ago. On the more solitary Caminos this is still not the case.
 
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There is no such thing as luck! Very well deserved, @LTfit...I'm very happy you got to celebrate the walk this way!
And you got vegetarian food??
Wonders never cease.
(My version of vegetarian food in Santiago is plates of pimentos de padron...I don't think it's possible to tire of them but would happily test this hypothesis....)
 
@LTfit
No I didn't. I was feeling somewhat intimidated by the situation and just figured that I must eat what I could of whatever they gave me. But there wasn't much that I felt I could eat.
 

Oh I forgot to mention that before the soup, the non-vegetarians were given plates of small squares of tuna empinadas and we were presented with a small plate of pimientos de padrón . I totally agree, I would have been happy with only pimentos de padrón. Yummy!
 
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