Stage Sobrado dos Monxes to Santiago de Compostela (By bike)

The final cycling stage of the Camino del Norte along its inland variant, some 61 kilometres linking the monastery of Sobrado dos Monxes with the goal of Santiago de Compostela. It is a long day but with a gentle profile and a downhill tendency, in which the Camino del Norte merges with the French Way to tackle the final stretch towards the city of the Apostle together.

After bidding farewell to the Cistercian abbey, the route descends through the rural Galicia of Boimorto amid meadows, eucalyptus groves and quiet hamlets as far as Arzúa, famous for its denomination-of-origin cheese. It is here that the Camino del Norte joins the French Way, so that from this point the atmosphere changes completely: the route fills with pilgrims in the final stages of their journey.

From Arzúa the Camino threads through a string of small hamlets —Salceda, A Brea, Santa Irene— along tracks and shady corredoiras beneath eucalyptus woods, with a constant up and down that presents no technical difficulties. O Pedrouzo marks the penultimate halt before the final push towards the Galician capital.

The closing stretch climbs gently up to Monte do Gozo, the hillock from which pilgrims catch their first glimpse of the cathedral towers. From there, a swift descent leads to the entrance into Santiago and the old town, until it opens out onto the Praza do Obradoiro, before the baroque façade of the cathedral, goal and culmination of the pilgrimage to Santiago.