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On the Camino: One Day at a Time, one Photo at a Time 4.0.

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Camino Way markers in Bronze
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Agés, Casa Carocol
photo taken February 13, 2009



A snail's place and pace

Beneath a clear February sky crossing the Montes Oca to Agés on frozen mud was cold, but relatively easy.

Most albergues were closed. I was alone in a private pilgrim place, Casa Caricol/House of the Snail. For supper, Paz, the gracious hospitalera, prepared a delicious thick hot vegetable/pasta soup on the wood-burning stove; there was no other heat.

Wearing knitted hat, muffler and gloves in the frigid dorm I pondered how important it is on the Camino and in life to just relax and take it as it is, to let it be. Easy does it. Be a snail.

"Slow but determined" could be my motto.
 
Hi, we are back safely, having had a great weekend away! Have enjoyed all your posts but now we are home we can post again, as all our photos are on our computer at home. Continuing on the Norte, between Islares and Laredo, some mountain goats. We were feeling like mountain goats on the coastal path from Sonabia to Laredo! Quite hair-raising at times!
 
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Haro. After La Puebla de Arganzon , the Camino Vasco Interior splits up in the Interior and the Bayona. Haro is on the Interior. We took a break to visit as regular " tourists " for the day. Returned the day after to Miranda de Ebro by train to continue walking.

Next time I would just walk to Haro and calculate some shorter days. There is a charm in continuing walking.

Haro : mini Logroño with some great pintxosbars and lots of bodegas as you can see on the picture. Kind of an upmarket feel.

Haro Turismo

Bienvenido al portal web de Turismo de la Ciudad de Haro, capital de La Rioja Alta y del vino de Rioja. Descubre Lo mejor de Haro. Encuentra información sobre bodegas, comercio, monumentos, enoturismo, experiencias, actividades, entre otras muchas cosas más.
www.haroturismo.org
 
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...and ship it to Santiago for storage. You pick it up once in Santiago. Service offered by Casa Ivar (we use DHL for transportation).
A relaxing day post-camino on Illa De Arousa, finished off with wonderful seafood in the old town of Cambados, the home of Albarino. Big wine festival there each July apparently.
 

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Sahagun, albergue de Cluny, interior
photo taken March 3, 2007




Thumps in the night

Walking towards Sahagun I heard a car honk, the driver shouting "a young 'hoodlum' in camouflage is on the camino!"

Minutes later footsteps crunched the gravel path. Bingo! A young guy wearing pink and grey camouflage stared at me. I said "Hola!"; he grunted and went on.

Arriving at the municipal albergue de Cluny I tried to explain the encounter ;
the hospitalera offered a key to lock myself in !!
Thus I was alone in the huge repurposed space. ..

Time passed. While showering I heard thumps on the massive staircase. Covered in suds I grabed my poncho.Two hefty cops and two slim male cyclists appeared! "Senora, we've brought you some protection" said the cops.

Smiling we all shook hands and I, clad only in that sudsy poncho, brewed tea for five.

Later snug in a lower bunk
I felt blissfully protected by those most welcome nearby cyclists.
 
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A picture from two caminos, our 2015 CF and my 2019 Camino Catalan/Aragonese starting from Barcelona. The picture was taken in 2015 on our stay in Barcelona prior to starting our walk but it counts as a camino pic since I saw it again in 2019. The picture is a closeup of the west door to La Sagrada Familia basilica. It makes a great Zoom virtual background. Feel free to download and use it if you want.
 
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Best lightweight Camino guides
Ideal pocket guides for during & after your Camino. Each weighs only 1.4 oz (40g)!
Get a Spanish mobil number + data while on the Camino
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
Santo Domingo de Silos, Cloister
Doubting Thomas, detail

photo taken January 23, 2013





".... reach hither thy hand, and thrust into my side and be not faithless, but believing."
John 20: 27




In 2012 after I finished the CF early in December my husband drove to SdC to join me and in the new year we visited Santo Domingo de Silos Monastery

The famous Gregorian chants during morning/evening services and the guided tour of the Benedictine complex were remarkable. Especially splendid was the two story Romanesque cloister embellished with extraordinary carving such as the Doubting Thomas. ...Perfection to remember forever.
 
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Santa Olalla de Bureba. Six k. further than Castil de Peones ( see picture from @VNwalking a couple of days ago ). Camino Vasco 2019.

Only two days walking and we reached Burgos.

Briviesca - Monasterio de Rodilla | Camino Vasco del Interior | Gronze.com

Etapa corta y básicamente llana, íntegramente por la comarca de La Bureba, y algo menos agradable que las precedentes por el contacto permanente con tres grandes ejes de comunicación: la autopista A-1, la nacional N-I y la línea de ferrocarril Madrid-Irún. Las pequeñas poblaciones intermedias de...
www.gronze.com
 
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The upper segment of the amazing alterpiece of San Benito in the often bypassed Church of San Martino Pinario, a couple of hundred metres from the Cathedral in Santiago. The scale is staggering and impossible to capture fully in a photo for the average person, best enjoyed from the pews.
 

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Get a Spanish mobil number + data while on the Camino
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
Camino Way markers in Bronze
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
I remember taking the detour to Santa Maria de Eunate, and wondering if I had gone wrong (it seemed much further away than I had anticipated). I am glad that I did get to see this beautiful church (set up for a wedding the next day). Sadly I did not get a stamp...a rather grumpy man said I had arrived too late!
 
Camino Way markers in Bronze
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
The Church of St. James in A Coruna, the start of the Camino Ingles from there. We like to start there, having done a UK Camino start. Usually along the Pilgrims Way to Canterbury, to make up the distance, as permitted. It is a very nice church, with a very friendly gentleman to do the intial Sello. We have found the Camino Inglese from A Coruna to be very quiet up until the two routes join up. It isn't exactly crowded even after that.

 
Slightly higher/longer view from the gallery, apologies for the head cropping.

 
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Sunrise near San Juan de Ortega
photo taken November 6, 2013



Hope springs eternal

May the glory of new morning light lift all our spirits and give us hope of better times to come .

If perchance you now are near San Juan Ortega do watch within the monastery church the spring equinox
March 21, Miracle of Light

What a feat of medieval faith and engineering it is and how splendid it would be to watch on site.
 
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According to the photo list, this one is number 259. I hope it is ok to post without permission of the owner of the kilt. His name, James, if I remember correctly. A Scot, naturally. Hence, the title of the photo, simply: Two Scots. A premonition of Covid distance requirements?
Maybe it is a little out of sync, as the next photo is the one of my current avatar, and I thought that one was after Foncebadón. Never mind, they are in and around that area. It reminded so much much of the internalised knowledge of the natural environment of my native place. Maybe I should add it here...

 
Train on the 4-day Catalina Camino
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There were a few dramas on my first Camino - one of them occurred here.

Go Your Own Way

It’s often said that walking the Camino is a form of therapy, enabling a person to think, to consider, to evaluate and hopefully to develop in some way as the miles crunch away under the feet…
johnelsewhere.blog
 
While there are many water fountains along the way, I found this water wheel pump particularly interesting! You place your bottle below the spout below the wheel and then keep spinning the wheel counterclockwise until it pumps up water from the below. Low tech at its best!

 
I do not know how many thousands of photos have been taken of this Dinosaur, but I am still very fond of it. It is South of O Meson do Vento on the Ingles. The pictures vary from year to year, as it changes position from one side of the road to the other, changing the lighting.

 
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On an extremely hot day in August, slogging along a very long stretch right beside a very busy highway on the stage between Oia and Baiona on the Portuguese Coastal route, our spirits picked up when about 50 beautiful, colourful vintage Fiats (I think) suddenly appeared around a bend, parading past us, beeping horns, with their occupants waving, smiling and yelling Buen Camino. It was so much fun and the joy of it lightened our step for the remaining 5km or so into Baiona. These are screen shots from a video I made of the last half of the parade.
Four photos but it would be one photo if the cars were closer together

 
on the Camino Finistere,
west of the juncture DP 3404/ DP 2302
giant rock with Petroglyphs

photo taken December 8, 2011




Hidden in the misty wood on a dirt path off DP 2302 this huge rock seemed magical and a bit threatening as if it might erupt.

Below is a photo of the approximate
map location

 
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Would be interested to know where this was, please.
 
Camino Way markers in Bronze
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Altus BALI Sleeping bag liner
Ideal sleeping bag liner whether we want to add a thermal plus to our bag, or if we want to use it alone to sleep in shelters or hostels. Thanks to its mummy shape, it adapts perfectly to our body.

€46,-
Best lightweight Camino guides
Ideal pocket guides for during & after your Camino. Each weighs only 1.4 oz (40g)!
Get a Spanish mobil number + data while on the Camino
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
Altus BALI Sleeping bag liner
Ideal sleeping bag liner whether we want to add a thermal plus to our bag, or if we want to use it alone to sleep in shelters or hostels. Thanks to its mummy shape, it adapts perfectly to our body.

€46,-
path to O Cebreiro
photo taken November 29, 2012



Shaggy with snow these huge pines beside the path resembled phantoms in a fairy tale.

A sturdy pilgrim from ex-Yugoslavia working in Germany as a bodyguard walked with me. Perhaps, the thoughtful hospitalero at Ruitelan had asked him to do so; or perhaps it was simple serendipity.

Side by side we slowly climbed; on dry road to begin, next a bit of snow, then deep snow and, eventually, total white-out. Arriving at O Cebreiro after four hours exhausted but exhilarated!

...I often recall that snowy climb and how lucky I was to have met a guardian angel.
 
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zrexer said:
View attachment 95742

Is there anyone that walked the Camino Francis that didn't take a picture of this farm house? For those that didn't, it is shortly before you arrive at VillaFranca del Bierzo. Picture from April 2019.
Click to expand...
Here is ours on 23rd, September, 2014. What a difference in the paddock in front.
 
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Thanks @Theatregal and @Chenahusky for your photos of the scaffolding on the exterior of the Cathedral in 2017. It gives perspective to the progress of the restoration that was being undertaken for the Jubilee Year of 2021. By the time I arrived in April 2019 the scaffolding had migrated from the outside to the inside. Here is a photo of some scaffolding surrounding the Botafumeiro and the main altar (Photo 1). I hope to return in the spring of 2022 to see the inside without scaffolding. During the interior restoration in 2019 the Pilgrim Masses were held at the Church of St. Francis, not too far from the Cathedral, and although St. Francis is a pretty big church, it was still SRO (Photo 2).

 
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My pleasure. One from 2016.

 
Let us pick up your suitcase once you arrive in Europe....
...and ship it to Santiago for storage. You pick it up once in Santiago. Service offered by Casa Ivar (we use DHL for transportation).
east of Santa Catalina de Somoza, path
photo taken March 10, 2007



May our hearts be filled with hope.

".....Walk on through the wind,
Walk on through the rain,
Tho' your dreams be tossed and blown.
Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone,
You'll never walk alone."

These timeless lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein sung to music by Richard Rodgers were written for the 1945 American musical Carousel. In the 1960s the song was adapted and adopted by fans of the Liverpool Football Club.

For all of us who now seek hope these lyrics continue to offer poignant encouragement.
 
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Camino Ready, Backpacks, Boots etc
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Camino Ready, Backpacks, Boots etc
3rd Edition. Vital content training & pack guides avoid common mistakes, bed bugs etc

The indomitable Davíd, master of the Abode of the Gods, the legendary donativo refreshment stop just outside Astorga.

When I stopped there for a chat, back in 2018, he told me that he'd been there every day for nine years, providing sustenance and solace to passing pilgrims.

I detected that his dedication to aiding us had taken a toll, and I wondered whether he would continue for much longer. I did hear later that he did indeed move on.

Does anyone know how he is now? He deserves to be remembered and celebrated.
 
JohnLloyd said:
Does anyone know how he is now? He deserves to be remembered and celebrated.
Click to expand...
I enjoyed stopping at David's hospitable "oasis" in 2017, having refreshing watermelon and a chat. I have read on the forum that he later left his property in the hands of a friend while he walked to Santiago barefoot and later returned. He was not too happy with the way it was being operated in his absence.
If anyone can find the thread with better accuracy or more details, it would be appreciated.
 
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Villamayor de Monjardin
Iglesia de San Andrés Apóstol, capital detail

photo taken October 25, 2014





This Romanesque capital which depicts fighting knights is said to represent Charlemagne and a Navarrese Prince. ArteHistoria provides a detailed discussion of the art/architectural history of the church.

I first visited the church October 7, 2004. Tired from climbing through vineyards I stopped mid-day in Villamayor de Monjardin for a cold drink and a welcome seat outside a simple storefront; facing the church this small repurposed commercial space was then the parish albergue.

In the churchyard the vivacious Spanish hospitelero had hung his wash! He took me with him to gather the laundry and then we slowly viewed this special church including the Charlemagne capital.

During the afternoon other pilgrims arrived; seven would spend the night. Curbside the hospitelero cooked for all. We ate outside beneath the stars. The simple food and human vibes were perfect.
.....

Thus while regarding this stylized chivalric image of Charlemagne concurrently I recollect that honest symplicity of heartfelt caritas many years ago.
 
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Camino Ready, Backpacks, Boots etc
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Train on the 4-day Catalina Camino
Train for your next Camino on California's Santa Catalina Island March 16-19
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