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On the Camino: One Day at a Time, one Photo at a Time 8.0

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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.
Hontanas
CF, September 29, 2015

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Edit: Looks like I am wrong. A Google satellite view of the El Afar looks similar to Rowen's pic of Hontanas.


This looks like albergue El Alfar de Hornillos in Hornillos. We stayed there. This bird flew into the glass door (open in your picture) and nearly knocked himself out. I had it keep company beside me on a table for about 15 minutes before enough sense came back that it realized it shouldn't be there and flew off.
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My post is a photo of the first cafe you come to at the entry to Hontanas. A great place for mid- morning café con leche and a snack if you have stayed in Hornillos the night before. I didn’t notice whether it was an albergue too.
 
...and ship it to Santiago for storage. You pick it up once in Santiago. Service offered by Casa Ivar (we use DHL for transportation).
My post is a photo of the first cafe you come to at the entry to Hontanas. A great place for mid- morning café con leche and a snack if you have stayed in Hornillos the night before. I didn’t notice whether it was an albergue too.
It is the Albergue Juan De Yepes. Very clean,bright and modern. I stayed in a very comfortable privado room. The meal in the evening was a good opportunity to meet other pilgrims from around the world. CF June 2016.
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I will be arriving in Madrid on 02/28, and I will have 40 days. I am not sure where I am going, but open to any suggestions. Here is the map, which I bought from the Pilgrim's office back in November. Dear peregrinos out there, if you have 40 days, where would you like to go? I will go to the one that is most recommended. I know that 40 days are not enough for some of the longer routes. I don't have to complete it. Nevertheless, I would like to walk for all of you who would like to but are not ready to travel yet for one reason or another.
 

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I will be arriving in Madrid on 02/28, and I will have 40 days. I am not sure where I am going, but open to any suggestions. Here is the map, which I bought from the Pilgrim's office back in November. Dear peregrinos out there, if you have 40 days, where would you like to go? I will go to the one that is most recommended. I know that 40 days are not enough for some of the longer routes. I don't have to complete it. Nevertheless, I would like to walk for all of you who would like to but are not ready to travel yet for one reason or another.
In 40 days, you could do:
Starting in Leon, the San Salvador (5 days), then the Primitivo (appx 14 days), then the Portugués from Porto (12-14 days), then the SdC to Muxia/Finisterre (5 days).
 
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I will be arriving in Madrid on 02/28, and I will have 40 days. I am not sure where I am going, but open to any suggestions. Here is the map, which I bought from the Pilgrim's office back in November. Dear peregrinos out there, if you have 40 days, where would you like to go? I will go to the one that is most recommended. I know that 40 days are not enough for some of the longer routes. I don't have to complete it. Nevertheless, I would like to walk for all of you who would like to but are not ready to travel yet for one reason or another.
I am tempted to say if you are in Madrid, start there on the Camino de Madrid. But it is about 18 days (give or take) to Sahagún on the Francés, leaving only 22 days left. Even skipping 4 days on the Francés by taking the bus from Sahagún to Léon and then following the Salvador to Oviedo (5 days) and then the Primitivo (16 days+/-) would be tight, but feasible if you walk longer distances and forego rest days (which would be a pity, and not really a good idea).

Or, start in Burgos, walk to Léon, follow the Salvador (5) and Primitivo (16) to Santiago and then, either walk to Finisterra or get the train to Ferol and walk the Inglés if you have time.

It would be nice to see Santiago. Another simple option might be to start the Via de la Plata in Mérida or Salamanca. Anyway, good luck and buen camino.
 
I am tempted to say if you are in Madrid, start there on the Camino de Madrid. But it is about 18 days (give or take) to Sahagún on the Francés, leaving only 22 days left. Even skipping 4 days on the Francés by taking the bus from Sahagún to Léon and then following the Salvador to Oviedo (5 days) and then the Primitivo (16 days+/-) would be tight, but feasible if you walk longer distances and forego rest days (which would be a pity, and not really a good idea).

Or, start in Burgos, walk to Léon, follow the Salvador (5) and Primitivo (16) to Santiago and then, either walk to Finisterra or get the train to Ferol and walk the Inglés if you have time.

It would be nice to see Santiago. Another simple option might be to start the Via de la Plata in Mérida or Salamanca. Anyway, good luck and buen camino.
Thanks! This time, I would like to walk where I have not been. As of now, I am thinking about walking from Alicante to Zomora and see from there. Nothing has been decided, yet. I change my mind every day, and a few times a day!
 
Thanks! This time, I would like to walk where I have not been. As of now, I am thinking about walking from Alicante to Zomora and see from there. Nothing has been decided, yet. I change my mind every day, and a few times a day!
There's the Lana, and the Vadinense. That should fill up your forty days nicely. Plus make me intensely jealous.
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
“Different Ways to Pray”

There was the method of kneeling,
a fine method, if you lived in a country
where stones were smooth.
The women dreamed wistfully of bleached courtyards,

hidden corners where knee fit rock.
Their prayers were weathered rib bones,
small calcium words uttered in sequence,
as if this shedding of syllables could somehow
fuse them to the sky.

There were the men who had been shepherds so long they walked like sheep.
Under the olive trees, they raised their arms—
Hear us! We have pain on earth!
We have so much pain there is no place to store it!
But the olives bobbed peacefully
in fragrant buckets of vinegar and thyme.
At night the men ate heartily, flat bread and white cheese,
and were happy in spite of the pain,
because there was also happiness.

Some prized the pilgrimage,
wrapping themselves in new white linen

to ride buses across miles of vacant sand.
When they arrived at Mecca

they would circle the holy places,
on foot, many times,
they would bend to kiss the earth
and return, their lean faces housing mystery.

While for certain cousins and grandmothers
the pilgrimage occurred daily,
lugging water from the spring
or balancing the baskets of grapes.
These were the ones present at births,
humming quietly to perspiring mothers.
The ones stitching intricate needlework into children’s dresses,
forgetting how easily children soil clothes.

There were those who didn’t care about praying.
The young ones. The ones who had been to America.
They told the old ones, you are wasting your time.
Time? — The old ones prayed for the young ones.
They prayed for Allah to mend their brains,
for the twig, the round moon,
to speak suddenly in a commanding tone.

And occasionally there would be one
who did none of this,
the old man Fowzi, for example, Fowzi the fool,
who beat everyone at dominoes,
insisted he spoke with God as he spoke with goats,
and was famous for his laugh.
Naomi Shihab Nye

Through her parents, Shihab Nye has a background in and first-hand knowledge of both European/American and Palestinian culture and way of life. I like the juxtapositions and connections in this poem; between the journey to Mecca and the journey to fetch water, between the pain of exile and home comforts, between the scrupulous care of everyday work and the living in the moment. It is also a reminder that pilgrimage is not an exclusively Christian practice.

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The picture is obviously not from a camino, but I thought it fits the poem. It is in Morocco, taken on a post-camino trip. There is a very strong link between Morocco and Spain, which both countries have now begun to acknowledge more positively.
 
Via Limburgica.jpg

Not in Spain or France but it is on a Camino. More specifically the Via Limburgica ( in our gorgeous province Limburg ) in Belgium.
So when on a local trail you can also see the trusted blue/yellow signs.


Someone wrote a nice blog about this route.
 
RE: Rabé de las Calzadas, CF
Some pilgrims mentioned this small village after Tardajos in this thread. I checked my photos and found this village map which impressed me very much.
April 12, 2019.

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CF June 2016. A nice walk from Los Arcos to Logrono. A warm afternoon, with a nice Menu del Dia. Black Risotto, followed by Spicy Chicken and vegetables, Apple pie and Coffee. All washed down with a lovely half bottle of Bauza Rioja, all for 11.5 Euros I miss Menu del Dias.

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CF June 2016. A nice walk from Los Arcos to Logrono. A warm afternoon, with a nice Menu del Dia. Black Risotto, followed by Spicy Chicken and vegetables, Apple pie and Coffee. All washed down with a lovely half bottle of Bauza Rioja, all for 11.5 Euros I miss Menu del Dias.

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Chenahusky,
Your meal looks great! I trust it was indeed buen provecho. ...Eating outside in comfort seems like an impossible dream today here in the grey weather of a French omicron winter.
 
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September 22, 2012. Just past Hontanas are the remains of the Iglesia de San Vicente. Found a bit of info - I'll stop for a closer look next time!


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Leaving for Paris
photo taken October 14, 2013

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At our local train station another solo adventure soon would begin from home to Paris, then to Bayonne via the overnight sleeper train from Gare d'Austerlitz, ending at last in the Pyrenees. My emotions spun with the thrill of this new 9th Camino Frances.
 
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The Legs

There was this road,
And it led up-hill,
And it led down-hill,
And round and in and out.

And the traffic was legs,
Legs from the knees down,
Coming and going,
Never pausing.

And the gutters gurgled
With the rain's overflow,
And the sticks on the pavement
Blindly tapped and tapped.

What drew the legs along
Was the never-stopping,
And the senseless, frightening
Fate of being legs.

Legs for the road,
The road for legs,
Resolutely nowhere
In both directions.

My legs at least
Were not in that rout:
On grass by the roadside
Entire I stood,

Watching the unstoppable
Legs go by
With never a stumble
Between step and step.

Though my smile was broad
The legs could not see,
Though my laugh was loud
The legs could not hear.

My head dizzied, then:
I wondered suddenly,
Might I too be a walker
From the knees down?

Gently I touched my shins.
The doubt unchained them:
They had run in twenty puddles
Before I regained them.

by Robert Graves
https://www.poetrynook.com/poet/robert-graves
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Graves is best known as a war poet and author of ‘I Claudius’, not works that suggest a liking for whimsy. This poem could be seen as whimsical (Graves did, in fact, have a lively sense of humour) but there is an underlying, anxious tone about how far we are in control of our own destiny, or in this case, our legs. Legs are very important to pilgrims. We need to pay attention to our legs. I suspect most of you will recognise this shot as somewhere on the last day on the Francés.
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
Santa Olalla de Bureba.webp

Charming detail on a wall at Santa Olalla de Bureba on the Vasco Interior 2019.
This was next to an open café. A rare sight on this Camino.


 
Ideal pocket guides for during & after your Camino. Each weighs only 1.4 oz (40g)!
Ideal pocket guides for during & after your Camino. Each weighs only 1.4 oz (40g)!
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Because of this thread, I continue to learn interesting new things hidden within my photos!
The photo today was taken of the view across from the train station in Bayonne as I waited for my train to St. Jean Pied de Port on September 4, 2012. When looking for a daily photo to post, I've always skimmed past this one but today I stopped and wondered about the neighbourhood and the church on the left.


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Because of this thread, I continue to learn interesting new things hidden within my photos!
The photo today was taken of the view across from the train station in Bayonne as I waited for my train to St. Jean Pied de Port on September 4, 2012. When looking for a daily photo to post, I've always skimmed past this one but today I stopped and wondered about the neighbourhood and the church on the left.


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Theatregal,
In your photo the center white building with blue trim, Le Monte Carlo, recently in the psst was a good small hotel/resto handy for overnights when your train arrived late from Paris.
 
León
plaza de San Marcelo
sculpture of Antonio Gaudi

photo taken November 11, 2011

 Leon 2011.jpg

Impeccable in bronze the architect Antonio Gaudi sits on a bench sketching while facing the Casa Botines, the trapezoidal fabric warehouse/factory he designed c.1892 which is now a museum
 
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€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
Cee.jpg

Cee. I stayed at Pension Beiramar which is more on the outskirts of Cee, towards Corcubion.


 
😍Dick, thank you. Really enjoying these poems along with your one-a-day.

I had no idea Graves had whimsy in him. That's a perfect camino poem.

Legs are very important to pilgrims. We need to pay attention to our legs
Feet too. Especially feet.
The Rio Iso at Ribadiso, CF. 2015.
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I've always skimmed past this one
Haha. In real life on this end, too. I stayed right across the street in the Hotel Pays Basque. Do you think I paid any attention to this venerable Eglise? Mais non - I don't even remember it being there! 😂

One of the best things about this thread is that I learn about things I missed, or will never see.
 
Camino Frances, August 2016. This view is absolutely bound to bring back memories to anyone who's walked in sun flower season. Right?
A field of sunflowers always makes my heart sing. Your photo Reija reminds me of our walk in France, June 2015, watching and waiting for the first bloom. When I saw my first one I became quite emotional and when I saw a whole field I knew I'd been walking a long time! Apologies if you've seen these photos before because I posted some last year.
 

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The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
Quinta das Alfaias, Fajozes near Vilarinho, where we stayed in May, 2016 on the CP. It was run by the family when we stayed there, it now seems to be a Hotel. It is about a km from the Camino. We seem to recall the husband telling us that he had been a Portuguese Air Force pilot and flew the last Air Force plane out of Angola. They were both very hospitable.
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In 40 days, you could do:
Starting in Leon, the San Salvador (5 days), then the Primitivo (appx 14 days), then the Portugués from Porto (12-14 days), then the SdC to Muxia/Finisterre (5 days).
That's a great suggestion Phoenix as it would give a taste of a variety of Caminos. If I had 40 days Mera I'd walk the Camino Frances from SJPD to Santiago or even venture onto Finisterre, taking my time and perhaps spending nights at albergues or hostels that are in the lesser popular towns. It is the one Camino that tugs at my heart and if mspath has done that route 10 times then take her word for it. Buen Camino
 
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Not in Spain or France but it is on a Camino. More specifically the Via Limburgica ( in our gorgeous province Limburg ) in Belgium.
So when on a local trail you can also see the trusted blue/yellow signs.


Someone wrote a nice blog about this route.
Thank you Sabine. I hadn't realised there was one through Belgium ... a country we love and have visited on several occasions.
 
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A field of sunflowers always makes my heart sing. Your photo Reija reminds me of our walk in France, June 2015, watching and waiting for the first bloom. When I saw my first one I became quite emotional and when I saw a whole field I knew I'd been walking a long time! Apologies if you've seen these photos before because I posted some last year.
How wonderful!!
 
Thanks! This time, I would like to walk where I have not been. As of now, I am thinking about walking from Alicante to Zomora and see from there. Nothing has been decided, yet. I change my mind every day, and a few times a day!
Sorry Mera if I'd looked more closely I would have seen that you've already completed the Camino Frances
 
I will be arriving in Madrid on 02/28, and I will have 40 days. I am not sure where I am going, but open to any suggestions. Here is the map, which I bought from the Pilgrim's office back in November. Dear peregrinos out there, if you have 40 days, where would you like to go? I will go to the one that is most recommended. I know that 40 days are not enough for some of the longer routes. I don't have to complete it. Nevertheless, I would like to walk for all of you who would like to but are not ready to travel yet for one reason or another.
Or, just to confuse you even more, how about the Olvidado from Bilbao to Ponferrada, then the Invierno from Ponferrada to Santiago? I'd check out the weather first though.
 
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€46,-
This time, I would like to walk where I have not been. As of now, I am thinking about walking from Alicante to Zomora and see from there. Nothing has been decided, yet. I change my mind every day, and a few times a day
How about~
•Vasco/Via de Bayona: Irun to Burgos
Via Aquitana: Burgos to Carrion de los Condes (https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/something-old-and-new-on-the-camino-francés-via-aquitania-variants.72053/#post-984842) -
•Camino Francés: Carrion to Astorga -
•The Camino del Manzanal: Astorga to Ponferrada -
There are a bunch of old alternatves in this general area:
There are numerous ways to cross the mountain range knows as Montes de Leon in the east/west direction. All of them (see image below) are Ways to Santiago taken by medieval pilgrims and by later pilgrims.

The Manzanal pass is 1230 m high, compared to the Foncebadon/Cruz de Ferro pass which is 1500 m high. Lower is often better. A major Roman road (Via Nova) went over the Manzanal pass. It has always been and still is today a major traffic artery.

The author of a popular guidebook, perhaps the Brierley of his time for German and Flemish speaking pilgrims, wrote in 1495: If you follow my advice you turn right and you will have no mountains to climb. You will leave all these mountains to your left. I advise you to mistrust Rabanal. And if you follow my recommended route you will soon arrive in Ponferrada.

Montes de Leon.jpg
•The Camino Invierno - Ponferrada to Santiago. A real gem.
 
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The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
ROBERT FROST

On first reading, this is the antithesis of the camino – we just follow the yellow arrows. But we make a choice to walk, and we make a commitment to a path and a course of action, and once we have made the choice whatever happens as a consequence remains as our reality. We are the sum of our choices. That doesn’t prevent us looking back on what we might have done without a certain amount of regret, mixed with defiant acceptance that we are what we are.

This is not actually on a camino: in the spirit of the 'path not taken', we left a friend at Ribadeo and doubled back over the bridge - that bridge - in the dark, in the morning, in the teeth of a howling gale to join the Ruta Historica (which branches off the Norte at A Caridad) via Vegadeo by following the east bank of the ria where I took this photo. I can see why the original pilgrims didn't need Aymeric Picaud's advice to avoid ferry crossings. Later that day, we were eying up some overhanging figs in an old lady's garden when she spotted us, invited us in and treated us to a lengthy disquisition on the cultivation of figs and a large plastic bag full of said figs. I strongly recommend the ruta historica variant.
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
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I wonder how many pilgrims have passed over this bridge to begin their journeys...

SJPdP
CF, 28 Feb 2014

EDIT: Kind of ironic that, without seeing the previous post, I posted a photo of one of the most walked parts of the CF immediately after @dick bird 's post about the road not taken...
 
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The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
ROBERT FROST

On first reading, this is the antithesis of the camino – we just follow the yellow arrows. But we make a choice to walk, and we make a commitment to a path and a course of action, and once we have made the choice whatever happens as a consequence remains as our reality. We are the sum of our choices. That doesn’t prevent us looking back on what we might have done without a certain amount of regret, mixed with defiant acceptance that we are what we are.

This is not actually on a camino: in the spirit of the 'path not taken', we left a friend at Ribadeo and doubled back over the bridge - that bridge - in the dark, in the morning, in the teeth of a howling gale to join the Ruta Historica (which branches off the Norte at A Caridad) via Vegadeo by following the east bank of the ria where I took this photo. I can see why the original pilgrims didn't need Aymeric Picaud's advice to avoid ferry crossings. Later that day, we were eying up some overhanging figs in an old lady's garden when she spotted us, invited us in and treated us to a lengthy disquisition on the cultivation of figs and a large plastic bag full of said figs. I strongly recommend the ruta historica variant.
dick bird,
Thank you for sharing your memory of serendipity and posting this splendid evocative photo.
 
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Ideal pocket guides for during & after your Camino. Each weighs only 1.4 oz (40g)!
Or, just to confuse you even more, how about the Olvidado from Bilbao to Ponferrada, then the Invierno from Ponferrada to Santiago? I'd check out the weather first though.
Yeah, actually I was thinking exactly the same. Without COVID, I would have started from Arles or Alicante but I don't want to be on the road too long. Your suggestion is good for me in many ways because I can do all that and more in 40 days, and also, I can visit my Camino friends along the way. I have always been very intrigued by the name "Olvidado". It makes me feel nostalgic about the place that I know nothing about. I get this urge to go there and let them (not only the people who live there but also flowers, animals and the Camino itself) know that they have not been forgotten. I heard that there are more pilgrims on that route now and it's in the process of not being "Olvidado". Perhaps I can contribute to it in a very atomic-level minute way.
 
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Yeah, actually I was thinking exactly the same. Without COVID, I would have started from Arles or Alicante but I don't want to be on the road too long. Your suggestion is good for me in many ways because I can do all that and more in 40 days, and also, I can visit my Camino friends along the way. I have always been very intrigued by the name "Olvidado". It makes me feel nostalgic about the place that I know nothing about. I get this urge to go there and let them (not only the people who live there but also flowers, animals and the Camino itself) know that they have not been forgotten. I heard that there are more pilgrims on that route now and it's in the process of not being "Olvidado". Perhaps I can contribute to it in a very atomic-level minute way.
Good luck. There are some excellent resources on the forum for the Olvidado, in fact the forum is one of the few places where you will find any resources at all. When we did it in 2019 we were told a total of 500 people had passed through in the entire year and the only other 3 pilgims we met were on other, intersecting, routes and none of them were aware of the Olvidado, but it is way-marked and some very enthusiastic people live along the route, and Peregrina 2000 is a strong advocate. Lets us all know how you get on.
 
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Mosteiro de Vairao, before Vilarinho. Monastery founded in the XIthC . It has been refurbished to provide pilgrim accommodation, meditation room and museum. We went to Mass in the Chapel, it was packed for a special Mass for young people. CP, May, 2016.
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Thank you everyone for pictures of San Juan de Ortega. The pictures bring back good memories! The previous night we had had a communal meal in Belorado and San Juan meant seeing a lot of pilgrims that had shared the meal the night before. I couldn't easily find any pictures of mine from San Juan so I go ahead and post a picture of breakfast break on CP in June 2017. At the moment it is snowing slightly, the omicron wave is on and having a breakfast carefree along Camino seems like a wonderful dream. The girl in the picture, my daughter, is also dreaming of Camino but at this very moment is attending a univeristy lecture online. Have a good weekend with lots of wonderful Camino dreams, everyone!
 

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Train for your next Camino on California's Santa Catalina Island March 16-19
Join the Camino cleanup. Logroño to Burgos May 2025 & Astorga to OCebreiro in June
A selection of Camino Jewellery
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
Bought a new cellphone and I found some pics on the old one ( I now know all there is to know about the Smartswitch function of Samsung... ;) ).

Zegama in the morning. Seeing @VNwalking leave for the etapa of that day.
Left of her the quiet pilgrim from Barcelona whom we shared some albergues and lunches with.
I was a bit under the weather that day so decided to follow by public transport.

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Heaven—Haven
A nun takes the veil


I have desired to go
Where springs not fail,
To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail
And a few lilies blow.

And I have asked to be
Where no storms come,
Where the green swell is in the havens dumb,
And out of the swing of the sea.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

A poem that seems to be the antithesis of the camino, being about withdrawal to a fixed place, in my mind an island. But the camino is also a safe place – although paradoxically both a literal and a metaphorical journey and many people find a calm and peace on the camino away from the hurly burly, the noise of modern life. It also speaks about the devotion and commitment to the religious life, which were and are definitely part of the reason for embarking on a pilgrimage, and in the early Christian era, ascetic monks and nuns were seen as pilgrims (the word could also mean ‘outsider’) even though they withdrew into the desert in the Holy Land or Egypt and stayed there.

I love the rise and fall cadence of each verse, just like a wave rolling in and crashing.
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I hope nobody minds me posting two photos, I couldn't choose which one I preferred. They are both on the Norte, both between Luarca and Ribadeo.
 
Train for your next Camino on California's Santa Catalina Island March 16-19
Join the Camino cleanup. Logroño to Burgos May 2025 & Astorga to OCebreiro in June
Beautiful light pillar, @Phoenix!

Zegama in the morning. Seeing @VNwalking leave for the etapa of that day.
I'm glad I didn't look up much - it would have been intimidating. As it was, yes it was a climb, but not as scary or intense as it looks.
Here's the official end of Zegama, with the climb ahead, looking up at the mountain as the alpenglow was giving way to a milky early morning sky.
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Edit - @Theatregal and I have stumbled simultaneously on a morning in the mountains theme. ❤️
 
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.
Camino Frances
Hospital de Orbigo
parish albergue
patio

photo taken November 14, 2011

Hospital de Orbigo.webp

Passing through this unroofed patio was very pleasant in fine weather; however during storms it was always a wet dash from the dorm on the left to the loo/shower on the right, especially in late autumn/winter.
 
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
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PILGRIM HYMN

Who would true valour see,
let him come hither;
one here will constant be,
come wind, come weather;
there's no discouragement
shall make him once relent
his first avowed intent
to be a pilgrim.

Whoso beset him round
with dismal stories,
do but themselves confound,
his strength the more is.
No lion can him fright:
he'll with a giant fight,
but he will have the right
to be a pilgrim.

Hobgoblin nor foul fiend
can daunt his spirit;
he knows he at the end
shall life inherit.
Then, fancies, fly away;
he'll not fear what men say;
he'll labour night and day
to be a pilgrim.

John Bunyan

The pilgrimage as metaphor. This is the original version as Bunyan wrote it in ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ while he was in prison in 1684 for refusing to stop preaching a form of Christianity that did not align with the orthodox Anglican version. He was there for twelve years. It speaks for itself really, in spite of being allegorical. It’s a hymn we often had to sing at school or in church so one night, while we were walking the Via de la Plata, when we had access to the internet, I googled the words. We memorised it and sing it when we need a bit of encouragement (and there is no one else within earshot). You can change the pronoun to she/her or they/them, things were different in the 17th century, but the message doesn’t change.

The church spire is that of St. James, Shere and the photograph was taken from a footpath (leading to the village of Gomshall) locally known as the Pilgrims' Way.
 
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
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