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

[Chenahusky]

SDC Airport. Returning from the Camino Inglese, June 2019. Looking at the distance plate, it is a long Camino if you start from the airport.

 

[Bronte DownUnder]

The joys of walking through nature. This farmer tending his small flock crossing our tiny path as we left from Ostabat on way to SJPDP, on the Le Puy Route, France June 2015

 

[JohnLloyd]

Hello everyone.

It's been a while since I popped in here, so I thought I'd say "hola" before posting a question about the Camino Inglés elsewhere.

I hope everyone is well!

 

[Former member 49149]

I feel that the regular posters on this thread are like a close, warm, friendly family. It is always my first port of call on the Forum. If I can help elsewhere, I do. Thank you to all of you.

And what's more, location sleuths are quick to the rescue when someone is trying to locate a photo, or with words asking for a photo that matches the request...this is a very safe place to visit! And no tendonitis risk whatsoever...

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

This isn't what you think it is. This is Santiago campanero, Saint James the bellringer, clearing the road and announcing that the pilgrims are coming.

And apologies are due to you folks. When trying to correct a post of mine that somehow got split into two posts I noticed that I missed a number of your posts made recently. All nice to see (but the cows were the sweetest).

BTW, I won't take either yellow or red "smilies" personally.

 

[Theatregal]

are in order.

After A Laxe, moving on from the Invierno to the Sanabrés July 21, 2019

 

[Phoenix]

Sunrise
Arzua --> O Pedrouzo
CF, 27 Oct 2016

 

[Rowena]

For the past while on this thread I’ve been on a slow photo journey along the Camino Frances. I didn’t want to “arrive“ in Santiago until I had booked my flights for a spring Camino. After some weeks of searching and waiting for something suitable out of Montreal, Canada, I booked today. Arriving in Madrid March 20, then on to Pamplona by train, then to Roncesvalles to begin walking on March 22. I’m very excited, so I hope you won’t mind a second photo entry for today.


Cows coming to greet me, after Melide
CF, May 10, 2018

 

[Rowena]

I meant to add that I hope to take the Invierno from Ponferrada, so whole new photographic vistas await!

 

[FourSeasons]

CF October 2013 just a few days before Santiago. Happy Valentine’s Day!

 

[mspath]

Camino Frances
towards Portomarin

photo taken November 28, 2011



While I was walking in the cold, late November sunshine my shadow was a constant matinal companion, always slightly to the right when the morning sun was behind me.

 

[dbier]

Melide, July 21st, 2021. The birds were literally louder than the street traffic as I stared up at this and tried to figure out if he was really dancing...

 

[SabsP]

Start of the short but rather steep ascent on the etapa from Vitoria to la Puebla de Arganzon.
After Subijana de Alava.

Vitoria/Gasteiz - La Puebla de Arganzón | Camino Vasco del Interior | Gronze.com

Salimos de Vitoria por amables avenidas; luego, a partir de Gometxa, avanzamos por monte en un recorrido bonito y solitario. A la salida de Subijana ascendemos al Portillo de San Miguel, en una subida progresiva de 200 metros de desnivel; la bajada, sin embargo, es pronunciada y pedregosa. En...

www.gronze.com

The mountainbikers gave the example. Vasco Interior 2019.

 

[FourSeasons]

CF September 3, 2013: My first day of my first Camino heading down into Roncesvillas when the ladies came marching by. It was then I knew, I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

 

[VNwalking]

Looking at the distance plate, it is a long Camino if you start from the airport.

Haha, you just need to translate. Europeans use ',' where N Americans use '.' It's 14.700 km rather than 14,700 km.

Start of the short but rather steep ascent on the etapa from Vitoria to la Puebla de Arganzon.
After Subijana de Alava.

It was a hill, alright!
So I was happy to let everyone go ahead, and to stop for a moment to admire the garden that nature was offering up to the bees...and me.

 

[Anne&Pat]

Between Orio and Zarautz, Camino del Norte, April, 2018.

 

[dick bird]

Dover Beach

The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

MATTHEW ARNOLD

Once again, the rising and falling sea is a metaphor for mental struggle or uncertainty. Whenever I read this, I imagine the poet standing at the window of a hotel bedroom in Dover, about to depart for ‘The Continent’. Why else would he be in Dover? He and his companion (presumably his wife) contemplate their journey to a complicated, troubled continent. They think back over the rise and fall of empires and belief systems and realise their only resource is themselves and each other, much like two contemporary pilgrims standing in a hotel room in Saint Jean Pied de Port, or at the taxi rank of Madrid Airport. We think of walking the camino as being very much a land-locked activity but the original Christian pilgrimages had the Holy Land as their destination and that involved some very hazardous sea travel, and increasingly in the 14th century on, many pilgrims, especially from England, would sail across the Bay of Biscay to A Coruña to walk the Camino Inglés.

These windows are, of course, A Coruña.

 

[Phoenix]

Matosinhos --> Vila do Conde
CP, 6 Oct 2019

 

[Rowena]

Near Arzua
CF, October 16, 2015

 

[Theatregal]

Just after sunrise, nearing Foncebadon. October 2, 2012

 

[Chenahusky]

A very quiet A'Coruna beach, Camino Ingles, June 2018.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

"Hey Rick! Go left."

A crop of this picture was my avatar for a few years.

 

[nycwalking]

Water fountain in Vianna 2001.


I took pic of hard copy.

Any suggestions on improving pic will be appreciated.

 

[Chenahusky]

Water fountain in Vianna 2001.
View attachment 118593

I take pic of hard copy.

Any suggestions on improving pic will be appreciated.

If you still have the hard copy redo without shadows. Take the picture from straight in front to avoid
converging verticals. If not straighten in a photo program. But, you will lose some of it when you crop it, as below.

 

[mspath]

Camino Frances
Tosantos
Ermita de La Virgen de La Peña

photo taken October 27, 2010



This remote hermitage is built into the limestone strata of a cliff. When I stayed at the Tosantos parish albergue, en route to San Juan Ortega, all pilgrims were able to visit/enter here via a local guided tour.

 

[MaryLynn]

On the way to Villar de Monjardin

 

[VNwalking]

Also A Coruña. At midday when the light is most harsh.
A lovely small city, that I hope to revisit when the Pohutukawas are blooming.

 

[DoughnutANZ]

In keeping with the beachy theme.

St. Malo, France. 10th July 2019

On My Camino but not on A Camino, as far as I know.

 

[Kanga]

19th October, 2018. The most marvellous example of Portuguese tile work, and ornate carved stone. The pulpit in a church in Santarém, on the Camino Portuguese. I visited four churches, in the town, they were all wonderful.

 

[Anne&Pat]

Approaching Zarautz, Camino del Norte, April, 2018.

 

[SabsP]

In keeping with the beachy theme.
View attachment 118620
St. Malo, France. 10th July 2019

On My Camino but not on A Camino, as far as I know.

Like I thought : the local Amis de Compostelle have a small détour.

https://www.compostelle-bretagne.fr/images/PDF/EtapesSt-Malo-Le-Mont.pdf

 

[SabsP]

The simplicity of these wooden signs.
Vasco Interior 2019.

 

[Chenahusky]

Also A Coruña. At midday when the light is most harsh.
A lovely small city, that I hope to revisit when the Pohutukawas are blooming.
View attachment 118618

Same harbour, early evening light. Camino Inglese June 2018.

 

[mspath]

In keeping with the beachy theme.
View attachment 118620
St. Malo, France. 10th July 2019

On My Camino but not on A Camino, as far as I know.

Doughnut,
This is a beautiful shot.
St Malo may not be on a camino but it is on the splendid "beachy" French GR34

 

[Phoenix]

Vial do Conde --> Esposende
CP, Oct 2019

 

[Rowena]

San Marcos, on the final day into Santiago
CF, May 12, 2018

 

[VNwalking]

Same harbour, early evening light. Camino Inglese June 2018.

Even the same boats. My photo was taken in early July the same year, so within days or weeks of yours.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

I took pic of hard copy.
Any suggestions on improving pic will be appreciated.

Not terribly important but I suggest putting the picture on a solid black background. More importantly you want the light to be diffuse with no shadows. Also, you want the camera to be as parallel to the picture as you can in both the X and Y axes.

To help with that last situation download and use the Photoscan app by Google. Its purpose is to take photos of printed material such as photos in magazines. It applies "magic" to get things close to the original photo such as compensating for weird nonparallel positioning of the phone, removing margins and text and allowing rotation of the photo. You will have a photo suitable for submitting or you could use other apps on a phone or pc to edit further.

I have been using another app by Google called Snapseed to edit my photos that I submit to these photo threads. It has color balancing and other exotic tools but I mainly use three: rotate, to fix unlevel horizons; crop, to show only interesting parts of picture and getting the point of interest in a good spot in the photo; resize, to reduce the number of pixels in the photo.

As an example of the last tool I fix my settings to have all images saved as jpegs, even pngs, and to adjust the size so the longest side is no longer that of one of a choice the app gives me (I pick 1366 pixels). When I save my image the other side is adjusted to keep the same height to width ratio but I end up getting a decent picture to view on a screen and I save space on Ivar's server.

Here is a look at some of Snapseed's tools. Don't panic; the ones you will likely use are easy to figure out.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Here is a picture I took of a photobook of ours to show the same intentionally bad composition and camera angles that I was going to use with Photoscan to take the picture.


Here's the first output photo from Photoscan's picture.


I clicked on "Adjust corners" and adjusted the right two corners. This is what I saw:


I adjusted the left corners (but not carefully enough) and clicked "Done". The result looked like this:


I used Snapshot to change png screenshots to jpegs with the max length set to 800 pixels. You can get much clearer photos using these tools. I just wanted to demo them.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

There were boats in Finisterre too.

Another of my photos in the category "It could be anywhere but it was on the camino".

 

[mspath]

There were boats in Finisterre too.
View attachment 118661
Another of my photos in the category "It could be anywhere but it was on the camino".

Here is another.

 

[Chenahusky]

There were boats in Finisterre too.
View attachment 118661
Another of my photos in the category "It could be anywhere but it was on the camino".

Lots and lots of boats in Finisterre. June 2016.

 

[dick bird]

Also A Coruña. At midday when the light is most harsh.
A lovely small city, that I hope to revisit when the Pohutukawas are blooming.
View attachment 118618

Not sure if I'd call A Coruña 'small', by Spanish standards a population of 250,000 is quite big, but a delightful place - good food and bars and some interesting non-mainstream culture going on, not to mention the history. Here is an odd product of that, one of two 16" guns bought by the government of Primo Rivera (from Vickers, of Great Britain) in fear of a naval attack, sadly rusted but now being restored - happily not back to working order! We ended up there when we couldn't get flights from Santiago, a lucky discovery for us. Definitely worth a visit.

 

[dick bird]

There were boats in Finisterre too.
View attachment 118661
Another of my photos in the category "It could be anywhere but it was on the camino".

Definitely also Finisterra. Forgive the sequence; one picture didn't quite tell the whole story.

 

[mspath]

Camino Frances
Fromista
Iglesia San Martin
interior detail



This Romanesque capital is one of many within the extraordinary 11th c. Iglesia San Martin; unconsecrated the church is now a museum.

 

[FourSeasons]

Del Norte, San Sebastian July 6, 2019. Toes cooling in the sand. A beach theme kind of photo.

 

[Theatregal]

Calm seas at Cabo Fisterra. March 25, 2017.

 

[Anne&Pat]

We followed the coastal option from Zarautz to Getaria, looking back towards the path we had come. Camino del Norte, April, 2018.

 

[SabsP]

Me on the way to Cirauqui . Those with a more photographic memory can correct me!
CF 2011. Pic made by a fellow pilgrim.

 

[mspath]

View attachment 118697

Me on the way to Cirauqui . Those with a more photographic memory can correct me!
CF 2011. Pic made by a fellow pilgrim.

Sabine,
This is a classic shot of the vineyards entering Navarette.

 

[SabsP]

Sabine,
This is a classic shot of the vineyards entering Navarette.

Merci @mspath. Knew I could count on you!

Only 77 kilometers difference!

 

[mspath]

Merci @mspath. Knew I could count on you!

However the town is Navarrete not Navarette! Mea culpa. On a happier note did you visit the church?

 

[Corned Beef]

I remember Ciraqui due to the wandering band, dressed in the traditional white and red, going from street to street early in the morning. Quite a site to bleary eyed pilgrims having their first breakfast.

I understand this is a regular occurrence in Basque villages but I can't remember the name of this type of event.

 

[SabsP]

However the town is Navarrete not Navarette! Mea culpa. On a happier note did you visit the church?

No, I did not.A reason to return. I kept walking to Ventosa that day.

 

[Chenahusky]

I remember Ciraqui due to the wandering band, dressed in the traditional white and red, going from street to street early in the morning. Quite a site to bleary eyed pilgrims having their first breakfast.

I understand this is a regular occurrence in Basque villages but I can't remember the name of this type of event.

CF June 2016. A small local band enroute to a fiesta. Santo Domingo De La Calzada. The fiesta carried on until about 2am, so limited sleep that night. It was a very good fiesta though. YouTube video clip attached.



https://youtu.be/O5iSHLQsel

 

[Former member 49149]

I rediscovered a thumb drive with photos, most likely repeats. And? Every time we blink we see differently.
2006, 21st August. 29th day walking, from Roncesvalles. Not possible now to do what we did then - place hands in the holes...
As to the length of time: it was my first camino. I did not know if I would make it to the end of the first day. or the second. We had banked a rest day, and a hotel. We used neither. My guiding lights were my walking companion, our Eroski guide, and my secret friend, @mspath.
I would say it is an achievement I am rightly very proud of. The rest of the reflections would bore the pants off you, so let it rest there!

 

[VNwalking]

The XII C Parroquia de San Salvador in Lorca, the greatly eroded corbels showing the age of the structure.
CF, 2017.


Lorca is one of those many small places along the CF that has seen grander days. The internet tells me that King García IV of Pamplona died here in 1150, and in 1175 a pilgrim's hospital was built between there and Villatuerta. There seems no trace left of that latter. The town's church is beautifully built, though, and that's our window into what once was.

 

[Phoenix]

Sunday sunrise in Muxia... with boats.
CP, 20 Oct 2019

 

[Excursionista]

Obligatory Alto del Perdón Pilgrim Shot
Nov 2021

I was feeling very cheerful at that point because, given the name, I was assuming the path would climb over the high point to the left as I approached the ridge, so the much shorter ascent to the saddle was a happy surprise.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Snacks available here (vending machines).
On the Aragonese a short ways past Tiebas on the way to Eunate.

 

[Rowena]

Fishermen in the estuary of the Rio Ulla, one of the most important fish farming areas in Galicia. Photo taken during the boat trip from Villanova de Arousa to Padron on the Variante Espiritual. This is known as the Translatio, the route taken by the stone boat carrying the remains of Saint James to his final resting place. The route, marked by 17 cruceros, is the only maritime Via Crucis in the world.
It poured with rain all morning. CP, October 30, 2019

 

[Theatregal]

A stroll around the town of Las Medulas, Invierno June 9, 2019.

 

[Anne&Pat]

Looking back at Zumaia. CdelN, Last day of April, 2018.

 

[mspath]

Camino Frances
Cruz de Ferro

photo taken February 19, 2008



All was timeless in the fog at the mythic
Cruz de Ferro where for centuries countless souls have left a stone. As did I.

 

[FourSeasons]

Fisterra Oct 2013. Celebrating with my Camino sister our journey of pilgrimage from SJPdP to Santiago de Compostela. We met in line at the pilgrims office on the evening of September 2, 2013. We walked together some days, we went days without seeing each other, we met up in small villages, we bunked in Santiago. We were connected by the spirit that is Camino. We haven’t physically seen each other since our departure in Santiago. She on the East Coast, I on the West. However, we have remained in touch all these years. Cheers Salute

 

[dick bird]

The Journey of the Magi

‘A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
and running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arriving at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you might say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

T.S.Eliot

It is curious that although he frequently refers to journeys, Eliot never once (to my knowledge) explicitly mentions pilgrims or pilgrimages. But this is a religious journey, and a very arduous one. For Eliot, faith is not about comfort or solace.

The photo is the Alhambra, 12 April 2012 with the Sierra Nevada behind. Granada is the start of the Mozarabe, although we took the bus to Sevilla and started the Plata from there. All kinds of resonances with Spanish history here, of course, but it reminds me of lines 9 and 10 and the line 'We returned to our places' (which I have always misread as 'palaces').

 

[SabsP]

On a regular holiday. Brozas in Extremadura , Spain.
Brozas is on the Via de Estrella, a lesser known Caminoroute.

The Vía de la Estrella

The Vía de la Estrella or Via da Estrela An age-old route to reach Santiago Map of the Vía de la Estrella Route A pilgrim is a traveller who either out of devotion or as a result of a vow visits a sanctuary or a holy place. In Spain the Route

turismotajointernacional.es

 

[mspath]

.....
The photo is the Alhambra, 12 April 2012 with the Sierra Nevada behind. Granada is the start of the Mozarabe, although we took the bus to Sevilla and started the Plata from there. All kinds of resonances with Spanish history here, of course, but it reminds me of lines 9 and 10 and the line 'We returned to our places' (which I have always misread as 'palaces').
View attachment 118740

dick bird,

This is a wonderful shot of magical place. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and memory. Today with much of the world in shambles it is pure joy to remember walking to/through the Alhambra .
2004 after my first camino my husband and I celebrated Christmas visiting the Alhambra. We simply walked up the Paseo de la Sabica hill and wandered in. Christmas dinner was a splendid meal in the clublike adjacent parador. Once experienced the magic of such special spaces and moments is unforgettable.

Thank goodness for enduring memories.

 

[dick bird]

dick bird,

This is a wonderful shot of magical place. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and memory. Today with much of the world in shambles it is pure joy to remember walking to/through the Alhambra .
2004 after my first camino my husband and I celebrated Christmas visiting the Alhambra. We simply walked up the Paseo de la Sabica hill and wandered in. Christmas dinner was a splendid meal in the clublike adjacent parador. Once experienced the magic of such special spaces and moments is unforgettable.

Thank goodness for enduring memories.

You're more than welcome. I take pictures because I like to see and look at things and because I'm no good at drawing. I have to admit I am proud of a lot of my photos but a lot of them are pretty average so when other people say they like them, well, what can I say? It's nice. I'm glad you liked the picture. And it's nice to share memories. Take care of yourselves and buen camino.

 

[Excursionista]

Pretty autumn asparagus somewhere between Puente la Reina and Estella

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Taken at the Fuente de Praotorre. This is the rest stop about 5 kilometers before Hornillos del Camino. Fuente de Praotorre is one of the locations seen in the movie The Way. Hornillos is often photographed from the Cuesta de Matamulas, Mule Killer Hill.

 

[Phoenix]

Fisterra
CP, 20 Oct 2019

 

[Rowena]

Between Matosinhos and Vila do Conde
CP, October 18, 2019

 

[Chenahusky]

SDC Cathedral, mono, Camino Ingles June 2019.

 

[NYSE]

July 26, 2013. After Oviedo. An overcast day, beginning the Primitivo.

View attachment 117992

 

[mspath]

SDC Cathedral, mono, Camino Ingles June 2019.

View attachment 118768

Chenahusky,
This is such a powerful shot!
The clouds and shades of grade help make it timeless. Thanks for posting it.
PS. Your shot reminds me of this 1963 black and white newsreel.

 

[Chenahusky]

Chenahusky,
This is such a powerful shot!
The clouds and shades of grade help make it timeless. Thanks for posting it.
PS. Your shot reminds me of this 1963 black and white newsreel.

What I find interesting is that this newsreel is only a year before my first visit to SDC. I must admit that I did not see anyone dressed like that.

 

[Theatregal]

Just before sunset - following the boardwalk path to the Playa Mar de Fora, Finisterre. August 14, 2013.

 

[mspath]

Camino Frances
Molinaseca

photo taken November 20, 2011



Looking west along the calle Real/CF on a cold Sunday morning in November. Nothing apparently open. Nada.

 

[Anne&Pat]

Looking back again to our path we had followed from Deba to Markina-Xemein. Dave Whitson and Laura Perazzoli guide book, The Northern Caminos says our total ascent for the day was 915m and total descent for the day was 830m! The Camino heads to the interior of Vizcaya, with extensive stretches of dirt roads and footpaths passing through densely forested hills. CdelN, 1st, May, 2018.

 

[SabsP]

Santiago in the morning. 2011.

 

[FourSeasons]

Muxia, The day after Fisterra Oct 2013.
A local fisherman.

 

[Kanga]

Pòvoa da Varzim to Aguçadoura on the literal route, Camino Portuguese. These boardwalks were heavenly after walking on hard stone sets. Bounce, bounce, bounce! 28 October 2018.

 

[stevepjq]

Casa Domingo, near San Xulian, between Palas de Rei and Melide
CF, May 9, 2018

View attachment 118451

A wonderful place to stay, complete with relaxing, quiet outdoor space behind the albergue, a communal dinner, and after dinner, what I can only describe as a Galician incantation ceremony, for which each of us paid two Euros.
In the dark, with spooky music playing, our black-robed host made a concoction of fruit, sugar and alcohol, set it afire and poured the burning liquid from a ladle while speaking what I assumed was an ancient incantation. Afterwards we all drank a small glass of the remaining liquid, but unfortunately, the alcohol had all been burned off!
I got the impression that this is something you have to know about and ask for. A group of eight Spanish people from Barcelona, who said they walk together every year and stay at Casa Domingo, knew about it and asked the host to do it. A very memorable experience, one I won’t forget.

The concoction was queimada - the "black-robed host" is rather famous for serving this Galician brew.

 

[Chenahusky]

SDC Cathedral, mono, the interior during the renovations. Looking up into the dome and showing the workings of the Botafumeiro. CI June 2019.

 

[dick bird]

“I Am a Pilgrim”
Traditional hymn

I am a pilgrim and a stranger
Traveling through this wearisome land
I’ve got a home in that yonder city, good Lord
And it’s not, not made by hand

I got a mother, got a sister and a brother
Who have gone this way before
I am determined to go and see them, good Lord
Over on that other shore

I am a pilgrim and a stranger
Traveling through this wearisome land
I’ve got a home in that yonder city, good Lord
And it’s not, not made by hand

Now I’m going down to that river of Jordan
Just to bathe my wearisome soul
If I just touch the hem of His garment, good Lord
Then I know He’ll take me home

I am a pilgrim and a stranger
Traveling through this wearisome land
I’ve got a home in that yonder city, good Lord
And it’s not, not made by hand

arr. Johnny Cash, My Mother’s Hymn Book (2004)

I think mediaeval pilgrims would have understood this song. Many of them were poor and humble and life must have been almost insufferably hard at times although one also has to admit that mediaeval folk had a pretty lively sense of fun if their music and sculpture are anything to go by. Religion would perhaps have helped them make some kind of sense of a random and sometimes wilfully cruel world, and the promise of some kind of recompense. Plus the chance to let full-throated, lung emptying rip with a rousing hymn. Listening to him singing this song, I have a feeling of someone coming home to a familiar place.

Camino Inglés 18/10/2018

 

[Excursionista]

Ermita San Miguel between Villatuerta and Estella
Nov 2021

Was delighted to walk around the far side and find it open. Very peaceful feeling inside, especially with the gusty wind outside.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

In my post yesterday I wrote:

Hornillos is often photographed from the Cuesta de Matamulas, Mule Killer Hill

Today I'm posting a photo of that road going from Cuesta de Matamulas to Hornillos del Camino. Although I have a picture showing the town at the end of the road I decided to share this more unusual picture. I bet you'll remember that bend.

 

[Excursionista]

Although I have a picture showing the town at the end of the road I decided to share this more unusual picture.

@Rick of Rick and Peg I'm enjoying all your green photos of places that were brown when I passed through!

 

[Rowena]

Entering Tui on the Camino Portugués
October 24, 2019


After crossing the bridge, I found a bar a little way along on the left. Inside I was welcomed to Spain by an elderly gentleman who engaged me in conversation (my limited Spanish was just enough to understand what he was saying). As I was leaving he gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. I hugged him back, and climbed the hill into the centre of Tui with renewed energy and happiness.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

@Rick of Rick and Peg I'm enjoying all your green photos of places that were brown when I passed through!

Thank you. Winter is dragging on and I'm finding myself gravitating toward my late spring photos of the CF instead of my autumn walk from Barcelona to Pamplona.

Most of the snow and ice in our yard disappeared yesterday but it looks like we will be getting a dusting of snow this afternoon. Spring is coming though; we have flower buds now and we expect blooms next week.

 

[Phoenix]

@Kanga The boardwalks on the litoral make for a great walk, right?.

Matosinhos --> Vila do copnde
CP, 6 Oct 2019

 

[VNwalking]

Morning's first golden light, looking back towards Rabe and the distant Sierra de la Demanda. May 2019.

 

[Former member 49149]

On the CF, 2006, I was inordinately delighted to see my national flower in a variety of places along the Camino...don't ask me where this one was taken.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Just before sunset - following the boardwalk path to the Playa Mar de Fora, Finisterre. August 14, 2013.

View attachment 118784

I'm sending my photos of the same boardwalk and flowers growing beside it early for my submission for tomorrow. We went there in the late afternoon after a walk to the lighthouse and back. We took a bottle of cava with us to celebrate my two month walk to the sea (Peg bussed from SdC). I let my boots soak in the sea a bit and I tossed my rock gathered from a Cape Cod beach to let it swim home if it wanted to. We drank the cava and waited for a nice sunset that never came due to a thick cloud bank out to sea. On the way there I took a couple of boardwalk pictures and a couple of flower pictures on the way back that were surprisedly exposed decently despite the low light. Since these would not be good for any separate submission I used a program to make a collage. It decided to crop each as a square but they look okay.

 

[mspath]

Praia de Estorde

photo take April 2, 2006



This is my favorite camino beach view where in 2006 while holding my boots and crossing barefoot like a child I delighted in the tickle of sand between my toes.

Estorde is the first beach on the camino path linking Corcubion/San Roque to Finisterre.
Mid view is Finisterre; Cape Finisterre is on the far left.

 

[SabsP]

Praia de Estorde

photo take April 2, 2006

View attachment 118867

This is my favorite camino beach view where in 2006 while holding my boots and crossing barefoot like a child I delighted in the tickle of sand between my toes.

Estorde is the first beach on the camino path linking Corcubion/San Roque to Finisterre.
Mid view is Finisterre; Cape Finisterre is on the far left.

Arriving at this beach filled me with more emotion than arriving in front of the cathedral in Santiago.

Thank you for this wonderful picture.

 

[Excursionista]

Morning's first golden light, looking back towards Rabe and the distant Sierra de la Demanda

@VNwalking Pretty sure this is the same tree on the approach and after the field was ploughed post harvest (definitely my first photo after leaving Rabé de las Calzadas)

Certainly does catch one's attention out there all by itself!

 

[Anne&Pat]

Our very muddy, slippy path photo between Markina-Xemein and Gernika. CdelN, May, 2018.

 

[FourSeasons]

Muxia October 2013:
Silhouette of a Sanctuary

Virxe da Barca sanctuary
The sanctuary was originally a pre-Christian Celtic shrine and sacred spot. This part of Spain was resistant to conversion to Christianity, and was only converted in the 12th century. The Christians built a hermitage on this location at first, and later the present church in the 17th century.
On Christmas Day 2013 just weeks after I visited, it was destroyed in a fire caused by lightning. Good news, it has been fully reconstructed and I shall see it again come September. Grateful.