On the Camino: One Day at a Time, One Photo at a Time (Part 2)

[AlanSykes]

The Torre de Masegoso, built c1000AD by the moors to guard against the reconquista. Between Ágreda and Soria on the Castellano-Aragonés.

 

[SabsP]

Something completely different. Camino fuel. Only on a Camino, never at home.

 

[Former member 49149]

I confess to not remembering, but I will ask my friend. She might remember. I remember that the road was very quiet, if there was one vehicle while we walked along that was it. The heading I put on the photo at the time was “18km straight on”. Your sleuth skills are highly polished!

Is this the place kirkie? The current Google maps street view Outside El Burgo Ranero

I just checked with my friend, and yes, she Agrees, and thinks it is between Mansilla de las Mulas and Bercianos. We saw them again on our way from Santiago back to Bilbao, a long train journey to help slow down the return to ‘normal’ life! On Gareth’s thread, walking now, the growth is luxuriant!

 

[Botaivica]

Negreira, on the way to the Fisterra, remnants of Moors architecture.

 

[DoughnutANZ]

Is it because you usually walk the camino in Spain's fall season?

My preference is to walk during late Spring through Summer so that I get to enjoy two Summers rather than during the European Autumn when I prefer to be back home, tending my garden during the NZ Spring.

 

[SabsP]

Albergue Casa del Cubo , municipal in Burgos. 2011. We were stationed on the luxury floor .
I believe it will now stay closed for the rest of the year?

 

[Anne&Pat]

Camino Frances- 28th, August, 2014 A shorter walk this day from Cirauqui to Estella. Looking to the outskirts of Estella.

 

[Stephen Nicholls]

Happy memories of Ponte de Lima on my first ever camino in 2011.


O I would go
How gladly I would go
Were feet and limbs not aching with old age.

O I would go
Relive those times now past
When walking on the old, well trodden paths
Gave me such joy

O I would go
Meet up again with fellow travelers
Enjoy their company – their love – whilst on the road
Leading me onward to that golden shrine
Of Santiago.

O I would go
To walk again those quiet ways
Beside the rivers, over Roman paths
Under the welcome sun of northern Spain
To Santiago.

O I would go
But now the years have come
When pain prevents the onward path
To Santiago.

Yet even now, I bless those travelers
Still in their young or middle years
Who walk the paths pre-trodden by a million feet
To Santiago.

© Stephen Nicholls

 

[VNwalking]

This stretch of straight road walking after Villar de Mazarife is awful on a hot afternoon, but quite lovely on an April morning at dawn, with the snow-capped mountains to be crossed day after tomorrow getting larger on the horizon.

 

[Theatregal]

From a doorway of Monasterio de San Martin Pinario.

 

[Madidi]

11th October 2017:

Camino Frances. Iglesia Parroquial in Villar de Mazarife on the way between leon and Hospital de Orbigo. Amazing construction techniques with what appears to be a mixture of plaster embedded stones and small bricks. Not a great photo when you consider there was a plaza just to my right and I am sure someone has a better one.

 

[Anne&Pat]

Camino Frances- 29th, August, 2014 Estella to Los Arcos. Those amazing haystacks and mountains in the distance.

 

[Anne&Pat]

11th October 2017:

Camino Frances. Iglesia Parroquial in Villar de Mazarife on the way between leon and Hospital de Orbigo. Amazing construction techniques with what appears to be a mixture of plaster embedded stones and small bricks. Not a great photo when you consider there was a plaza just to my right and I am sure someone has a better one.

View attachment 81893

17th, September, 2014
Hi Madidi, just another one, not a better one.

 

[SabsP]

Cacabelos in 2011.

 

[Former member 49149]

Cacabelos in 2011.

Just for information, this photo opened immediately, fully.

 

[VNwalking]

Looking towards Iglesa San Blas, on the outskirts of Columbrianos.
This place is memorable to me because of the stork nest platform kindly provided in the corner of the church carpark. Checking Google's streetview shows it's still popular - there's a pair of storks in the photo. ☺

 

[Former member 49149]

Good things bear repeating... I think I posted this before, but here it is again. 24th July, 2006.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

This stretch of straight road walking after Villar de Mazarife is awful on a hot afternoon, but quite lovely on an April morning at dawn, with the snow-capped mountains to be crossed day after tomorrow getting larger on the horizon.

I love seeing far off mountains or villages on a hill top in the distance and know my own two feet will get me there eventually...very satisfying.

 

[JohnLloyd]

Hello all - back again after a two-week road trip around Iceland, so back on duty with more pics from my Portugués in the spring of 2019.

Here's a cheerful welcome to the outskirts of Pontevedra.

There was a mention of a "walking somewhere else" thread - I've got a lot from my hikes in Iceland to contribute to that! What's the title?

 

[Madidi]

Hi Madidi, just another one, not a better one.

Most definitely a better perspective Anne & Pat

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

We've also gotten back; for us from camping and hiking in the mountains. Back on the forum I picked this thread with its lovely photographs to be the first to catch up on.

This 2015 photo was taken somewhere not very far beyond Trabedelo. The House of Rosaries had its door right on the Camino Francés.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

There was a mention of a "walking somewhere else" thread - I've got a lot from my hikes in Iceland to contribute to that! What's the title?

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/where-did-you-walk-locally-in-2020.65841/page-7

 

[VNwalking]

I've got a lot from my hikes in Iceland to contribute to that!

Oh, good! ☺
Look forward to seeing them.

I love seeing far off mountains or villages on a hill top in the distance and know my own two feet will get me there eventually...very satisfying.

Yes, isn't it amazing?
Looking back is fun too.
I had an epiphany on my first time over the Alto de Perdon. Looking ahead I thought, "Wow, I'm going further than I can see." Then I looked back towards Pamplona and the penny dropped. Already, just 3 days in, I'd come from farther away than I could see. It was such a confidence-building 'Woaaahhh' moment.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Oh, good! ☺
Look forward to seeing them.


Yes, isn't it amazing?
Looking back is fun too.
I had an epiphany on my first time over the Alto de Perdon. Looking ahead I thought, "Wow, I'm going further than I can see." Then I looked back towards Pamplona and the penny dropped. Already, just 3 days in, I'd come from farther away than I could see. It was such a confidence-building 'Woaaahhh' moment.

I actually had the exact same epiphany as you did on my first Camino as I turned around and saw Pamplona sprawled out in the distance...quite overwhelming in a pleasin way. It makes me smile even now as I think about it.

 

[VNwalking]

It makes me smile even now as I think about it.

Yeah, and we never look at a map of the world in the same way again.

 

[Theatregal]

Above the altar. The All Seeing Eye and the pulley system / hemp rope for the botafumeiro.

 

[AlanSykes]

The little shepherd's hut in the Pyrenees this shepherd slept in on the chemin d'Arles last October. I've had more comfortable beds but, lulled to sleep by cow bells and the gurgling of the nearby stream, with possibly the brightest stars of my life, I doubt I've ever slept better.

 

[Madidi]

16 September 2012:

Camino Frances. Sad looking mojon on the Alto do Rosario. These old style markers had a certain amount of class but this little guy just looks tired

 

[Canada Wanders]

My first ever sangria...it was cold and sweet, and actually tore my eyes open with the booze!
So refhesing, I mean reheshing....I mean good

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Three photos (grouped together as "one") taken on the Meseta...all on the same day in late April 2017.
Edit: Switched to a thumbnail...I'd forgotten.

 

[Anne&Pat]

Camino Frances- 30th, August, 2014 XIIth C Iglesia de Santa Maria de Los Arcos. We were very lucky to be able to sit at the back of the church with the local elderly ladies and witnessed a beautiful wedding.

 

[SabsP]

Everyone who walked that part of the Frances will know the area...

 

[VNwalking]

Yup.
And the view!
It's a little hard to capture the grade, but I am always glad of having two feet at this point, rather than two wheels.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Three pictures today because it's storytime. The first two pictures were taken in the evening in Negreira on the way to Finisterra. A Spanish pilgrim is sketching a monument unto his souvenir T-shirt. Five and a half days later, getting breakfast at a bar in Muxia before taking a bus to take us away from the Camino, we see a T-shirt hanging up in the back. It looks like one of the pilgrim's from five years previously.





BTW, the T-shirt was my next to last picture taken on the Camino (sunrise over the harbor was the last). And I did a bit of arithmetic and found that I took 450 pictures between the two submitted today.

 

[JohnLloyd]

A refreshing water fountain in Pontevedra.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Yup.
And the view!
It's a little hard to capture the grade, but I am always glad of having two feet at this point, rather than two wheels.

I always look forward to the downhills...my favorites!

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Rick, this is my last picture taken in Finesterre (well almost the last).

 

[Former member 49149]

After an excellent breakfast, copying what two Andaluz pilgrims ordered - minus the spirits they washed it all down with - we set off, to be overtaken by them, fairly skipping down, talking at the tops of their voices and smoking away goodo. What a descent!

 

[VNwalking]

What a descent!

It's something, alright. Last time I went through there, I slipped on the loose rocks and fell right about where you took the photo.
That's a lovely view of Acebo, @kirkie .

 

[Camino Chrissy]

It's something, alright.
That's a lovely photo of Acebo, @kirkie .

I love that view, too. It was shortly after leaving O'Cebreiro when the orange clay roofs were replaced by charcoal gray flagstone tiles. I saw a big flagstone quarry in the distance upon leaving O'C.
Builders usually try to use what materials are available in their own areas when possible, saving time and money.

 

[Theatregal]

The Ribeira da Certagem - a stream that runs for about 5km from Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport at Porto, draining into the sea at Fontáo Beach near the fisherman beach at Angeiras. It was so striking to see this lush vibrant foliage along the stream cutting through the sandy beach.

 

[Madidi]

I slipped on the loose rocks and fell right about where you took the photo.

13th October 2017:

Camino Frances. Talking about slipping.....how would you fancy trying to walk down here in wet or frosty conditions Below Riego de Ambrós on the way to Molinaseca on a fab sunny morning

 

[Botaivica]

The Chocolate Museum in Astorga

 

[Camino Chrissy]

The Chocolate Museum in Astorga

Unfortunately I missed it completely as I learned about it too late.
I did, however, enjoy some authentic hot chocolate in Leon, just across the square from the cathedral...yum!

 

[SabsP]

Content of backpack for a summer Camino. No sleepingbag only a liner.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

BTW, the T-shirt was my next to last picture taken on the Camino (sunrise over the harbor was the last).

Since I mentioned it, here it is.



We had an early morning bus departure.

 

[VNwalking]

"Abuelo, what's he doing?"

 

[JohnLloyd]

The scallop-shaped Santuario da Peregrina in Pontevedra.

 

[Anne&Pat]

Camino Frances- 31st, August, 2014 Los Arcos to Viana. Ruins of Iglesia San Pedro, Viana, just beside our Albergue Andres Munoz, where we slept in three tier bunk beds!

 

[Kanga]

Camino Frances- 31st, August, 2014 Los Arcos to Viana. Ruins of Iglesia San Pedro, Viana, just beside our Albergue Andres Munoz, where we slept in three tier bunk beds!
View attachment 82063

Oh yes, I've slept in those twice and disliked them intensely! But have never forgotten watching a falconer flying his bird from the ramparts nearby. Amazing to see it swooping and gliding high over the plains below, and then returning to land on the falconer's hand.

 

[Madidi]

8th September 2012:

Camino Frances. The cruciero at the entrance to El Burgo Ranero. A relatively modern cross erected 'A La Memoria de Los Niños'.

 

[Theatregal]

Golden late September morning before Sahagun.

 

[AlanSykes]

Looking back at Salamanca's twin cathedrals (and Trajan's Bridge over the Tormes) from the start of the Camino Torres.

 

[SabsP]

Evening in Santiago de Compostela.

 

[Anne&Pat]

Camino Frances-1st, September, 2014 Viana to Navarette. View from Alto Grajera back towards Logrono, over Pantano de la Grajera, where we had stopped at the cafe for a cooling icy pole!

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Another of my poppy pics. On the way to Mazarife.

 

[JohnLloyd]

The rather lovely Puente del Burgo, in Pontevedra.

 

[VNwalking]

One of those things that creates a flurry of questions, mostly along the lines of 'What were they thinking?'
This has to be the ugliest religious structure in Spain, and it wouldn't have been cheap to build. Capella San Olav, near Covarrubias, on the Camino San Olav. (To be fair, because it was locked, I don't know what the inside looks like - for all I know it's gorgeous.)
Over that hill and a few kilometers along is Santa Maria de Lara, on the other end of the beauty spectrum.

 

[Theatregal]

Detail - under the bridge at Barxa do Lor

 

[Albertagirl]

One of those things that creates a flurry of questions, mostly along the lines of 'What were they thinking?'
This has to be the ugliest religious structure in Spain, and it wouldn't have been cheap to build. Capella San Olav, near Covarrubias, on the Camino San Olav. (To be fair, because it was locked, I don't know what the inside looks like - for all I know it's gorgeous.)
Over that hill and a few kilometers along is Santa Maria de Lara, on the other end of the beauty spectrum.

Are you sure that's not a parking garage for road repair vehicles? We could use it here in Canada to park snow plows in the winter.

 

[peregrina2000]

If you ignore the arrow and take the next right you can detour to visit the lovely lonely visigothic church of Santa Lucía del Trampal.

And as someone who is in Alan’s debt for his wonderful suggestion (and GPS tracks), I’ll post a glimpse of what awaits you if you take that detour.

 

[VNwalking]

Exquisite.
That kind of makes up for me posting the photo of the snow plow garage.

Anyone who thinks civilization is getting more and more advanced needs to look at these two pictures side by side. And edit: I wonder what the snow plow garage will look like in a thousand years. I bet it won't look anything near as good as that.

 

[Madidi]

16th May 2015:

Camino Madrid. My Aussie pal Alan approaching Lock no.7 on the Canal de Castilla at Ramal de Campos: a beautiful early morning walk here from Medina de Rioseco on the towpath alongside the canal. The huge building ahead was a flour mill which has fallen into disrepair.

 

[Anne&Pat]

Camino Frances- 2nd, September, 2014 Navarette to Najera. Monasterio Santa Maria de la Real, Najera. Entrance to the Knights Cloister of the Monastery. Could have posted many photos from here today.

 

[SabsP]

Ferrol. Camino Ingles.

 

[JohnLloyd]

A reflective Río Lérez

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Beside the canal before Fromista. Camino Francés.

I would have taken this picture even without the poppies.

 

[Botaivica]

When you start from Pamplona to Uterga and find a signpost like this

 

[Theatregal]

Late afternoon Santiago. Meeting friends in the Alameda.

 

[VNwalking]

View media item 9815
The Ermita Nuestra Señora del Valle near Monasterio de Rodilla on the Vasco. (I wonder what about these monks...and their knees...)

 

[AlanSykes]

The Carrocera cascade, shortly before entering the Desfiladero de Los Calderones, on the Olvidado.

 

[peregrina2000]

The Carrocera cascade, shortly before entering the Desfiladero de Los Calderones, on the Olvidado.

Might as well be a tag team with Alan again today. This is a shot of the Desfiladero itself, with my pal Alun standing in front to give you a sense of its majesty.

 

[Madidi]

11th September 2012:

Camino Frances. Looking down Calle Real from in front of Albergue Monte Irago in Foncebadon. A lot has changed in the years since this photo

 

[Botaivica]

CF, natural stairs, height from 0.50 to 1.00 m

 

[peregrina2000]

A lot has changed in the years since this photo

Oh how I wish I had pictures from my first camino, in 2000. There was not an in tact roof in the whole village, and the only signs of life were hundreds of cats. Talk about total transformations.

 

[VNwalking]

Oh how I wish I had pictures from my first camino,

You're not the only one!

 

[Anne&Pat]

Camino Frances- 3rd, September, 2014 Najera to Santo Domingo de la Calzada. View between Ciruena and Santa Domingo de la Calzada.

 

[SabsP]

The house cat at Albergue Ninho in Rubiaes. C. Portugues 2015.

 

[JohnLloyd]

The Dignified Old Man of Pontevedra - does anyone know the story behind this little statue?

 

[Stephen Nicholls]

And as someone who is in Alan’s debt for his wonderful suggestion (and GPS tracks), I’ll post a glimpse of what awaits you if you take that detour.

Beautiful! That's even older than me!

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

On Corpus Christi Sunday at Carrión de Condes the townspeople decorate the street that the Camino Francés follows with plant materials. Even the sisters from the parroquial albergue.



We left in the morning but if you want to see what things look like at the end of the day click
this link.

 

[Madidi]

16th September 2012:

Camino Frances. A house and garden on the roadside near Prebisa on the way to Ligonde. Don't know why but this has always been one of my favourite photos from that camino

 

[VNwalking]

What's this - a smelter of some sort? (We didn"t know.)
Near Elizondo on the Baztan.

 

[TrvlDad1]

What's this - a smelter of some sort? (We didn"t know.)
Near Elizondo on the Baztan.

Around Gaucin in southern Spain (where they have the white villages) there are lime/whitewash smelters that are somewhat similar, and in Death Valley, CA, there are similar ones that were used for making charcoal. No idea if either of these is correct, but human ingenuity is ubiquitous and tends to replicate widely. FWIW

 

[Theatregal]

The Dignified Old Man of Pontevedra - does anyone know the story behind this little statue?

The statue is of the poet and dramatist Ramón Valle-Inclán. You can also find him sitting on his favourite Alameda Park bench in Santiago.

 

[JohnLloyd]

The statue is of the poet and dramatist Ramón Valle-Inclán. You can also find him sitting on his favourite Alameda Park bench in Santiago.

View attachment 82277

Ah, thanks for that!

 

[VNwalking]

The statue is of the poet and dramatist Ramón Valle-Inclán. You can also find him sitting on his favourite Alameda Park bench in Santiago.

Ah. So that's what that is, and who that is.
Thank you, @Covidyard Bob and @Theatregal. Mysteries at least partly solved.

(Those glasses ... )

 

[peregrina2000]

What's this - a smelter of some sort? (We didn"t know.)
Near Elizondo on the Baztan.

Didn’t we decide it was a place to store snow and make ice? See the description of the similar place (snow palace) in Xativa

 

[peregrina2000]

Since people are posting pictures of statues, I thought I’d post this one of Antonio Machado. He was from Soria, which is on the Camino Castellano-Aragonés, a spectacular camino from Zaragoza to Burgos. The city of Soria, by the way, is an absolutely beautiful small city on the Camino Castellano-Aragonés. It is very untouristy but FILLED with romanesque and beautiful plazas, just an amazing city.

Machado is the author of the familiar and very beautiful poem that resonates with people on the camino —

Caminante, son tus huellas el camino, y nada más; caminante, no hay camino: se hace camino al andar. Al andar se hace camino, y al volver la vista atrás se ve la senda que nunca se ha de volver a pisar. Caminante, no hay camino, sino estelas en la mar.

Not a great translation: (but I don’t fault the translator, this is a very hard verse to translate)
Traveler, your footprints
are the only road, nothing else.
Traveler, there is no road;
you make your own path as you walk.
As you walk, you make your own road,
and when you look back
you see the path
you will never travel again.
Traveler, there is no road;
only a ship's wake on the sea.

 

[VNwalking]

I thought I’d post this one of Antonio Machado

What a face!

Didn’t we decide it was a place to store snow and make ice?

Oh! I missed that somehow...maybe too busy taking photos. It makes a lot of sense. But then so does a charcoal kiln. I guess we will never know.

 

[peregrina2000]

..maybe too busy taking photos.

Ha! That’s me (with the red slicker) and Nuala taking pictures!

Ahhh, the Baztán is a glorious camino!

 

[VNwalking]

Ahhh, the Baztán is a glorious camino!

Short but very sweet. And the company was wonderful. I'd love to walk the first two days in better weather, though. Likewise the Vasco.

(Happy memories of the dripping Baztan 5 and soaked Vasco 2)

 

[Anne&Pat]

I thought I’d post this one of Antonio Machado

What a face!

Exactly! My immediate reaction was the same as yours VNwalking!!


Camino Frances- 4th, September, 2014 Albergue A Santiago, Belorado. Beautiful little shrine to St James in the grounds of this albergue.

 

[SabsP]

From Matosinhos to Vila do Conde. Camino Portugues 2015.
Clean lines.

 

[VNwalking]

Another from the Baztan:
The view ahead from near the top of the first significant hill, before Ainhoa.

 

[DoughnutANZ]

The statue is of the poet and dramatist Ramón Valle-Inclán. You can also find him sitting on his favourite Alameda Park bench in Santiago.

View attachment 82277

The human seemed to match the statue

 

[JohnLloyd]

Another view of the Santuario da Peregrina in Pontevedra.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

A have a few bird pictures from the CF. This is my favorite. This little guy knocked himself out flying into a sliding glass door at an albergue. It took him about fifteen minutes to recover. This is shortly before he thought that he was being eyed as lunch and flew away.

 

[Lexicos]

.................... Knossos ...................................................... Santiago .......................................................Chip

................. 7000 BC ..........................................................1833 ................................................................ 2019

Winter's gone my wings are done and I'm ready to fly.

 

[Madidi]

2nd September 2016:

Camino Primitivo. One of the paths on the way down to the Embalse de Salime. Sadly a large part of this beautiful forest was destroyed by fire in 2017.