Walking the Camino de Santiago
We leave for Spain on Tuesday, and we’ve definitely entered into scramble mode. Equipment purchases, refinements, and testing has gone on for months, but it always seems like there’s something breaking or not working at the last minute. Our rigourous training schedule has gone by the boards this week due to increasingly frantic work pressures. And of course, there’s always […]
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As you can tell from the name of this church, Galician is similar to Spanish in the same way that French isn’t. Only with more X. This church, located in the center of Portomarín, was originally built by the knightly Order of Santiago in the twelfth century. It is crowned by battlements, as this area was in constant danger of […]
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To enter the town of Portomarín, pilgrims must cross this bridge. Cars zoom by, making this seem more dangerous than it actually is. At the end of this road, pilgrims are expected to walk up a long flight of stone stairs into the heart of the town. These stairs were built using the stones of the ancient Roman bridge that […]
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The pilgrim saying is, “always take the alternate path”. Many times, the Camino will temporarily split, and the “alternate” is a longer, more scenic way. Always take those. Sometimes, however, it’s a shortcut, like this goat path killing field down into the Río Miño valley. Don’t ever take those. I mean, it probably would have been okay with some snow […]
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The stalwart pilgrims espy the town of Portomarín in the valley below! Of old, Portomarín was a river crossing, the first bridge having been built by the Romans to help secure the routes to their mines in this part of Hispania. In the 20th century, a hydroelectric dam was built and the river at Portomarín became a lake. The entire […]
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Just a reminder that Galicia is primarily a rural country, where pilgrims don’t necessarily have right of way. We met these sheep, with their sheepdogs and shepherd, near the village of Parrocha. We are heading for the valley of the Río Miño and our destination for the evening: the town of Portomarín. Date: 28 April 2016 Place: Parrocha (Galicia, Spain)
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The day dragged on. By the time we reached our planned second breakfast village, Mercadoiro, it was past lunchtime. So we ate lunch and revised the plan for the day, targeting the town of Portomarín as our stopping place, rather than Gonzar 7.5 km beyond. This photo is the interior window of the restroom of the bar in Mercadoiro. The […]
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I mentioned before the ludicrous distance markers in Galicia, well this is one of the most egregious. Of old, here stood the 100km marker. Every pilgrim had their photo taken with it. It was a rite of passage. Now, however, modern cartography, GPS, and dubious math has renamed this the 99.930km marker. Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, […]
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The morning’s terrain was undulating, and the road varied between mud and asphalt. Our initial burst of speed quickly died back to a trudge. Our mood fell as the road seemed to unaccountably lengthen, even as we walked it. In this photo, Francine tells me what she thinks. Date: 28 April 2016 Place: near Mirallos, probably (Galicia, Spain)
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The pilgrims cross a stone bridge across an unnamed tributary of the Río Loio. The early part of the day was tiny hamlet after tiny hamlet. I’m not even entirely sure that all of them were inhabited. It made for a quick walk through idyllic countryside, and we confidently expected to be eating our second breakfast in Mercadoiro. Date: 28 […]
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