Category: Liminal Space

After spending about an hour and a half exploring the castle, we moved on to the beautiful Basílica Nuestra Señora de la Encina. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a lot of great photos, but here is Francine entering the church. There are a couple of good photos of the place from our 2016 Camino you can check out, starting here. Date: […]

Here we see Francine and I at the entrance to the Castillo de los Templarios. We waited about an hour or so for them to open the doors so we could go exploring. Normally there’s an entrance fee (discounted with a pilgrim passport), but today was a national holiday, so all of the historic sites and museums were open for […]

As the Camino enters Ponferrada, it crosses the Río Boeza. For pilgrims, this is accomplished by crossing the Puente Mascarón, although confusingly, the name of the neighbourhood around the bridge is Puente Boeza. This photo is virtually identical to the one I took three years later. Date: 23 April 2013Place: entering Ponferrada (Region of El Bierzo, Province of León, Castilla […]

When we walked through the village of Campo in 2013, most of the buildings there appeared to be in ruins – or at least half-ruined. When we returned three years later, the tide had definitively shifted, with quite a number of these buildings sold and refurbished, as has happened elsewhere on this stretch of the Camino. I would love to […]

Molinaseca straddles the Río Meruelo, which despite the town’s small population (about 820) appears to split it into two separate communities, or at least neighbourhoods. Certainly, there are two great churches. Here we see Francine crossing the bridge from the side with the Ermita de Nuestra Señora de las Angustias towards the side with the Iglesia de San Nicolás de […]

Doors fascinate me, and this one in the village of El Acebo particularly intrigues. Nothing is plumb, no piece of wood or stain match any of the others, and yet somehow it becomes a harmonious whole. Date: 22 April 2013Place: El Acebo (Region of El Bierzo, Province of León, Castilla y León, Spain)Today started: Rabanal del Camino (Province of León, […]

The brightly painted doors in the village of Santa Catalina de Somoza are delightful. There are dozens, and this is but one – for more check out the composite I made from our 2016 photos here. Date: 21 April 2013Place: Santa Catalina de Somoza (Province of León, Castilla y León, Spain)Today started: Astorga (Province of León, Castilla y León, Spain)

We soon arrived at the utterly charming and bustling village of Santa Catalina de Somoza. As I noted previously, this village with a population approaching sixty, nevertheless appears more “alive” than villages of double the population. It has two albergues, a restaurant, a parish church, a shop, and… this fellow. We each got photos with this life-size pilgrim in his […]

This is the magnificent central entrance to the Catedral de Santa María de Astorga. The more you look – the more you zoom into the photo! – the more detail is uncovered. Above the beautifully carved door, we see the sculpted image of Christ being taken down from the Cross. I took some better close-up photos in 2016, which you […]