Walking the Camino de Santiago
Pilgrim reports from the Camino.
Next to our lunch spot and across the street from the Iglesia de Santa María, Francine poses with a fellow pilgrim. I swear I saw this guy sitting here on my first Camino, too… Date: 16 April 2016 Place: Villalcázar de Sirga (Castilla y León, Spain) Today’s Map:
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The Camino turns into pleasant a tree-lined lane, and in the distance we see San Antón. This was once a great monastery and pilgrim hostal. Though it is now a ruin – and we’ll have some rather more spectacular photos of it in the coming days – in recent years a new albergue has been built among the ruins. Sadly, […]
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In every city, town, and village along the Camino, you will find restaurants, cafés, and bars that serve a “Menú Peregrino” (pilgrim menu). Usually, this is a three-course meal featuring a starch, an improbably large amount of meat, a small dessert, and a half-bottle of local wine, all for about €8 to €12. So here we have Burger King trying […]
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This is the main street of old Logroño. It has apparently seen a lot of improvement and refurbishment over the past few years. The street is lined with historical building after historical building. Perhaps I’ll post a few in the coming days – bodegas, grand old houses, religious sites, police barracks, even an old town hall. Date: 07 April 2016 […]
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Praise God in His angels and in His saints! At about 3:00 PM on the Memorial of Saint Athanasius, the second of May 2016, we arrived at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. On the way in we met Anita, who escorted the three of us – Francine, Rebecca, and myself – to the cathedral Plaza. Afterwards, secured beds […]
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Galicia has been uncharacteristically cool and sunny, enabling us to do some fairly decent long-distance days. Oh, the forests of Galicia! So beautiful, and so otherworldly. As we came down from crossing our third mountain range, the clouds poured into the valleys below us like the sea lapping on the shore. Stories and poems have tumbled through my head […]
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Only 17.5 km today, but the last 8 km included a rough, rocky climb of almost 700 m as we left El Bierzo behind and entered our fourth Spanish kingdom: Galicia. We left early and had our second breakfast in Vega de Valcarce. By the time we stopped for a drink at a funky albergue/bar in La Faba called “El […]
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After Rabanal, we crested the Cordillera Cantábrica at Cruz de Ferro. Traditionally, one leaves a stone at the foot of the cross there. This is the accompanying prayer: Lord, may this stone, a symbol of my efforts on the pilgrimage that I lay at the foot of the cross of the Savior, one day weigh the balance in favor of my […]
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We arrived in Rabanal del Camino three years to the day since the last time we were here, though not by any conscious design on our part. We have been walking with a young Dutchman named Stijn, and we ran into our old friend Rebecca again a couple of times during today’s walk. It has become a glorious, sunny afternoon. […]
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We are spending the night in Sahagún. For those of you who are fans of “Babylon Five”, this will sound uncomfortably close to “Z’ha’dum“. It was a beautiful day for walking – cool and sunny. A welcome change from the recent weeks. We had our second breakfast at the Albergue Jacques de Molay in the village of Terradillos de Templarios, […]
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