One Year Ago: Catholic Galicia
(from my journal)
Palas de Rei
29 April 2013
We’ve made excellent progress the past two days through the undulating farm and forest lands of Galicia. We’ve certainly had our share of weird weather here, from sudden hailstorms to today’s gale-force winds, but overall it’s been sunny and cool.
Galicia is a very Catholic country. You see religious emblems on doors in the villages. The Eucharist is everywhere depicted in government arms and seals. The churches are open.
The 12th century Iglesia de San Nicolas in Portomarín at Dawn
Entering Palas de Rei with all the other Pilgrims
Iglesia de San Tirso in Palas de Rei.
In my experience so far, there are three basic types of people walking the Camino: pilgrims, tourists, and hikers. Most people, of course, have all three tendencies at some point or another, but they tend to revert to type eventually. One hopes that everyone is a pilgrim by the end!
Early on in the Camino, pilgrims predominate, with hikers probably a distant second.
Since Sarria, however, we’ve been overwhelmed by all three in (as far as I can tell) equal numbers.
I should explain about Sarria. The Pilgrim Office in Santiago will only issue their compostela to those pilgrims who have walked at least 100km to arrive in Santiago. Sarria is the town closes to this mark, at 111km. So the number of pilgrims on the Way suddenly explodes by a factor of ten after Sarria.
You see more pilgrims in an hour now than you might see in a day on the Meseta or in Navarra.
This evening, we hung out with Mia and the Irish a bit, and Radek, David, and Lana.
All the photos, Day 28!