Pilgrims on the Way

The little church of San Nicolás de Bari de San Juan de Ortega is largely undecorated except for three places: the sanctuary, the tomb of San Juan de Ortega, and as shown here, the ceiling. These tongues of flame are no doubt meant to remind the visitor of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples at Pentecost. I […]

While the name of this Romanesque church is a mouthful, the church itself is austere and almost claustrophobic. Originally built as part of a monastery in the late 11th century by San Juan, it now contains the saint’s tomb, a plain stone altar, an ancient baptistry and not much else. The doors were open when I arrived. Indeed, on another […]

So far as I know, there’s only one albergue in the little village of San Juan de Ortega, and this is it. It is located within the old monastery grounds. I am unclear whether it is in the same location as the original pilgrim hospital that the saint founded in 1150, or if it is converted from the monastic cells, […]

Finally, we arrived in the tiny village of San Juan de Ortega. How tiny? This photo is most of it. What is now a village was, before the dissolutions of 1835, a monastery. Originally built by San Juan himself, with the aid of his compatriot Santo Domingo de la Calzada, around the year 1142, it has been an unforgettable stop […]

After the the black trees of the bandit forest and the pointless down and up of the Valley of Anger™️, we had one more physical challenge today: mud. Although the stormy weather came and went that day, the mud lingered. It lingered on the ground, on our shoes, and eventually spattered us up to our waists. The mud wasn’t everywhere, […]

We had slogged through the rain and mud for some time, when suddenly this valley confronted us. All the way down, and then all the way back up. I was in a foul mood, and I remember thinking that somebody could have just strung a bridge over the valley. I have struggled with anger all my life, and at that […]

Deep in the bandit’s forest is a monument to the dead of the Spanish Civil War. There are monuments for the dead of this war all over Spain. This particular monument, which is nowhere near any kind of human habitation, is at the site of a mass grave from the era. Date: 11 April 2013Place: between Villafranca Montes de Oca […]

The forest terrain that day had a lot of ups and downs, and the day we walked, it was often dark and stormy. Sometimes we walked on roads, and sometimes on a path near or even next to the road. The image struck me, as a particularly good example of what walking the Camino means, and what being Christian means. […]

Within the haunted forest, we passed this memorial, presumably to a fallen pilgrim. I could not find their name, but the ribbon hanging from the tree contains the following in Portuguese: “Sāo Jorge, em Nom de Deus, rogai por nos” – “Saint George, in the Name of God, pray for us”. Date: 11 April 2013Place: between Villafranca Montes de Oca […]

As we made the steep climb up into the Montes de Oca, the wind picked up. The forest we entered was eerie. The trees were black and bare, awaiting their spring colours. A note on my map said: “In medieval times, dense forest, wolves, and bandits made this one of the most difficult stretches of the Camino.” I can well […]