Camino Frances 2018 day 7

Camino Frances 2018 day 7 - Santiago

We got up today at half six and were out of the albergue by half seven so we were walking through the dark using torches to see where we were going for the first 45 minutes or so. The new waymarkers were no longer about leaving only the older ones with their inaccurate measurements but we really did not mind.

We stopped at the first bar out of Arca which has a hotel attached and had a cafeteria style bar where we used the machines to do our own orange juice and toast and other things were pre-prepared in bowls for us to get.

There are a lot of hills in this last section.

There is a bridge at the 12.5km mark and under that two men had set up a stall with a sello and a few things to buy.

We reached Monte do Gozo and had our usual run up to the monument in the style of Pilgrims from the Mediaeval times when whoever got to the top of the hill here was ‘King of the Camino’. A lot of clearing work has been done here so that we could see the Cathedral from Monte do Gozo for the first time.

As we walked into Santiago we saw the end of an Easter Parade before heading to the square in front of the Cathedral where we congratulated each other and rang Mum to let her know that we had arrived.

We then went to get our Compostelas for which we had to queue for only 20 minutes and then went to our hotel.

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The Camino Primitivo

The Camino Primitivo (or the Original Way) is reportedly the very first Camino Way to Santiago in the 9 th century when most of Spain was under the control of the Moors and it runs from near the city of Ovideo in Asturias as it starts in Villavicosa (which also lies on the Camino Norte so many people follow this Way from Basque city of San Sebastian (Donosti in Basque) or in from the French border at Irun ( this route then hugs the Bay of Biscay passing through Guernica, Bilbao, Santander, Llanes before going under the Picos de Europa and then heads along the coast to Ovideo) before branching off onto the Primitivo which goes across the mountains and through the city of Lugo before joining the Frances at Melide. The route is 320km long. Image taken from https://viaalpina2013.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/camino-del-norte-camino-primitivo/

Symbols of the three main Christian Pilgrimages

The symbol of the Pilgrim to Santiago is the Scallop shell of which many can be found on the coast of Galicia and it is actually a symbol of the Pilgrimage (and has become a symbol of other Christian Pilgrimages too) partly because you could find the shell easily there and so could go back home and show it off as proof that you had done the Pilgrimage. It has also been included in carvings in some Churches.

Camino Mascot

Those who have walked the Camino will probably have seen one or more of the Camino mascots along the Way but do you know their names? http://m.elcorreogallego.es/xacobeo/ecg/xubi-jubila-pelegrin-mascota-xacobea/idEdicion-2010-06-08/idNoticia-555962/

On the Camino

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