Camino Crafts - Bon Voyage cards

Rather than make these from scratch I decided to just alter a one card and make the other, this saved me time and a bit of effort so was good on all counts!

I liked this one because of the stars (Compostela means 'field of stars') and there was a fairly big space at the bottom for me to decorate.

Next I checked the distance of Santiago from Porto - 239.6km according to my guidebook. Then I used Paint to draw a distance sign (I chose paint as you can save images as JPEG files making them easier to post here).

Two oblongs, the inner one with a thicker line, then the words for distance and the two metal poles for it to stand on (I based it on the sign that cheers you up as you leave Roncenvalles in the morning).

Then it was simply printing this out, sticking it onto card to give it some rigidity and then sticking it onto the card.

If you want to make a similar card here's a blank version of the sign for you to use:

The second card I made from scratch but is also fairly simple to do.

It needed: card, brown paper, glue, a pencil, ruler and pens in blue, yellow and black.

I used black card simply because I had it left from another project - I cut a piece 27X19cm and then folded this in half to make a card 13.5X19cm

Then I cut my brown paper (the cheap stuff that's meant to be for wrapping parcels to go in the post) to be 13.5X19cm

Then I drew on my design lightly in pencil (the 'O' of the Bon is a backpack, I think that you can see the rest okay)

Then I went over this letters alternating between navy blue and yellow but I did this very roughly and used several lines for each letter (although the first line each time was directly over the pencil mark so that it can't be seen)

Then I went over the backpack in black pen and drew on a scallop shell as well to make it more Camino-y. All that was left was to stick the paper onto the card and find an envelope that it would fit!

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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.

Pilgrims' Trail to Saint Michels Mont, France

I have only walked two of the Camino routes (the Frances and Portuguese) and still want to try many of the others and yet I am also finding other Pilgrimage routes that I want to walk - I did the Pilgrims' Way in the summer which starts from Winchester which is also the starting point for the Pilgrims' Trail a 155 mile route that finishes at Mont St Michel in Normandy, France. The cult of saint Michel was popular in Britain from the 9th century and the Pilgrims walking this way were called Miquelots and many Pilgrims on their way to Santiago. The route is marked by green way markers in Hampshire taking walkers from Winchester to Bishop's Waltham to Southwick and then to Portsmouth where ferries are caught to France and Way markers become blue. Tradition says that, in 709 Saint Michael the Archangel appeared to the bishop of Avranches, Saint Aubert, and told him to build a chapel in his honour on the island. The bishop obeyed and soon sent a group of monks over...

On the Camino

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