Albergue - Puente la Reina

I have no picture at all for this albergue but it was under a three star hotel just outside the town. I recommend this place - all beds were in the basement but were sectioned off into smaller groups. The hotel did a Pilgrim meal (for which you got a voucher for a euro off) but also had a small but good kitchen and dining room.

The owner was very helpful and friendly - my sello did not print very well on my credential so she, without me saying a word, re-did it on a spare piece of paper, cut this to size and then glued it in for me.

There is a laundry room with a machine and hand-washing facilities and an outside area reserved for drying clothes.

A small sitting area is for the use of those in the albergue as well as the hotel.

Showers were nice - posh hydrotherapy ones (although I could not work out how to use anything but the basic shower function but that was good enough!).

The albergue is a little out of town but it took us only five minutes at most to walk in (and there were only five people staying at our albergue whilst the albergue in the town looked to be packed).

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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

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On the Camino

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