On the Camino

The municipal albergue here is in a lovely old building with at least 20 beds in one room. The kitchen, as with many in Galicia, has no pots or utensils but there are two stoves and a sink. It is closed in the morning. Nice garden with drying area.

Our search for a new bag continues and has raised an important question to me: why are female hiking bags almost invariably pink? Oh there was one that was a light shade of purple but every other bag that we saw today was pink. It's almost as though women and girls aren't allowed to do 'masculine' activities like hiking without them being 'feminised' by making them pink and girly. Yes, some women(maybe most women) even do like pink but not all do. Men's bags were on show in a variety of colours, they were not confined to the stereotypical baby colour of blue so why given women only pink? Indeed if we go back to the colours being for babies pink for a girl is a recent idea -  until the end of the 19th century children wore white dresses until they were 6 or so. Blue and pink were introduced along with pastel shades in the middle of that century but were not assigned to gender until WW1 and even then things were confused in an article in the trade public...

I've already discussed how far Frodo walked in 'The Lord of the Rings' but what about his Uncle Bilbo, how far did he travel in 'The Hobbit'?

The World Cup starts today so this is vaguely Camino-related news to do with it. Four England fans (Avid Bewick, Adam Burns, Pete Johnson and Ben Olsen) walked 1966km walked from the Andean city of Mendoza to Porto Alegre over three months to raise money for a well in an area in Brazil that has been hit by a drought going through Uruguay and Argentina travelling 30km a day for five days a week. They took 20kg of equipment each using a golf trolley to pull it. There was difficulty in finding places that were safe to stay in. The group hope to raise £20,000 and have a just giving site at https://www.justgiving.com/walktotheworldcup-jdev/

So Becky and her bag have neen having some disagreements of late. You know the sort of thing: Becky wants her bag to be comfortable and her bag is all like, 'But suffering is surely an integral part of the Camino!' so we spent a bit of time browsing bags. What we've been looking for is a woman's bag - these are designed for a more petite frame and so should 'fit' better than the general bags we've been using for our Caminos so far. Becky also wants one with a vented back so that she doesn't get too hot and then we've been looking at pockets - there's always stuff that you want to be more readily accessible (rain cover, guidebook or [most importantly] chocolate) so a good sized one at either side and one at the top would be good. Then there's the main pocket - the bags we use are 40 litre and that's big enough but a slightly bigger one would be okay (as long as it fits inside that certain budget airline's carry on size limit - I ...

There are many good things about the Camino, too many to go through in one post, so here's ten to start on. Walking - you get to see so much more of a country when you walk through it, you get a better understanding of what it's like than if you take a car through and of course walking is great exercise!  Simplicity - you're concerns on the Camino become very simple as you go: finding a bed and finding food and that is all that you really need. Things just slow down to walking pace and your normal concerns can disappear and it givesyou a chance to work out what's actually important to you. Sellos - I love collecting the stamps on my credential, afterwards you can look back and remember your Camino from just these People - you meet people from all over the world and form a fellowship with them all where you help each other and everyone is at peace with each other. I also spend time with my family on the Camino and that's wonderful. Arriving at Santiago - ther...

I've written before about how the Victoria and Albert museum has a copy of the Porico de Gloria and on a recent visit took the time to get a few more pictures of it. It's held in the Cast Courts which can be found by walking to the entrance, going to stand in front of the shop then turning right and walking right down the corridor where you'll find the Cast Courts on the left (there are two: one for Italy and one for Europe, it's the second of these that you want and just walk all the way to the back). You can also go two floors up and look over the Portico from one of the museum's balconies (Victoria and Albert museum) (Victoria and Albert museum) (Victoria and Albert museum) (Victoria and Albert museum) The Tree of Jesse (Victoria and Albert museum)  (Victoria and Albert museum) (Victoria and Albert museum) (Victoria and Albert museum) (Victoria and Albert museum) (Victoria and Albert museum) The first ...

This albergue no longer exists - it was used in 2010 when the municipal albergue was being renovated but it's interesting to see. It was set up in the sports hall in Meliede as below The 'building' on the left with the glass front was the office, the bottom 'building' on the right was the kitchen and above it the bedroom with about 60 beds - it got quite warm in there as, because it was cold when we arrived, pilgrims put the radiators on full. An interesting experience to have!

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. S callops also serve a practical purpose for medieval pilgrims as it is the correct size for getting water to drink or to use as a small bowl to eat their food from. There are also two stories about this shell which both involve the story that James did some preaching in Spain after Jesus had died and why the shell became so important: 1.After James was killed his disciples took him to be buried at the place that we now call Santiago.     But not far from Spain’s coast a heavy storm hit the ship and his body was lost in the ocean.   ...