On the Camino

Today we walked 22km but it felt a lot further as it was almost completely on roads, they were quiet roads but it still gets to your feet to walk on tarmac for so long (there is more walking on roads on this route than there is for the Camino Frances but I suppose that that route is a lot more popular so there is the money available to build paths for people to walk on).   Today’s target was Ourense a city of about 107,000 people and so was definitely the biggest place we would be passing through on this Camino and we could see it from the size of the industrial area we passed through which took a while to traverse. Once we thought we were in the city we stopped at a bakery and bought some chicken empanda for dinner only to find that we were still some distance away (and thus regretted that we had bought dinner so early).

In the quire of Saint Werburgh's Cathedral in Chester there is a carved oak Pilgrim on the choir stalls which dates from the 14th century (about 1380) so when I visited Chester I went to find him We found him just before the quire was closed for choir practice but I managed to get these two pictures of him.

It was cold last night – I woke up at three and was unable to get back to sleep again properly after that. At 7 the Spanish pilgrim decided to get up, took some of his things downstairs, briefly switched the bedroom light on and then off again when he realised that it wasn’t the downstairs light, and then came up a few minutes later and put the bedroom light on as he gathered everything else of his together. The three of us then decided that we might as well get up and he saw us all start to gather things together and so went downstairs, switching the light off as he went! We were off by 7:50 and were pleased that the start of the day was flat, some of it through an open field, and then there was a liottle bit of a climb but most of the day was spent going down during the 21km we walked. There were a few muddy areas to cross but we managed. After 7km we stopped in Vilar do Barrio for Cola Cau but were told that the bar had no sello but were directed to the garage next...

In a previous post I have written about the Year of Mercy. This year on Camino me and Becky found three special sellos in Santiago which have been made for this special year. Image from https://sces.org.uk/jubilee-year-of-mercy/

When it is a Holy Year (when Saint James' Day falls on a Sunday) the Holy Door in Santiago's Cathedral is opened according to an ancient ritual on the 31st of December in the preceding year. The Master of ceremonies knocks three times on the bricks covering the door using a silver hammer - after the first blow he says, 'Open the doors of this house in which resides the Just' The Key and hammer (image from http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2010/01/opening-of-holy-year-in-santiago-de.html#.Vxiolmf2aUk )