Day 4 - Friday, 25th March

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 door whose owner seemed to be quite surprised that we wanted her stamp.

Once through the village we were on a straight road which seemed to go on forever.

We arrived at the albergue at about twenty past two and grabbed two beds and had some warm showers which was a nice change! We were joined later by a pilgrim from Norway who had walked from Alacante!

Me and Becky headed into the town and found a bar with wifi to check the internet and update friends. The hospitelero came over and told us that she would be late coming to register pilgrims as she was taking part in the Good Friday parade which we stuck around to watch.

When we got back to the albergue a Spanish group of four had arrived and they were noisy and continued to be all the time they were there – there weren’t ready to go out until almost nine and tried to take the key to the albergue with them but we convinced them to leave it and then when they returned they shouted and banged at the door before realising that we had left the door unlocked so that they could get back in.

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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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