Day 3 - Wednesday 13th September

Today we walked 20km after a bad night's sleep - the man in the room next door arrived back in his room at 10:59 and spent 15 minutes talking very loudly to his son on the 'phone (on a good note I learned that the weather was now much better than it had been). seeing as he was speaking on speaker 'phone I also learned that the man's son was pleased about this and that the grandchildren were well but missing their Grandad!

We were up at 6:30 and packed away. Mum was having her bag carried by the Spanish Post Office on this Camino and they need all bags packed and at reception by 8:00 so by 7:40 we were down and ready for breakfast.

The breakfasts in the albergue were named after different Caminos and we both chose the Camino Frances breakfast which was fresh toast (with gluten free bread for Mum at no extra cost), jam freshly squeezed orange juice and coffee/hot chocolate. It was delicious and we weren't the only ones to linger over our breakfasts.

It has been a few years since I last walked the Camino Portuguese so although I recognised some parts of the Way I spent most of the time feeling like Gandalf in the mines of Moira, 'I have no memory of this place'.

The guide book had few bars mentioned for the day's walk but at 8:30 we came across a café that a family had opened in their back garden. we had a piece of fruit each and some freshly made lemonade for 2 euros 50. While we ate the family's little dog spent his time going between the eating Pilgrims looking pathetically at us hoping for food.

Later we stopped at the side of the path and ate the bread, cheese and ham for dinner.

Once we arrived in town finding the hotel was difficult but I managed to pick up a wifi signal for long enough to get Google maps to work.

Our bedroom was a large one and even had a balcony but not much of a view to look out on!

Finding dinner was difficult - very few places were open in the town so we headed down to near where the albergue was and found a bar there that was serving a Pilgrim menu and whose staff knew what was and wasn't gluten free.

Settled down early.

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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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