Camino Frances 2018 day 3

Camino Frances 2018 day 3 - Portomarin

This morning was cool but dry as we set off.

After about 3 kilometres of walking the Canadian couple we had met the day before caught up with us and Dad started walking and talking with them so when we came to a new Panderia me and Becky stopped to buy the three of us drinks and told Dad that we would meet him at the bar at 100km for breakfast.

We bought three little cakes for us for later and got a new sello each as well.

When we reached the bar at what used to be 100km me and Becky stopped - all of the waymarkers have changed so that the measurements are more accurate so it now lies at something like 104km. Dad was no where in sight so we sent him a text message that we were there and ordered breakfast - toast with tomato for Becky and toast with jam for me. By the time we had finished we had heard nothing from Dad - knowing that he had been ahead of us we assumed he still must be and so sent a message to him to meet us at the bar at Mercadaro instead.

The pathway was quite wet with water running down it and there were some muddy patches that meant we had to climb off the path and into fields for short stretches.

We reached the 100km marker and stopped for pictures.

At Mercadaro we ordered the cheesecake but for the third time in a row there they didn't have any - we both think that the cheesecake there is some of the best anywhere but had to settle for chocolate cake instead.

Dad sent us a text to say that he was already past Mercadaro and so would see us in Portomarin.

There was a new option into Portomarin - a 'historical' route which was longer and rocky or the route which we had always walked so that wa the route we took.

We had booked an albergue for this night under Becky's name and so were surprised that Dad had been able to get in without us. The hospitelero took me and Becky inside, showing us where our boots should go and where the showers were before taking us into the bedroom and telling us, "And here is your Father!"

We went out to the supermarket and bought food for the day and bread and cheese for the next.

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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.

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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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