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Where do you usually carry the shell?

Mónica_Cribe

Mónica
Time of past OR future Camino
Camino Portugués 1993,1994 ... 2016
Camino del Norte 2000
Camino a Fisterra 2009
Hola! I have a question! Where do you usually carry the pilgrim's shell? Hanging from the neck or backpack
 
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Mine is on my backpack. I don't think I've ever seen anyone with their shell hanging on their neck.
 
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Hola! I have a question! Where do you usually carry the pilgrim's shell? Hanging from the neck or backpack

Both! A very small silver pendant one a leather whatnot round my neck and a shell fished near where I live the contents of which I had eaten and which is attached to my pack.

And I stayed at your albergue last year in August! A very pleasant place you have created! Congratulations and thank you!
 
I did not carry a shell for my first Camino - my understanding was that it is traditionally the badge of those who have completed a pilgrimage to Santiago rather than those on the way. It felt presumptuous and slightly dishonest for me to carry one on that first journey. That idea seems to have been lost over the years. For my second and later Caminos I have either tied one to my rucksack or just walked without one.
 
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I did not carry a shell for my first Camino - my understanding was that it is traditionally the badge of those who have completed a pilgrimage to Santiago rather than those on the way. It felt presumptuous and slightly dishonest for me to carry one on that first journey. That idea seems to have been lost over the years. For my second and later Caminos I have either tied one to my rucksack or just walked without one.
Muchas gracias!
It seems like a simple question, but it has many connotations and your answer seems very sensitive to me. Thank YOU!
 
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I have seen a number of pilgrims with a very small shell around their neck, but I think as a piece of jewelry. I have a small two inch diameter shell that I found on the ocean. I drilled a hole for a cord and it is permanently tied to the outside of my backpack and quite unobtrusive.
 
I like having my small shell atrached. Last year when I was at the Chicago airport waiting for my flight to Madrid, a man walked over to me and asked if I was going to be walking the camino because he had seen my shell. I told him yes and we had a very nice conversation as he was starting his first one. He had some questions for me and I always enjoy talking about my passion for walking.
 
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St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
Hola! I have a question! Where do you usually carry the pilgrim's shell? Hanging from the neck or backpack
I try to ensure that everything I carry has at least two uses, occasionally I have to accept that some things have just one use but are indispensable. I don’t carry anything with no use whatsoever.

I am knowingly irrational in that I could skip lunch and carry a bag of shells with the weight loss, but it’s more fun shaving grams off the load than shedding the more necessary kilos from myself.

If I were to carry a shell, then I would want it clearly on display - probably on my rucksack.
 
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One of my granddaughters forgot and left her shell attached to her pack after our joint camino last year. She went interrailling last summer all over the Balkans, Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam. Nobody talked to her about the shell on her pack.

When I did my long walk from home (in northern Brittany) several persons stopped to ask me where I was going and I had not even yet attached the shell to my pack - did that only in Irun. All had done the camino and guessed just seeing me....
 
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Found by a friend on a beach that I often walk down when training and for which, coincidentally, Compostella is almost the antipodes of.

This was taken in Sarria as I was approaching the Cathedral Church of Saint James for the second time.

At about two fingers wide it is, regretably, not much use for drinking wine under any circumstances.IMG 2017 10 24 @ 10h35 - TabSx 21870.jpg
 
On my first Camino, I picked up a shell at Finisterre, as I had read that was what was done by pilgrims long ago - to prove that you had walked and had been to Finisterre. It was framed along with my compostela and credential. Someone that I walked with on my first Camino gave me a shell for my next Camino, and I carried it on my backpack.
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
I originally tied a shell securely to my backpack (not “hanging” – bouncing about would drive me nuts) to make it obvious to all and sundry that I was going to / coming from the Camino de Santiago, as opposed to being a “backpacker” just wandering aimlessly. (Not sure why I still do that 🤔.)

So now I have a question:

Hola! I have a question! Where do you usually carry the pilgrim's shell? Hanging from the neck or backpack

Why the question? Just curious! Is it something to do with your albergue?
Jill
 
A selection of Camino Jewellery
Hola! I have a question! Where do you usually carry the pilgrim's shell? Hanging from the neck or backpack
Technically one gets their shell when they have completed the Camino in Santiago. That is the way it was originally done. So I got mine in Santiago and on my next Camino I'll figure out when to put it.
 
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€60,-
I try to ensure that everything I carry has at least two uses,

Amen........

I think the rest of Henry's sentence, which Bob trims off before saying "Amen", is essential. It reads "...occasionally I have to accept that some things have just one use but are indispensable."

Without that proviso, I don't think I could say amen. I can think of other uses for my toothbrush, for example, but on a Camino I am pretty set on keeping my toothbrush to one kind of use only. (I was going to say "one use only" but I don't want people to think I only brush my teeth once per Camino)
 
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I have seen a number of pilgrims with a very small shell around their neck, but I think as a piece of jewelry. I have a small two inch diameter shell that I found on the ocean. I drilled a hole for a cord and it is permanently tied to the outside of my backpack and quite unobtrusive.

Your way of carrying the shell is different and personal. Thanks for your answer.
 
I don't carry a shell. I do have a Camino badge in cloth. It's sewn to my bag.
I have one stashed in the side pocket of my backpack. It has not seen the light of day since my first camino. Unnecessary weight really.

So you carry your own shell for you without it being appreciated outside! El camino va por dentro!
 
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
I too have carried the same shell on all my pilgrimages, tied to my backpack. Sadly, I lost it on my last flight back home ☹

I'm very sorry, sometimes we have a special relationship and love with what gives us support.
In my albergue I sometimes see sad pilgrims because they have arrived in Tui and they tell me that they lost their credential on the Camino that they had stamps from Lisbon or from Porto, but the camino is the memories at every step and teaches us to continue walking, we will have to remember are our experiences.
 
The shell is one of the camino signs. There isn´t equal rule for everyone, I am surprised to see that our way of life and personality makes the shell more than a symbol, It´s part of us and with this question I learn the sensitivity. It´s strange, because I have made el camino several times and I have never carried a shell, (I have stopped to think) ... I have asked a question, I have listened to your answers but I hadn´t answered in mine.
Why the question? Just curious! Is it something to do with your albergue?
Jill
 
At post #20 I showed off my small Scallop shell that a friend had found on a local beach.

Now I show off a shell I have strung on my pack for many years now. This is a the shell of an very immature Pāua, found on another local beach. Each shell weighs a few grams each so there are no weight issues.

Together the two shells tell a story. The Scallop, of course, says where I have been.

The Pāua tells where I have come from. Less than 10 kilometres from my home is a village named Pāuatahanui (where Pāua are (were) gathered).

20200103_144151.jpg

Kia kaha (take care, be strong, get going)
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
I try to ensure that everything I carry has at least two uses, occasionally I have to accept that some things have just one use but are indispensable. I don’t carry anything with no use whatsoever.

I am knowingly irrational in that I could skip lunch and carry a bag of shells with the weight loss, but it’s more fun shaving grams off the load than shedding the more necessary kilos from myself.

If I were to carry a shell, then I would want it clearly on display - probably on my rucksack.
Have you seen the photos of people using their shells as cups at the Wine Fountain?
 
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
I wasn't clear on the custom, so bought one in Sarria and tied it to the top of my (day, I've admitted this before) pack so that it wouldn't bounce.
It's now hanging in my living room, waiting for the Primitivo next Sep....
 
It tastes better out of a shell.... Probably something to do with the salt ;)

Irache make some superb wines. The joven that they gift in the fountain is exactly what it says on the label. A joven, a little thin & sharp on the palate for some. I'll always take a slurp in passing. Then order a case or two of the Reserva for shipping :cool:
 
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Very light, comfortable and compressible poncho. Specially designed for protection against water for any activity.

Our Atmospheric H30 poncho offers lightness and waterproofness. Easily compressible and made with our Waterproof fabric, its heat-sealed interior seams guarantee its waterproofness. Includes carrying bag.

€60,-

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