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On the Camino: One Day at a Time, one Photo at a Time 11.0

Camino Frances
Atapuerca
sculpture

photo taken November 7, 2013

Atapuerca 2013.jpg

This contemporary sculpture symbolically represents a Neanderthal who nearly one million years ago inhabited the Sierra de Atapuerca.
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
Camino Aragonés. August 30, 2023

Someone ahead of me either didn't notice, or didn't honour the request :)
Ice cold potable water (assured by a local woman passing by) from this lovely fuente next to the Iglesia de la Asunción de Nuestra Señora in Canfrac Pueblo.

IMG_8770.jpeg
 
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Keep the Camino momentum going once you return home with After the Camino
...and ship it to Santiago for storage. You pick it up once in Santiago. Service offered by Casa Ivar (we use DHL for transportation).
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
3rd Edition. More content, training & pack guides avoid common mistakes, bed bugs etc
...and ship it to Santiago for storage. You pick it up once in Santiago. Service offered by Casa Ivar (we use DHL for transportation).
Camino Frances
Burgos
Cathedral de Santa Maria
west facade

photo taken November 8, 2013

Burgos 2013.jpg

Anyone wishing to worship/meditate may freely enter Burgos cathedral through the sw door beneath the pointed arch furthest to the right in this view. Within the vast complex free access is limited; a fee is charged to visit the cathedral/museum.
 
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
Camino Frances
Burgos
Cathedral de Santa Maria

photos taken February 24, 2007

Matamoros, from afar.jpg

A camera lens can isolate the Matamoros or Moor Slayer although the vast scene covers one wall of the Capilla de San Juan Bautista y Santiago visited as part of the cathedral museum.

Matamoros, in situ.JPG
 
Camino Frances
Burgos
Cathedral de Santa Maria

photo taken October 20, 2004

Burgos, reliquary.jpg

Within the cathedral museum is this mid 15th c. reliquary. Roughly 30cm. high, clad in vermeil/ gold plate on silver, Saint James wears a pilgrim hat complete with shell atop his precise curls. Sainthood is depicted by the flat halo behind his head. He grips his pilgrim staff and from one shoulder hangs a tiny traveling bag known as a scrip.
...I still fondly recall seeing this exquisite sculpture for the first time in 2004.
 
Perfect memento/gift in a presentation box. Engraving available, 25 character max.
Camino Frances
Burgos
Cathedral de Santa Maria
interior detail

photo taken November 8, 2012

Burgos, cathedral, detail, 8.11.2012.jpg

This small memento mori features a child/putto holding a skull. The themes of this infantile combo are not playfulness and childhood but life's fleetingness and the universality of death.
 
3rd Edition. More content, training & pack guides avoid common mistakes, bed bugs etc
Camino Frances
Burgos
Plaza de la Libertad
Casa del Cordón

photo taken February 4, 2008

Casa del Cordón , February 4, 2008.JPG

Heavy ropes/cords carved in stone which surround the main door give this 15th c. palace, presently used as a bank/exhibition space, its name. The charming French speaking hospitalera viewed here guided our rest day visit.
 
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
Ideal sleeping bag liner whether we want to add a thermal plus to our bag, or if we want to use it alone to sleep in shelters or hostels. Thanks to its mummy shape, it adapts perfectly to our body.

€46,-
Ideal sleeping bag liner whether we want to add a thermal plus to our bag, or if we want to use it alone to sleep in shelters or hostels. Thanks to its mummy shape, it adapts perfectly to our body.

€46,-
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
Camino Frances. September 21, 2012

No room in the inns of Hornillos del Camino. The sports hall next to the Municiple Albergue was opened. There were a few cots and stacks of floor mattresses available. This is how the room looked when I arrived but soon, most of the floor area would be covered with mattresses and sleeping mats. There were 2 showers in the hall but we were also able to use the albergue showers. There was one restaurant open and we could reserve a time for seating. It was a good atmosphere - all grateful for a place to sleep and to have a meal. I noted in my journal "a restful sleep".

When I arrived in Hornillos this past September 18, 2023, I was amazed at how many more places there were to stay and eat. There wasn't a need to open the sports hall. Arriving early, I was able to stay at the wonderful municiple albergue and had time to explore the village in a way that I didn't in 2012.

DSC05153.jpeg
 
A selection of Camino Jewellery
Camino Frances
west of Rabé de las Calzadas
rainbow

photo taken November 9, 2012

rainbow, leaving Rabé de las Calzadas.jpg

"..The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched."

Henry David Thoreau,
Walden, 1854
 
Camino Catalan. Twelveth stage. Montserrat - Igualada.
After Santa Cecilia, I left the official way that goes along the road, and I took the GR 172.
Although the path is very beautiful and well marked,
2024-04-11_10-49-08.jpg
I do not recommend it if you carry a heavy backpack. You have to go up and down continuously and there are some rocky points,
2024-04-11_11-00-15.jpg
Now, those who are in shape will enjoy it.
 
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Ideal sleeping bag liner whether we want to add a thermal plus to our bag, or if we want to use it alone to sleep in shelters or hostels. Thanks to its mummy shape, it adapts perfectly to our body.

€46,-
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
Keep the Camino momentum going once you return home with After the Camino
Valcarlos alternate
east of Valcarlos

photo taken September 27, 2004

2004 1.JPG

This sign was within a dense wood; however, the path was neither visible nor easy to find my first day walking on my first camino exactly
20 years ago today!
 
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Keep the Camino momentum going once you return home with After the Camino
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
Camino Frances
towards Hornillos del Camino

photo taken November 10, 2013

View attachment 178081

The Meseta was bleak and cold with a wicked wind from the west on this late autumn day.
There should be a designated thread for people to post their photo from that exact same spot. Iconic camino. Mine are all in sunshine!
 
Perfect memento/gift in a presentation box. Engraving available, 25 character max.
Looking back at Castrojeriz from the rest stop at the top of Alto de Mostelares, 8:24 am, September 2015.
Camino Frances

View attachment 178055
Ditto. I waited for a couple of hours (for the weatherto clear) at the top to get this:
IMG_5382.jpeg
There is a single, much-eroded, perfectly horizontal bed of limestone stretching back all the way from the Alto to Tardajos. The blip of Castrojeriz Castle is built on it, and I'm standing on it. This vista is very special.
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
A selection of Camino Jewellery
Perfect memento/gift in a presentation box. Engraving available, 25 character max.
Perfect memento/gift in a presentation box. Engraving available, 25 character max.
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
Camino de Frances
near Castrojeriz
Convento de San Antón

photo taken November 11, 2013

Castrojeriz, Convento de San Antón.jpg

Early morning beneath a clear pale blue windless sky the camino passed the great arch of the monastery.
 
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
Bessuéjouls, on the Via Podiensis, May 2022

In the tiny village of Bessuéjouls, on the way to Estaing, we visited the church of Saint-Pierre-de-Bessuéjouls. There are sometimes little surprises waiting for visitors. At the rear of this church we came across a small wooden door, and beside it a sign that read “Accès chapelle aerienne" (Access to the aerial chapel, or, chapel in the sky). It is indeed a small and narrow passageway, with steep twisty stairs that I must duck and squeeze my 6'2" frame into, without my backpack! At the top we emerged into the small upper chapel with lots of what seemed like Celtic-inspired decorative detail on some of the column capitals. The stone altar itself was spread with notes and tokens of thanks and intercession.

Capital.jpg St Pierre Bessuéjouls B.jpg St Pierre Bessuéjouls.jpg
 
Camino Frances
Castrojeriz
La Taberna resto/bar

photo taken November 11, 2012

Castrojeriz, La Taberna 2012.jpg

"Hola Americana!" said the barista/owner as he prepared a pot of true hot chocolate with thick slices of cinnamon toast, my usual midmorning winter combo in his welcoming resto/bar.
 
Espalion, Via Podiensis, May 2022

One of the premier crafts that France is known for is knife-making. I have been wanting to buy a souvenir knife, and for days my Camino companion Didier has been telling me “Wait until we get to Espalion!” Well, when we arrived in Espalion, we found we had overshot our gite by 8 kms!! 🚶‍♂️ and we had to return to Saint-Come-d’Olt! It all worked out though ... we called the gite to explain, and the owner came to fetch us. In the morning, his wife had to go to Espalion anyway, so she drove us there around 8:30 am. There was a store in Espalion that sold knives, and it would be opening at 9:00. Soon enough the store opened and I bought a knife as a souvenir of my Via Podiensis. It took me a while to choose it, but eventually I settled on the knife below, with a handle made of pistachio wood. The maker is Laguiole, and their knives are collectors’ items.

A short while later, as we were walking along, Didier’s scallop shell fell from where it had been tied to his backpack, because it had finally worn through the piece of twine that was holding it on. We sometimes see pieces of nylon cord along farm fencing, so I suggested that next time we see some, that I could cut a piece with my new knife. “NO WAY!” says Didier! “When you christen that knife the first thing it is going to cut is cheese!” 🧀 He was referring to a fondness for cheese that I have developed while on the Camino. It has become a running joke between us … or maybe I should have said a walking joke! 🤣


Laguiole.jpg
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.

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