Where do you usually carry the shell?

[Mónica_Cribe]

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

 

[Barbara]

I don't carry a shell. I do have a Camino badge in cloth. It's sewn to my bag.

 

[trecile]

Mine is on my backpack. I don't think I've ever seen anyone with their shell hanging on their neck.

 

[pelerine]

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!

 

[Bradypus]

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.

 

[Mónica_Cribe]

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!

 

[Camino Chrissy]

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.

 

[NorthernLight]

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.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

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.

 

[Anniesantiago]

Most tie them to their pack.
I never carry one anymore. I do have a small silver shell charm attached to my current pack.

 

[Marbe2]

I have a small metal shell attached to my fanny pack.

 

[David Tallan]

On the backpack. But for the true medieval pilgrim look you could attach one to your hat.

 

[SYates]

I always carry it on my backpack, the same shell, since 20 years now ;-)
BC SY

 

[henrythedog]

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.

 

[domigee]

I always carry it on my backpack, the same shell, since 20 years now ;-)
BC SY

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

 

[domigee]

I try to ensure that everything I carry has at least two uses,

Oh but it has! To have a sip of wine on that wine fountain

 

[SYates]

... Sadly, I lost it on my last flight back home ☹

No chance to recover it? Anything I can do to help?
BC SY

 

[pelerine]

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....

 

[Camineiro]

One small silver shell on a leather strap around my neck and one real scallop shell at my backpack which I once found at the long beach in Fisterra.

 

[AlwynWellington]

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.

 

[bmcbride]

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.

 

[MichelleElynHogan]

Something to consider: The smaller the shell, the more fragile. So, logically, smaller shells likely will, "survive," around the neck and larger ones on the pack.

 

[jsalt]

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

 

[222koala]

Simplicity...

 

[Joergen]

On my ankle

 

[domigee]

No chance to recover it? Anything I can do to help?
BC SY

Oh thank you SY but no, I lost it in the airport. I’ll get another one
PS: Tss, now I have to walk another Camino to get a new shell

 

[Canche]

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.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

If you start in SJPdP, they have oodles of them at the Pilgrim office for a small donation. Many people get theirs at that time when first starting out.

 

[Bob from L.A. !]

I try to ensure that everything I carry has at least two uses,

Amen........

 

[David Tallan]

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)

 

[Geodoc]

I picked up my shell in the Pilgrim's Office after completing my Camino, so I didn't really carry or wear one.

 

[Mónica_Cribe]

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.

 

[Mónica_Cribe]

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!

 

[Mónica_Cribe]

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.

 

[Mónica_Cribe]

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

 

[AlwynWellington]

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).



Kia kaha (take care, be strong, get going)

 

[JabbaPapa]

Neck -- always the same one, from the amazing Pablo Mesonero, since 1994.

 

[SusanWW]

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?

 

[henrythedog]

Have you seen the photos of people using their shells as cups at the Wine Fountain?

Have you tried the wine at the wine fountain?

 

[dbier]

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....

 

[SusanWW]

Have you tried the wine at the wine fountain?

Yes! Even though we were there at 8 am, the wine was excellent!

 

[Tincatinker]

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