A further post from Palas de Rei

These photos relate to the blog post below. That post cover the journey from Sarria to Portomarin in 31 May 2008 and from Portomarin to Palas de Rei on the following day. The order of the photo follows the (chronological) order of the blog's narrative.
387. Nicole (Switzerland) and a German peregrina from La Faba leaving Sarria bound for Portomarin 388. Somewhere on the section between Barbadelo and Ferrerios
389. In the same section, a typical rural Galician sight
390. A popular sign. Just 100K to Santiago!
391. A little further on
392. A small grotto on the way
393. The stones enable walkers to rise above the flow
394. A little further on
395. The Romanesque Iglesia Santa Maria de Ferrerios
396. Its cemetery in the distinctive Galician way with stacked, above ground, vaults
397. Galicia, green and moist
398. And rocky and shaded
399. And with constant devotional marks
400. The running of the bulls neat Moutras deserves to be better known. (Where is Hemingway?) I had a nanosecond in which to decide whether take this shot and run the risk of the automatic flash engaging and spooking these bulls with such long horns. Happily, it didn't.
401. Advice is always welcome, don't you think? (Yes, that is a women of mature years doing the digging. Reminded me more than a little of the division of labour at the Yenda Estate except that I'm not so generous even with advice.)
402. Approaching Portomarin
403. The bridge across the reservoir to the relocated Portomarin
404. Iglesia San Pedro whose Romanesque doorway (see #405) was relocated from the old church
405. That doorway in more detail
406. The C12 Romanesque church of San Nicolas at Portomarin which was reconstructed after the relocation of the city to higher ground to make way for the creation of the reservoir in 1962.
407. Iglesia de San Nicolas at Portomarin
408. Iglesia de San Nicolas at Portomarin
409. The interior of the beautiful church of St Nicolas
410. Recrossing the reservoir on the way out of Portomarin, around sunrise, bound for Palas de Rei
411. On the way to a cup of coffee for breakfast at Gonzar
412. A form of affection, homage and respect, leading to the beautiful cross (see photos following)
413. C17 cross by the roadside near Eirexe. Thomas (Heidelberg) is in the foreground.
414. One side of the cross
415. The crucifixion on the other side
416. Marvelling at the 200+ year old oak next to the cross: Celia and Franz (Holland) with Thomas in the centre
417. More of the same but with a minor change of personnel
418. A simple church by the way
419. Its adjacent cemetery in the Galicia way with plots stacked above the ground. In some cemeteries they stand 3 or 4 high.
420. Antiquity and rebirth as constant companions
421. The parish church at Palas de Rei
422. Dinner in Palas de Rei with Angela and her father, Michael, both from Koln. He had rejoined Angela only that day to complete the Camino.

As soon as I left the one bar with Internet access in Palas de Rei, I found another across the square. This one updates the story so far. Hope you find it interesting.

Saturday 31 May 2008, Sarria to Portomarin (23 km)

It was very pleasant walking through farmland--cattle and sheep grazing and crop cultivation. The wheat was as high as 5´ in parts but was only 15" or so just two weeks ago in the Meseta. (Michael and Helen would understand this difference--perhaps the seed was just planted at different times.) There are no vineyards here--it´s just too wet (Galicia is Spanish for "even more rain" although to be fair we have had two days free of rain, today and yesterday, the first in almost two weeks.) There is the smell of animals in all built areas. Cattle share the roads with pilgrims--I can´t wait to load a photo of the running of the bulls yesterday near Mourtos; Pamplona eat your heart out. If my flash had been activated ...

The city of Portomarin has been moved to higher ground--the old city is under the reservoir. The beautiful C12 Romanesque church of San Nicolas has been reconstructed stone by stone. (It´s priest is unreconstructed, quite Romanesque in his own way--see my last post re Misa last night.) The Romanesque door of the old Iglesia San Pedro (only) has also been retained. Wait for the slide nights--one for churches, another for dinners, another for running bulls etc.

Sunday 1 June 2008, Portomarin to Palas de Rei (26 kms)

It was pleasant, if unspectacular, walking today across similar terrain to yesterday. Highlights? Probably the two sided cross by the roadside, with Christ crucified on one side and cradled by Mary on the other. I need to read in Gitlitz and Davidson (awaiting me in the Correos in SdC) about its provenance etc. It was next to a wide oak tree that a knowledgeable Dutch pilgrim, Franz, thought would be 200 + years old. These oak trees would (will?) delight my brother Tom (whom I am missing). Again, wait for the photos which I´ll upload when I return home [see above]. There is no facility to do so here.

Today´s walk was made the richer for being shared all day with Thomas, a medical doctor from Heidelberg who was a delightful and knowledgeable companion. He was converted from Catholicism to Protestanism by, among other influences, the music of J S Bach. I can understand that. We agreed that we both missed Bach a great deal on the Camino. Not newspapers, news, TV, email, but Bach. (I´m also going to miss a concert of Anna Jacobs´s music in Sydney on 9 June, I think. Anna and JSB. Both much missed.)

Albergues in Galicia and food

I should say something about the albergues in Galicia. The xunta (government) of Galicia runs albergues in each major and many minor towns. The charge is 3 Euros ($AU 5). They are crowded but good. There are also private albergues charging about double that which tend to provide little extra things like toilet paper and sometimes soap in the soap dispenser. Six Euros is about the average price I paid for albergues before Galicia. The menu del dia is about 8 Euros here in Galicia (about 11-12 E elsewhere). The food is generally good although the meal in Sarria challenged but did not defeat my system. The communalism of the albergue is very attractive, to me at least, but not to all, I suspect. I shared a bed (bunks pushed together) with 76 year old Maurice last night, one of my Camino heroes for his determination. Wish he had some English (and that I had not stopped French at 14 years of age).

Santiago is not far away. Today we saw in the distance the hills behind SdC, from a place called Monte Rosario since at this sight medieval pilgrims would fall to their knees spontaneously and say the Rosary. I´m afraid to say that Thomas and I kept walking but heartened by the prospect of being there soon. 69 kms away.

Thanks for your companionship on the journey.

Fondly, Paul

De Palas de Rei

These photos relate to the blog post below. That post covers the journey from Triacastela to Sarria via Samos, on 30 May 2008.
369. Dinner at Triacastela, with Terry, Marjolein and Manon370. Entering San Cristobo, a traditional, small village
371. The mill at San Cristobo
372. Companions on the green way
373. Mary is powering on towards Samos
374. The Benedictine monastery at Samos
375. Our guide at the monastery and some of his appreciative audience. Not all were travelling to Santiago on foot.
376. The tranquil monastery courtyard
377. Another perspective
378. A view of the courtyard from above
379. A corridor mural in the monastery
380. More detail with our wonderful guide
381. The path from Samos towards Sarria
382. An iglesia on the way in a remote valley
383. The interior of my private albergue at Sarria. It was very pleasant, unusually comfortable and uncrowded.
384. The mural on the wall leading to the Iglesia de Santa Marina. In the central image, a young strong, tall pilgrim is supporting an older one. I do not know the significance of the image on the right, whether the child is in the nature of a protective angel or, more likely, protected by the pilgrim.
385. The church itself
386. One of the pilgrims' heros, Maurice from Chambery, France who told us proudly that he was 76

This blog post is sent from Palas de Rei, some 69 kms from Santiago! The reference to the Palas is historical (or perhaps aspirational--it´s now a minor administrative centre!).

It´s some three days since my last post. Here are some updating notes. At last I have a proper keyboard.

Thursday night in Triacastela, 29 May 2008

This night was memorable for a lovely dinner with Terry, a retired school counsellor from a Christian Brothers school in Dublin who is continuing the Camino after his wife was sadly forced to "retire hurt", and two very engaging Dutch women documentary and program makers, Manon and Marjolein, from Amsterdam.

We joined up after the Pilgrims Blessing to which we went in pouring rain. That is perhaps worth recounting. The priest welcomed us with a printed sheet in our own language, albeit with a rather didactic tone, on the true meaning of the Camino. He then said Misa with frequent liturgical digressions entirely in Spanish at a pace that few non-native Spanish speakers could follow. Native Spaniards made up less than 10% of the congregation. He was given to exhorting us (berating is a better term) to respond more loudly in Spanish. At least he gave us Gospel texts to read in four languages (I did the English version, from Luke, on the journey to Emmaus which had a Camino message perhaps of seeing Christ in fellow pilgrims) and we did a Pilgrims Blessing in six languages. He spoke only in Spanish and assumed our facility with it.

He was a lot better than the priest who said Misa last night in Portomarin. Misa was scheduled for 8.30 pm, a little late for pilgrims. The Rosary finished at 8.45 and we moved into the Misa. The priest faced the people but otherwise it was pre-Vatican 1. There was no lay participation at all beyond a single elderly crone acolyte whose role was much less than that of a 1950s Australian altar boy. Pilgrims made up half of the congregation (and greatly lowered its average age despite the fact that it was not the younger pilgrims attending Misa) but there was no reference to them, and no blessing. We came out shaking our heads with bemusement. (Young Spaniards do not clog up the churches, unsurprisingly.)

Friday 30 May 2008, Triacastela to Sarria via Samos

There are two routes to Sarria from Triacastela. The one via San Xil is 6.5 kms shorter and the traditional pilgrim route. Despite these considerable attractions, I went via Samos to see the Benedictine Monastery there. The monastery was originally founded in the C6 although it has been extensively rebuilt over the centuries. From the C11 it was a pilgrim hospice and in the C12 it was given to the care of the Benedictines of Cluny. We had a guided tour from an elderly, tiny, lovable monk who spoke with such passion and affection for the monastery, its history, art, cloisters etc, entirely in quick Spanish. But it did not matter at all since we got his drift and his heart was pure and his ego invisible. The monastery was just splendid and memorable.

I walked to Samos with Mary, an interesting US woman of Korean background, recently retired from a senior executive position based in Asia. Her blisters forced her to be hospitalised in Burgos and resulted in a continuing bone infection from which she suffers. She had to have her boot cut off in hospital, poor thing. She has a large spirit in a tiny frame. And was a great source of chocolate. (We generally walk for 2 hours or so before taking food or coffee and so chocolate is always a welcome gift. (I try not to start the day with it from my own supply but save it for the last few hard kilometers of the day.)). Mary was planning to stay overnight at the albergue attached to the monastery and attend Vespers etc.

After Samos, there was a beautiful walk via the Rio Ouribo which we had followed from Triacastela, through numerous river valleys, up green hills etc. It was a hot sunny day, the first for some time and I got burned before twigging to the need for sun cream. The trip was also much longer than the guidebook indicated but worth it.

Since crossing into Galicia, on Thursday morning at about 8 am, just before O´Cebreiro, there has been a stone post every 500 m stating the name of the town or village and the distance from Santiago. These have become welcome friends, marking distance travelled and the identifying the tiny village we are passing, usually imperceptibly.

Crossing into Galicia I thought I smelt the poverty almost immediately. Perhaps it was just the ubiquitous cow shit, in solid and liquid form, that we pass over and through or the heavy moisture that holds the odour. But there seems to be less comfort and affluence than in the other, sunnier, autonomous regions that we have passed through before Galicia. Terry thinks it reminds him of rural Ireland in the 1960s before European money modernised it and greatly increased rural incomes. Like Navarra, Galicia has its own language, Gallego. English does not take you far here.

I thought that Sarria would be crowded since it is the city closest to SdC from which you may commence the Camino and still qualify for the compostella of completion. (You only, but must, need complete the last 100 kms to SdC-the rest of the Camino doesn´t count at all!). It wasn´t busy in the evening and my albergue was empty. However, there were more Spaniards on the Camino on the next morning, Saturday. But that is another day and another post since I´m running out of time and there are other claimants for this single machine. Internet access is not a priority here in Galicia.

More as soon as I can get access.