Thursday, July 25, 2019 The Feast Day Of St. James San Sebastián to Orio

Today is the feast day of St. James. St. James is the patron saint of Spain.

Legend has it that at the battle of Clavijo the Spaniards were fighting the Moors for control of northern Spain. The Moors were beating the stuffing out of the Spaniards. At the very moment when the Spaniards were getting ready to turn tail and run for the Pyrenees, St. James appeared on a white horse and absolutely kicked the crap out of the Moorish hordes. Thereafter, he was known as St. James the Moorslayer. A lot of research has been done on this story and it now looks like the Battle of Calvijo never took place and St. James the Moorslayer is nothing more than a load of Spanish BS. In this touchy-feely era of political correctness the Spaniards are trying to downplay the whole St. James the Moorslayer thing and now refer to him as St. James the Apostle or St. James the Pilgrim. In spite of this move toward political correctness, there are still a lot of altar pieces on the side altars in the churches on the Camino that feature St. James the Moorslayer trampling a bunch of mangled and terrified Moors under the hooves of his white horse.

Today is a holiday and everyone is off work. “Holiday” and “a day off work” are relative constructs in Spain as it appears that very few people work, and those who do work don’t appear to work much.

I got up at 6:00 AM and was out of Pension Regil at 6:30. After a half mile walk along the beach I had to climb the obligatory never ending staircase to get out of town. This is a view of San Sebastián from the top of the first ridge west of town.

I walked another kilometer along the ridge and took this photo of a hazy sunrise. On the top of the hill in this picture is a castle tower and halfway down the hill is a lighthouse.

This is a water station about 5 kilometers west of San Sebastián.

An old man, Señor Perez, lived in a nearby village and would come out to the Camino every day and set out water for thirsty Pilgrims. He died a couple of years ago. Since his death, the people of the village have worked together to take care of the water station and have turned it into a memorial to honor Señor Perez and his years of service to Pilgrims on the Camino.

This is another water stop along the Way. I sure hope this is potable water.

A little rock art along the Camino.

A little tree art along the Camino.

I walked through some beautiful country today.

787 kilometers to Santiago! Hip hip hooray. 😃

There are a lot of vineyards in this part of the Basque Country. I have been told that they make a great white wine. In the Basque language this white wine is called something that sounds like chocolate. I have not yet tried it.

A roadside cross a few kilometers outside Orio. I stopped and said a prayer for Anna and everyone else on my prayer list.

This is the Alburgue de Peregrinos in Orio. I am staying here tonight.

This is the view from the backyard of the alburgue.

I dropped my bag off at the alburgue at 11:30 AM. They don’t open until 2:00 PM but they let me store my bag in the alburgue while I explored Orio.

As I was walking by the Church of Jesus the Nazarene in Orio, St. Christopher started screaming that we had to go into this church. I try not to argue with St. Christopher when it comes to churches. So I opened the door and quickly realized that a mass to celebrate the feast day of St. James had just commenced. St. Christopher insisted that we stay and attend the mass. I was so moved by the singing and the incense and the completely fortuitous opportunity to attend mass and celebrate the feast day of St. James on the Camino De Santiago that I had a good cry right there in the church. Another Camino Magic Moment.

After Mass was over St. Christopher lit a candle and led us in a very heartfelt prayer for Anna and everyone else on our prayer list.

This is the altar piece from the church.

Orio is on the sea so the church has a ship hanging from the ceiling.

After mass I decided to have a pintxo lunch on the plaza in Orio.

On the left side of the picture is a chorizo sausage sandwich and on the right side is a Serrano ham, asparagus and anchovy pintxo. What a great lunch. Much better than a ham and cheese bocadillo.

Today I walked 28,000 steps, about 21 kilometers. I am tired and I am looking forward to a good nights sleep.

At about 7:45 PM a big thunderstorm ⛈ came down the valley and hit the alburgue so hard the thunder shook my bunk bed.

The forecast is for rain the next three days. Rain and muddy trails will make for an interesting walk.

That’s it for today. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thursday

Good evening from Orio, Spain.