Day 21 to Lugo

24 September 2023 Day 21 destination Lugo 14 km (another big yay recovery day!)

At the end of today in Lugo, we hit the 100 km to go mile stone. It will be difficult to evenly spaced 100 km over five day. because of spacing of towns, with facilities at the tail end of the Camino Primitivo. However there will be one long stage which means the rest will be manageable (under 20km / day) for what my body is telling me it is willing to do for me.

Lugo, in the heart of Spain’s green Galicia, may be a rather small city with just about 100,000 inhabitants. Still, it’s the world’s only city entirely ringed by an intact Roman wall—a UNESCO World Heritage Site. If that alone isn't enough to inspire a visit, there are plenty more things to do and see like the cathedral; lovely parks with Galicia’s national flower, the camellia: bridges; tempting food; or a boat trip along the Minho.

To give you an idea about the size of this enormous 3rd century wall here are some figures: It's a complete circuit of nearly 7,000 feet, which consists of 85 external towers, walls upwards of 30 feet, 10 gates, four staircases, and two ramparts.

Legend has it that the Romans built the wall not to protect the city but a sacred forest, Lucus Augusti, from which the name Lugo derives.

Like Santiago , Lugo itself has been a pilgrimage destination during the Middle Ages.

They’re often alternate side routes that I had a half a kilometer or more. They are referred to as ruta “complementario”.

This one I took right out of the gate, it added 0.5km - This bypass road increased the length of the stage by half a kilometre, but allows walking past the ancient Chuch of the St Saviour. Originally built in pre-Romanesque style, it was later restored in Baroque times. The window in the apse with its stone mullions is noteworthy, although the temple as a whole is worth the visit. Unfortunately its days could be numbered, being a solitary and abandoned milestone in the Way. Notice the date on the door lintel

ANNO 1619

What messages were delivered here over the centuries, who attended, and who got saved? Only to become today in Camino diversion and relic

Tree specie= Castanea sativa this one appx 350 years old. Castanea sativa, the sweet chestnut, Spanish chestnut or just chestnut,

Beautiful new farmstead under development, newly landscaped, plowed, with a man-made lake in the middle, giving off the mist. Somebody’s giving it a go - looks like a new dairy farm in the middle of nowhere

Level walking short day. I’m still pooped.

I came across a roadside oasis somebody trying to make a few euros, offering watermelon and waters and met a nice young lady from Wisconsin. She started walking from Irun like me and our paths crossed though she started walking one week before I started biking and said that her first week or so it was very wet and that is when she slipped and twisted her ankle badly. She said it was almost a showstopper but she’s doing better now -three weeks later - she’s averaging 30 km a day which is quite amazing but has slow down but healing over ankle no doubt. Ultreia Spirit for sure to walk all that way in pain

EVERY rural homestead in Spain grows kale for use in homemade Galecian soup. It grows all season long and by the time we get to September the stocks are often 3 m tall.! I’ve got the recipe posted somewhere in my last Camino blog.

Here’s today’s after church family outing -pulling the potatoes. The tractor lifts them out of the soil shakes off the dirt they plop onto the ground and the rest of the family gather them up by the hundreds. Probably my highlight of the day.

I am still astounded by the tens of thousands of kilometers of fence borders - materials pulled from clearing the fields over the eons. How many people does it take to lift each stone into position since these were all built before the advent of the internal combustion engine. Precision and care was employed always with attention to plumb lines.

Finally, I arrive at the walled city. It was an easy walking day. I’m exhausted it was only 17 km.
*Again, the Roman walls stretch 2,120 metres (6,960 ft) around the Old Town. The fortifications, were built in the third century AD to defend the ancient Roman town of Lucus Augusti.*
The width of the walls is around 4.2 metres (14 ft) and their height varies between 8 metres (26 ft) and 12 metres (39 ft). The walls consist of internal and external stone facing with a core of earth mixed with gravel, pebbles and worked Roman stone recycled from demolished buildings, cemented with water.
*During the Middle Ages pilgrims passed through the gates of the Lugo walls, particularly Porta Miña, on their way to Santiago*

Lugo Cathedral (Catedral de Lugo), also known as Saint. Mary’s Cathedral, is the famous Roman Catholic church and basilica in Lugo, Galicia.. The cathedral reflects, through its eclectic architectural style, the changing periods of Spanish history. Groundbreaking 1129 Completed 1273

John 1:1-3 and Gen 1:2. All three persons of the trinity present at the creation in the center of the ceiling painting.

Man of Sorrows, a biblical term, is paramount among the prefigurations of the Messiah identified by the Bible in the passages of Isaiah 53 and is a recurring theme throughout the cathedral (I still don’t track with all the naked baby angels all over the place- don’t they ever grow up?)