October 3, the morning after a late night…
We were out and about in the city of Santiago de Compostela, best-known for its pilgrimage known as El Camino.
There is a network of routes all over Europe that lead to the cathedral in Santiago. Scallop shells are the route markers for the El Camino pilgrimage and a few years earlier I had seen brass scallop shells embedded in the streets of Brussels.
Scallop shells for sale, the sign for El Camino. Almost all the pilgrims had them hanging off their backpacks.
The city of Santiago was filled with pilgrims, easily identified by their walking sticks, and by the scallop shells dangling from their backpacks. I saw this pilgrim in one of the square, struggling to take a selfie. He looked up and must have noticed me watching him for he came over and asked me if I could take in a photo of him front of the cathedral. I took a few with his phone and then one for myself.
He told me that he was from Granada in the south of Spain, and had walked that long distance by himself. What an achievement!
More of the Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Achievement
Albatz Travel Adventures 
That IS an achievement. When I saw the first photo, I thought for an instant that it was the tops of some funky hats! 🙂
janet
I might put a caption on the photo – I knew what they were because they were hanging off all the pilgrim’s backpacks, and obviously they had to buy them somewhere!
It just took me a second. It’s a cool photo, though.
To walk 700 miles, that’s a feat!
I know I couldn’t do that, especially by myself!
This is what we chose too as our achievement 🙂
It’s a major achievement…
That is very popular route for Finnish people too – me no, shorter walks are enough for me 🙂
Truly an inspiring achievement! The stories that come from these pilgrimages are amazing.
It’s hard to believe that many of them have walked hundreds of miles!