Pam's Camino de Santiago: Day 5: Palas de Rei to Boente

Palas de Rei, or pallatium regis, was given this name when the Visigoth Kijng Witiza, who reigned here during the early 8th century, built a palace here. Again like many other towns and villages I have passed through, Palas de Rei prospered during the height of the Camino de Santiago during the Middle Ages and there are supposed to be a number of Pazos and noble houses dotted around to show the affluence of the area. I didn't really look for them, but contented myself with taking a few photos along the pilgrim route the day before I left, because it would be too dark when I left early in the morning.


view from the church	n


merchandise geared to the pilgrim

the path out of the city

here is the symbol for St. James the Moorslayer, another legend associated with the Apostle

Finally, before leaving the city there is a modern Santiago Peregrino statue.

the pilgrim statue

I started out very early this morning, and because the sun isn't really up before 8:30 a.m., I was glad of my cheap Duracel headlamp, even if it didn't give off as much light as I would have liked. I had checked out the initial portion of the trail out of the city the day before, but it soon became very wooded and stony, and quite treacherous. Although I had stopped for breakfast, it was still dark an hour later when I reached San Xulian (named for that same St. Julian cited earlier in the Flaubert version of the story mentioned in my Paris interlude.) Like I said, he is the patron saint of travelers, and hunters.

like the horreos, this is for corn storage--high up to keep rodents out

if the marker leaving Sarria was 111km, this is the half-way point

I wasn't the first to notice this...

It was time to reflect on the Camino, and hhere someone quotes T.S. Eliot's Little Gidding(?)

Furelos, just before the large, now modern, town of Melide, is quite picturesque and appears as if from a bygone era.

I've attemped to attach a film clip here:

I haven't said much about food thus far. I've been eating what is considered simple pilgrim fare--local food, but nothing fancy. Melide is known for its octupus.