Day 7 : the magic shell

Day 7 : the magic shell, originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

The scallop, or St.James' shell, is the symbol of the Saint and the pilgrimage. For over a thousand years pilgrims carried a shell, the symbol of St James, since it was said that an early pilgrim who fled to the sea to escape vagabonds returned to land covered in shells…



A relatively short day of just 50 km but nevertheless with a 236 m total ascent despite the fact that we are cruising along the beaches. The temperature is rising but the sky is still heavily clouded.



The long and winding bike trail continues along the coastline behind the dunes protecting us from the strong winds. Unfortunately, these high dunes cannot protect us from rain - oh yeah, rain again for about one third of the ride, but since it is not such a stressful distance and the weather got warmer, we can stand the rain - or did we learn to accept this inevitable part of life?



Again, and at the risk of getting boring, wherever we park our tandem or stop to buy drinks, have a coffee or simply look at the map, people come to admire our two-wheeler - and when they see the GPS they go ballistic :-)



But as soon as people spot the shell in front of our bycicle or when they hear what our end destination is, many people take a step back and look at us if we're half saints , but I reassure them that we're rather half crazy :-)

Several people even asked us to say a prayer upon our arrival at Santiago de Compostela - it starts to look like we'll need a full day at the St. James cathedral to fulfill all those prayer wishes :-)