Month: May 2023

We see a lot of churches. Almost all of them have a cemetery. Up to now the cemeteries have been separate and enclosed with a wall. You can easily identify them because there are crosses all along the wall.

But in the last few days we have started seeing churches where the cemetery is around the church and not separated from it. In fact, all the churches have changed to this. I guess it is some regional thing.

In addition, before the cemeteries were made up of arrays of small boxes, presumably cremated remains. Now we are seeing more full graves and some monuments.

Galicia is very pretty. We don’t know why it’s not more well-known. Here are a few photos from day before yesterday on the camino.

Starting with our first Camino in 2013 I have noticed how many eucalyptus trees there are, especially in Galicia. I have fond memories of eucalyptus trees from growing up in Los Angeles. But the people here consider them an invasive species.

But this trip we learned more about this. Eucalyptus is a cash crop in Spain. It is used to make paper. The people don’t like them but do like the money they bring in. An old story.

The photo below shows this clearly. The eucalyptus is in the foreground and another crop in the background. it is like wheat or soybeans.

The crop cycle is longer for eucalyptus. In this photo you see a young crop in the foreground and more mature trees in the background.

We started seeing these on most of the houses. My best guess is that the water pressure is low and they use these towers to increase it. Any other guesses?

Since we left the sea we have seen dozens of carefully trimmed hedges. We wondered why people spent so much effort to get them perfectly squared off. In the last week we have started to see a lot of topiary, even more work than hedges. Here are some examples.

Visions of the things to be (M.A.S.H. theme).

We stayed in a hotel about a mile off the Camino last night and so in the morning we walked back to the Camino. The forecast was for fog but we did not see any … until we were just getting back to the Camino. Then we saw this.