Which way does the scallop say?

The scallop shell is the direction marker on all caminos, and on the Primitivo you can count on finding one -- as a roadside marker or inset in a wall every time (almost) a decision needs to be made. No one really knows how the scallop shell got this role. It has always been associated with St. James. But it's usefulness as a direction marker is mildly complicated by the fact that in Asturias province, where I've been walking until midday today, you're supposed to follow the flat or hinge side, but in Gallicia it's just the opposite. You follow the longest ray. Thoughtfully, though, graffiti artists have added yellow arrows or squiggly infinity loop arrows ("keep on walking. . .") to clarify.

Rainy rest day

The Church of San Salvador in Grandas de Salime traces to 1186, although today it has very little if any of the original. It looks a little sad in the rain. But it's indisputably the most impressive thing in town. There are, however, 5 bars (beer, coffee and maybe sandwiches), 2 restaurants depending how flexible you are (one is quite good), my La Barra Hotel, an alburgue (hostel) for pilgrims who have to or think it's a necessary part of the Camino experience to sleep in a bunk bed dormitory with two dozen other people (one of whom inevitably snores, I'm told, and at least one other who hasn't washed since the start). As well as a grocery store, hardware store, electronics store, and so forth. So Grandas is a vast improvement over the four building hamlet where I had a bottle of water at noon yesterday and was supposed to spend the night. I couldn't figure out what I'd do all afternoon, let alone eat for dinner. So pushing on an extra stage seemed an obvious solution. Especially since it was forecast to drizzle all day today, which it has. It seemed too much trouble to reschedule all of my remaining hotels, so a rest day seemed the solution. I'm happy to be dry, but restless. Walking can become addictive.

Best water slide ever?

Not designed as such. These are the sluice ways for a large dam, several hundred feet tall. I thought that it would work as a slide if you relaxed and kept your whole body leaning back against the sluice. My pilgrim companion shuddered and thought you would surely pitch forward and tumble down. We were both a bit giddy at that point. We had just walked down 700 meters vertically to get to the narrow roadway along the top of the dam. On the other side, we had 6 kilometers of stiff uphill walking to get to Grandas de Salime, our destination for the night. The second picture shows the view from about a kilometer along the way. You can see the dam we walked across at the end of the reservoir.