The Milky Way

It is 5am and I am awake early again. I dress quietly on my top bunk then creep as silently as I can through two rooms of sleeping walkers to sit in the dining room to write. It is locked. So I am now sitting outside in the little courtyard of the albergue in the still-dark, coolness of the morning beneath a sky emblazoned with stars.

Above me is the Milky Way. This carpet of stars is also associated with the Camino. It was said in medieval times that the Milky Way was the dust thrown up by travelling pilgrims, a story no doubt rooted in another Camino legend about Charlemagne, King of the Francs, who helped drive the Moors out of Spain. That legend says that St James came to Charlemagne in a dream, asking that he liberate his tomb from Moorish control and that Charlemagne's path to the west would be guided by the Milky Way. These links have been captured in the modern Spanish language, the popular name here for the Milky Way being 'El Camino De Santiago'.