Saint Julian

Our first stop of the day was a town called San Xulian (Saint Julian).

We looked it up and the story of how he became a saint is pretty uncool.

One day, while he was out hunting, his parents came to visit. His wife, being a good daughter-in-law, suggested they stay in the main bedroom.

He came home, went into the bedroom and assumed his wife was in there having sex with another man. So, naturally, he took out his sword and killed them both.

When he realised his mistake, he made an oath to dedicate his life to looking after pilgrims. After his death, he was made a saint for his work.

We’re pretty sure we aren’t the only ones finding the lack of any jail term a bit troubling.

Extra bonus fact: he’s the patron saint of boatmen, innkeepers and circus entertainers. Roz says that last one only makes her hate him more.

Paralympic champion stamps

Just outside Melide, there’s a guy who’ll give you a wax stamp for your pilgrim passport in exchange for a small donation.

But he’s no ordinary man. He’s done the Camino several times and we think he’s a paralympic athlete.

Here’s his website, http://ionutpreda.com for more information.

Gecko houses

We’ve seen a couple of these small houses made of straw.

Small straw house still being woven

Small straw house in the middle of town

We’re not sure what they’re for. Maybe storing crops. We saw a small gecko in one of them so we’ve decided they’re gecko houses until anyone tells us something different.

‘Beware of the dog’ signs

We’ve seen some excellent ‘beware of the dog’ signs on a few of our walks. Tom particularly likes the tile showing a man being savaged by a rottweiler.

Ceramic tile with a picture of a man being attacked by a rottweiler outside a pleasant cottage

Black and white sign showing a man being bitten on the bottom by a small dog

Melide

Melide is famous for its many pulpo (octopus) restaurants.

We didn’t have any while we were there but we did pretend to be an octopus pilgrim in the local museum.

Tom with his head through a cardboard cutout that makes it look like he's an octopus pilgrim eating pulpo

Roz with her head through a cardboard cutout that makes it look like she's an octopus pilgrim eating pulpo

We were disproportionately entertained by the whole thing.

2 days to Santiago…