 |
CAMINO DE SANTIAGO (WAY OF ST. JAMES)
Starting mid-September 2005, I joined friend Joan in a plan to walk the 780 kilometer Camino Frances (French route) in Spain. This route begins in St. Jean Pied de Port in France, and travels through the Pyrenees and across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela.
Santiago de Compostela has a long history. In the middle ages it was one of 3 main cities of Christendom – and a main center of pilgrimage. In legend, the grave of St. James the Greater is believed to be in Santiago. People came from all over Europe and thus there exists to this day, several routes to Santiago. One of these, Camino Frances or ‘French Route’, seems most important historically and in modern times. The number of pilgrims waned over time but is now definitely on the rise especially since the Camino has been listed in the European Union’s cultural itinerary and a UNESCO world site. Travelers today (pilgrims or ‘peregrinos’) are walking this route for many different reasons – because of the history, art, architecture, for spiritual reasons (Christian or mystical), for personal challenges or other personal reasons, or simply as a form of tourism and vacation. Paces vary, and as well, many are walking the route in stages over a period of years. Cycling is also popular.
We allowed 6 weeks for our walk. Our goal was to average 20 kms a day and with this pace we were allowing extra time for stopovers in towns such as Pamplona, Burgos, Santa Domingo de la Calzada, Leon, Santiago or whatever other attracted at the time. For example we took extra days to travel to visit the Benedictine monastery at Silos (an overnight side-trip). The Camino route is well marked with symbols, mainly yellow arrows and the scallop shell (a Camino symbol), and we found that the locals were happy to direct us. We had no problem with staying with the route. Carrying all in our backpacks (unsuccessfully not kept under 20 lbs!), we stayed mainly in the ‘albergues’ the pilgrims’ hostels. There is an infrastructure of these hostels along the route. They are managed by municipalities and churches and camino supporters from different countries. More recently, many newer private albergues are appearing. The low cost of the hostels (3 to 10 Euros) makes it possible to spend 6 weeks economically.
Walking the route has much to offer …you may see and experience people, places and things as in no other type of tour. We made many ‘Camino friends’, enjoyed the varied landscapes and were exposed to the cultural and architectural differences as we traveled through the northern regions of Spain…Navarra, La Rioja, Burgos, Leon, Galicia etc
It was a wonderful trip!
Jan Mohr
There are many, many books and websites available as resources.
A few websites:
Confraternity of St James (UK): http://www.csj.org.uk/
Little Company of Pilgrims (Canada): http://www.santiago.ca/
Spain: http://www.xacobeo.es
