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Pilgrim’s progress
 Ireland’s
pilgrimages include climbing Croagh Patrick on Reek Sunday in your bare
feet, fasting for three days on St. Patrick’s Purgatory or walking
up Slemish Mountain in Antrim on Good Friday.
Should you be more of a pagan sort you may even have stayed up all night
to watch the summer solstice bathe the Hill of Tara in its dawn light.
Spiritually uplifting as all these peregrinations are, none are quite
in the same class as trudging from France to northern Spain in the furnace
heat of a Southern European summer.
Which is why if you want to walk the Camino de Santiago de Compostela,
from now until November is the ideal time to do it.
St. James’s Way as it’s known in English is the world’s
earliest venture into mass tourism — Santiago, the guiding star
of international travel.
Ever since the body of St. James was said to have been buried on the site
of the cathedral in Santiago, millions of pilgrims have walked this ancient
route, including both Francis of Assisi and Pope John Paul II.
For 1,000 years travellers have laboured along the Camino for religious
reasons, some as a penance, some looking for intercession in a personal
crisis and some to bring their villages back home luck.
Annually, over 100,000 pilgrims on foot, bicycle, donkey, or horseback
still complete the required length of the route to claim their certificate
called a ‘compostellana’.
This is based on a pilgrim passport called a ‘credencial’,
filled with stamps from the towns they pass along the route.
The credencial proves they have followed the itinerary formally recognised
by the Pilgrim Association of St. James.
It is unknown how many other travellers traverse the route per year without
using a pilgrim’s passport but it is thought to exceed 250,000.
In days of yore many pilgrims would complete the entire journey on their
knees; today some ‘penitentes’ walk the route in their bare
feet.
The art critic Brian Sewell once did the whole of the pilgrimage in a
Mercedes.
The Spanish section of the Camino de Santiago starts in the Pyrenees and
finishes in Santiago, a distance of approximately 700km.
To be awarded the Compostellana you need only to have walked the last
100km.
To walk the entire route you should allow between four and five weeks
(averaging 25km a day), following the way-marked roads and paths.
Many people return year after year, steadily filling up their credencial.
This part of the route, which is marked with the symbol of a conch shell
(used by the early pilgrims to scoop water out of streams) traditionally
starts in St. Jean Pied de Port and finishes in Santiago 780km later —
after travelling the breadth of northern Spain.
You should acquire your Pilgrim’s Passport or credencial before
setting off.
As well as proof of your pilgrim’s progress the credencial also
gives access to the many refugios, or basic hostels, along the route.
You can obtain this from the Confraternity of Saint James (020 7403 4500;
www.csj.org.uk).
Their website has useful information on the pilgrimage and its history.
Allow plenty of time when applying for a credencial.
Several tour operators arrange organised walking tours along the route.
Walks Worldwide (01524 242000; www.walksworldwide.com) offers an eight-day
itinerary from £595 per person with baggage transfers, accommodation
and most meals included, although you have to arrange your own flights.
The journey starts in Léon, northern Spain, with a visit to the
cathedral before taking a train to Sarria to start the long trek to Santiago.
Also try Martin Randall Travel (020 8742 3355, www.martinrandall.com);
Waymark Holidays (01753 516477, www.waymarkholidays.com); Sherpa Expeditions
(020 8577 2717, www.sherpaexpeditions.com).
If you only have a week to spare, fly to Santiago, take a bus to the town
of Sarria and then re-trace your journey, stopping for the night at small
towns along the way.
You don’t have to stay in the refugios — most of the towns
and villages en route have small hotels and B&Bs. But don’t
forget to get your credencial stamped at the refugio!
The Galician landscape which the Camino de Santiago passes through is
utterly unlike the rest of Spain.
However it has more than a passing resemblance to Ireland.
Narrow paths wind between dry stone walls and fuchsia spills out over
the laneways.
Forests of oak and ash are interspersed with gorse and despite clear blue
skies, there’s not a hint of Mediterranean sultriness.
There are even ancient, Celtic hut-like structures used for storing corn.
Known as ‘green Spain’, Galicia is part of that Celtic strip
of Europe which shelters in the rocky edges of the Atlantic coast.
Like Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany it has its own language, culture
and traditions and the Church is central to the life of the devout.
It should also be mentioned that, unlike most parts of Spain, it does
rain quite a lot here.
Galicia is known in Spanish as ‘el urinario de Espana’ (you
can probably do your own translation) and when checking in to my hotel
in the city I was presented with an umbrella.
Back on the Camino and other pilgrims will tell you that the first hour
and the last hour of each day are the hardest and it’s probably
true.
But just remember it’s a proven medical fact that prolonged walking
quietens down the left side of the brain — the admin department
— freeing you up to relax and think.
Eventually you’ll reach the city of Santiago in the province of
Galicia, one of the chief shrines of Christendom, in medieval times third
in importance only after Jerusalem and Rome.
It is said that after his execution in Jerusalem, James’ body was
bought to Galicia in a mysteriously unmanned boat, on a voyage that took
only seven days.
According to legend, his remains were discovered here by a hermit who
was guided to the place by a vision in the stars.
St. James was subsequently adopted as the champion of Christian Spain
against the Muslim invaders.
In the 9th century a cathedral was built round his shrine and the city
developed round it.
Today Santiago has been declared a national monument, its charm increased
by being almost completely pedestrianised.
Even the main street, Avenida Alameda Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins
(named after an Irishman), is an attractive promenade along the riverside.
Naturally, the city’s most remarkable building is the cathedral,
which replaced the earlier sanctuary after its destruction in the 10th
century by the Moors.
Built between the 11th and 13th century in Romanesque style, the cathedral
is an enormous pyramid of granite, flanked by immense bell towers and
statues of St. James.
The highlight of the building is the Portico de Gloria, the original west
front now standing inside the cathedral.
One glimpse of this work of art makes all the hiking along the Camino
worthwhile.
Nor is it all religion in Santiago: Contemporary art galleries show that
cultural flair still thrives, while an array of cafes, tapas bars and
restaurants show that the people of northern Spain are just as interested
in ‘la vida buena’, the good life, as their neighbours in
the languid south.
As far as holidays are concerned this trek through northern Spain might
just have it all: Exercise, breathtaking scenery, world renowned wine,
great food, religion and art.
The final stages of the old road offer a glimpse of a vanished medieval
way of life as you ramble past ancient hamlets and ruined castles.
The final two-mile descent from Monte do Gozo, where you first spot the
three spires of Santiago’s cathedral — plus the promise of
a Galician seafood dinner — soon makes you forget your blisters
and say a private prayer of gratitude.
And I don’t just mean: “Lord, save our soles.” |
