Advertisement
Published: February 23rd 2009
Camino de Santiago
1st - 25th June, 2008
What is the Fountain of Wine? More about that later! Buen Camino means Good Camino - pilgrims will often say it to other pilgrims, wishing you a good journey/good walk on the Camino de Santiago trail.
The Camino de Santiago, also known as the Way of St. James is a 783km pilgrimage route accross northern Spain. The route passes through the regions of Navarra, La Rioja, Castilla and Gailicia and finishes in Santiago de Compostela. Back in the 9th centuary a religious hermit followed a mysterious shining star which led him to the remains of the apostle James(known as Santiago in Spanish) the Greater.
Scallop shells are worn by pilgrims on the journey to Santiago de Compostela. St. James wore scallop shells on his hat and tunic and scallop shells are found on the shores in the Galicia region and remain a symbol of the Camino de Santiago. Hence, the scallop shell was once a sign of completion because if you has a shell then you must have made it to Santiago. Scallop shells mark the path to Santiago whether they are painted on a sign or rock or embedded
in the path or on a wall. The shell also once acted as a vessel for drinking and eating from.
There is also the legend that when Santiago's body reached the Galician coast on a stone boat, a groom on his horse was to be married on the beach. The horse got spooked and fell in to the sea when he caught sight of the stone boat. The groom and his horse were about to drown when Santiago righted them both and they emerged from the water covered in scallop shells.
Bern, Elizabeth and I spent a week on the Camino de Santiago and loved every minute of the simple life - walking, eating, more walking, more eating, meeting new people and playing cards. And then getting up the next day and doing it all over again!
London to Biarritz to St. Jean-Pied-de-Port
A full day of travelling today, flying from London to Biarritz on the coast of France. We then caught a bus to Bayonne and then a train to St. Jean-Pied-de-Port where we would start walking from the following morning. After registering for the walk and getting our pilgrim passports and scallop shell
to tie on to our bags, we were welcomed by a French woman in to her home with a number of other pilgrims for the night. She had lots of bunk beds and obviously accommodated many pilgrims on a regular basis.
St. Jean-Pied-de-Port to Roncesvalles - via Route Napoleon (27km)
We spent a good part of the day in the Pyrenees, walking over a pass at 1430m. There were lots of huge rafters soaring overhead as we made our way over rolling green hills with long haired sheep. There were lots of pilgrims on the trail, many more than we expected to see given that we hadn't quite hit the peak season.
In Roncesvalles there was a blessing of the pilgrims and then we enjoyed our first of several 'Pilgrims Dinner' - a 3 course meal with Spanish wine that always seemed to satisfy after a full day of walking.
We slept in an old church hall built of stone with 110 beds. It wasn't long before we understood why it had affectionately become known as 'The Snoring Hall!' There was a cocophany of snores throughout the night but at times there were some who
seemed to be snoring in harmony.
Roncesvalles to Trinidad de Arre (38km)
The lights of the snoring hall came on at 6am so ready or not it was time to get up! Lots of rain this morning and mud throughout the day. Lots of forrest walking which was a lot nicer than all the roadways yesterday. By 10am we were ready for lunch - found a little bar which sold baguettes with salami (no other filling) which tasted amazingly good! Just outside the village of Zubiri was a stone bridge also known as the 'Rabies Bridge' where legend has it that if animals crossed the bridge three times then they were thought to have Rabies. Although I say the Pilgrims Dinner was amazing, I am sure it was situational but every time we had it we truly enjoyed it! There was nothing fancy about it. The standard was pasta, chicken, chips, wine and a dessert which was often in a plastic tub!
Trinidad de Arre to Puente la Reina (28km)
Today we walked through Pamplona and crossed the road where they have the Running of the Bulls each year. We then had a gradual
climb up to the Alto de Perdon (760m.) Lots of green pastures and crops and lots of poppies. We followed a wind farm across the ridge top. In Puente la Reina there there is an amazing bridge - built across the river for the queen. We spent a good while in Puente la Reina eating chocolate coated biscuits and trying to decide whether to walk on another 8km. We originally set out to complete the whole walk in 3 weeks or as much as possible without having to catch a bus. We were close to target but really needed to walk about 35km each day to make our flight on the 23rd June. We were enjoying the sun too much and probably stopped for a bit too long to be able to keep going. We spread out our sarongs on the grass at the back of the Albergue (Hostel) and played cards until it was time for our 3 course pilgrim's dinner!
Puente la Reina to Los Arcos (45km)
Today we walked more than a marathon and walked along the best preserved stretch of Roman road on the Camino. There was loads of white asparagus crops along
the trail. But what we were visualising all morning was arriving in Irache where there is a Puente de Vino or Fountain of Wine. What I was picturing was a mass of red spray spouting up and then landing in a pool of red wine. I forgot that fountain in Spanish means tap and it is usually a water tap! Although my visualisation was way off track we weren't disappointed when we arrived in Irache at lunchtime and enjoyed bread and red wine from a tap for lunch. At the end of 45km, the plastic seat in the shower at the Albergue and the pilgrims meal was never appreciated so much!
Los Arcos to Logrono (28km)
After our marathon effort yesterday we all managed to pull up reasonably well. Well let's just say that we could all get out of bed and walk which was the main thing! Come lunchtime and we would have bought the supermarket out if we could have - we were starving. We were all starting to get a few niggles - Bern had a bit of tendonitis in her shin, Elizabeth had a bit of a sore knee and I just couldn't
tolerate wearing my boots anymore because I had some bruising around one ankle so I walked in my crocs for an hour or so. We enjoyed the afternoon sun in Logrono and had a picnic dinner by the river for a change and played more cards! No pilgrims dinner!
Logrono to Azofra (36km)
Everyday my feet seem to be taking a little longer before they got sore! I guess they were adjusting to all the k's we were clocking up each day. We discovered chocolate spread in a squeezy tube at the supermarket and enjoyed it immensely on fresh bread. Our other favourite meal was tortilla (Spanish type omlette with lots of potato) in fresh bread. Food is very important and high on our priority list in case that wasn't clear. Today we hit the Rioja region (Rupesh's favourite red wine). Vineyards aplenty and of course we were served Rioja wine with our pilgrims dinner tonight. I think Rupesh had some strange idea that I would be picking up bottles of Rioja on the walk and carrying them with me!
Azofra to Belorado (38km)
Lots of wheat fields today filled with wildflowers including
poppies. There was always a local or human signpost in town who would point us in the right direction as we sometimes lost the markers going through towns. We didn't even have to ask - they could see us, packs and scallop shells and knew we were pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago. It was another big day and we stopped at the first Albergue we got to! Unfortunately this is where the walk ended for us as Elizabeth was unwell and spent the next 2 weeks in a hospital in Burgos - 45km by road from Belorado. Our feet and legs were quietly thankful for the rest! But we will return one day to finish the Camino de Santiago.
Burgos
Bern and I amused ourselves for 2 weeks looking after Elizabeth and getting to know the full range of food available in all the local supermarkets. The kindness and support of the people of Burgos was amazing. Bern had quite a collection of phone numbers should we have needed any assistance including language translation! The funniest act of kindness was when the underwear Bern and I had hung out to dry on our balcony disappeared
one day. Bern sent me on a mission to find it, very worried that she wouldn't see it again. When I saw the owner of the guest house and gestured that I was looking for socks (not knowing the Spanish word for socks!) she appeared in a instant with our dry, folded underwear!
Santiago de Compostela
From Burgos we caught a train to Santiago de Compostela where we enjoyed some final Tapas in Spain. We spent the night here before our flight back to London the following morning.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.104s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0361s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb
