Prologue

Don and Mary-Theresa Madill had done the Camino Francés twice. In May-July 2013, we started in Roncesvalles because a snow and ice storm in the Pyrenees prevented us from getting to St. Jean Pied de Port. Since we had no reservations for lodging, we just stopped wherever we wanted and then looked for a place to stay—usually a hostal or pensión (bed and breakfast), but occasionally we had to stay in a hotel. Although we originally had built in enough days in our itinerary to go on to Finisterre, we had to break some 30 km days into more manageable chunks. So we had to take a taxi to Finisterre instead of walking. Sometime during the taxi trip, Don lost his digital camera with all his photos in it. So he jokingly said we would have to do it again so he could get photos.

In 2014, we began to talk seriously about doing another Camino. After considering other options, including the Camino del Norte and even the via Francigena to Rome, however, we finally decided to do the Camino Francés again in Aug-Oct 2014, starting in St. Jean Pied de Port and planning enough days to walk to Muxía at the end. Again, we made no reservations, except for the first night in St. Jean Pied de Port and the second in Roncesvalles, since there were no options for that part. By the time we got to Santiago, on schedule, MT was having so much pain in her neck from carrying the heavy backpack that she could not walk to Muxía. So she took a bus there, but Don walked the extra 3 days. Because we had flown to the French side of the Pyrenees on Air France, we had to take a bus from Muxía to Vigo and fly back from there. Don’s blog for the 2014 Camino can be found at http://madillcamino2014.blogspot.com.

After that second Camino, MT announced that, if we ever did another one, it would have to be with paying to have our backpacks transported from one stop to another. In order to do that, we would have to make reservations for where we would be staying. Rather than trying to arrange all that ourselves, we looked into companies that would do it for us. We finally decided to go with the Ireland-based Follow the Camino. Their proposed itinerary had several days of around 30 km (18 mi) or more, but we thought we could do that since we were only carrying daypacks (with necessities for the walk). They gave us the option, after Porto, of staying on the Caminho Central (Central Route) or doing 8 days on the Caminho da Costa (Coastal Route) and then linking up with the central route again at Redondela. MT liked the coastal option, but Don was concerned about missing important cities on the central route. Don did some research and found a compromise route that stayed on the coast for only 4 days and then followed the Minho River diagonally for 2 days to link up with the central route at Valença and then cross over the Minho (Miño in Spanish) into Spain. The Follow the Camino people said they had never had anyone do that before; they would find us a place to stay at a town at the midpoint of that detour but could provide no walking notes to give us directions on the route. Don found good maps online, which were easier to follow than most of their walking notes anyway.

Follow the Camino provided us with a scallop shell (symbolic of the Camino de Santiago) each (Don preferred to use the one from our 2 previous Caminos), 2 credencial books to get required stamps (carimbos in Portugal, sellos in Spain) along the way (they normally gave only 1 each, but we asked for 2 based on our previous Caminos), luggage tags for backpack transport, vouchers for lodging (usually with dinner and breakfast, but only breakfast in some larger cities) with maps of the immediate location, and walking notes. For the Central Route, they provided John Brierley, A Pilgrim’s Guide to Camino de Santiago (2016); we did not notice the date and instead took along the 2015 edition we had purchased earlier and had marked up. For the Coastal Route, whey provided their own walking notes, which were a very bad translation and only gave directions to turn after a certain number of kilometers, rather than telling us what town we were in or near at that point; we eventually gave up on using them and just followed the yellow arrows (often spray-painted on rocks, trees, walls, or pavement) and scallop shells on official markers, although that was also sometimes a challenge. The waymarking in Portugal was rather poor, and their scallop shell markers were just as likely to point the way with the point of the shell, as with the rays of the shell, which was standard in Spain.

 

The following posts are a day-by-day account of our Camino in 2016, based primarily on Don's notes and supplemented with MT's notes. When information from other sources is added—for further explanation to readers or to satisfy our own curiosity—that is set off in a text box (as with the following background on the history of the Camino de Santiago).

Camino de Santiago. Legend claims that the body of the Apostle James, who was martyred in Jerusalem in 44 AD, after he had supposedly traveled and evangelized in Spain, was secretly transported to this area by boat with his followers. One version says he was rescued by angels and transported in a rudderless boat to Spain, where his body was encased in stone. In 814, a Spanish peasant led to a field by a shower of stars—campus stella—accompanied by the sound of angels singing, discovered the tomb of St. James on a wooded hillside near Padrón (20 km south of Santiago, which we would pass through on the Caminho Portugués). Human bones were quickly discovered at the site, and immediately—perhaps somewhat conveniently—declared to be those of the apostle (the bones may actually have belonged to Priscillian, the leader of a 4^th-century Christian sect). Word of this important find quickly spread across a relic-hungry Europe. The discovery became a focus of unity for Christians who were then separated politically and spread across a narrow strip of northern Spain. It inspired Christian efforts to carry out the Reconquista (Reconquest) that would eventually force Muslims off the Iberian peninsula. Historians now dispute whether St. James ever visited Spain, but there is no doubt that the idea of the possession of the sacred remains of the saint aroused tremendous passion an pride, and emboldened the Christians. As their battle cry, the Christian soldiers shouted “¡Santiago y cierre España!” (“St. James and close Spain!”) to urge their brethren to defeat the Muslims. Christian fighters also gave their patron the name of Matamoros (Slayer of Moors). Historians have passed on numerous testimonies by Spanish champions who said they were spurred on by “visions of a white knight on horseback brandishing a fear-inspiring sword and wearing a vengeful grimace.” In particular, St. James is said to have appeared on a white horse to lead the Spanish Christians to victory over the Moors in the Battle of Clavijo in 844.

After the discovery of the tomb of St James between 812 and 814 AD, support from the Asturian king and his successors and later the offering—voto de Santiago—of the Spanish Monarchs created within an otherwise turbulent province a bustling town. Over the saint's tomb, King Alfonso II of Asturias ordered the erection of an earthen temple, later replaced by a stone church under the rule of Alfonso III. In 997, al-Mansur Abu Jafar (military commander of the Caliphate of Cordoba) destroyed the entire town except for the tomb. In 1075 work began on the present cathedral by order of King Alfonso VI of León and Castile.

The Camino Francés (French Way) was already completely developed by the 11th century, but this was not the first route to the pilgrimage site. In the 9th century, there were already pilgrims following the Camino del Norte and the Camino Primitivo from the northern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The explanation for this was that, at that time, nearly the entire peninsula had been conquered by the Muslim Moors. Therefore, it was not until the Iberian Christians in the high mountains of Asturias started to fight back and regain more and more southern territories that this route could be developed. However, as soon as this happened, it quickly replaced the Camino del Norte and Camino Primitivo as the most popular route. It was much easier to travel the Camino Frances due to the fact that most of it is relatively flat and the weather is not as rainy as in the more northern ways. In addition, the Christian kings and the Pope had a great interest in developing this route, so that its pilgrims would help to repopulate and reintroduce Christianity in those former Muslim territories.

By the middle of the 12th century, about 1 million pilgrims from all over Western Europe were arriving at Santiago each year. They even had the world’s first travel guide, the Codex Calixtinus (published in 1139) to help them on their way. The French priest Aymeric Picaud traveled the pilgrim road and recorded his experiences in detail in 5 volumes that became known as the Codex Calixtinus in honor of the incumbent Pope Calixtus II. He described in great detail the various facilities available to pilgrims, which by this time included pilgrim hospitals, churches, and cathedrals that had sprung up along the route. Book V outlined the route from St. Jean Pied de Port to Santiago.

The number of pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago increased dramatically after Pope Calixtus II conceded the Roman Catholic Church's greatest privileges to the See of Santiago de Compostela and designated as Holy Years those in which the feast day of St. James fell on a Sunday. Pilgrims who reached Santiago in those years obtained a plenary indulgence and absolution for one year. The shrine became the greatest place of Christian pilgrimage after Rome and Jerusalem and the city itself emerged as one of Europe’s most brilliant, attracting outstanding artists, scholars and silver- and goldsmiths.

After the 12th century, pilgrim numbers began to decline, due to the dangers of robbery along the route and a growing skepticism about the genuineness of St. James’ remains. It was only in 1993, when the Galician government launched the Xacobeo initiative, that the pilgrimage’s popularity experienced a massive resurgence.

Today, the Camino Francés accounts for 70% of pilgrimages to Santiago (down from 94% just 5 years ago), and the Caminho Portugués has now become the second most popular route (13% of the total), although it is still relatively uncrowded. Much of the route follows the original Roman military road that connected Portugal with Spain and on to France. It follows in the footsteps of ancient Pagan, Celtic, Roman, Islamic, and Christian travelers going back over a thousand years. There are several alternative routes that fall under the general heading of Caminho Portugués. It is an indication of the popularity of the cult of St. James in Portugal during the Middle Ages that so many routes were available at that time. After the Middle Ages, however, there was a noted decline in such pilgrimages due to the arrival of the industrial revolution in the 19th century and the apparition at Fátima in the early 20th century, which changed the focus of attention. The early 21st century has seen a remarkable re-emergence of the pilgrimage to Santiago. However, many of the yellow arrows pointing the way to Santiago are accompanied by blue arrows pointing the opposite way, to Fátima.

Santiago is still a bustling pilgrimage city; an estimated 11 million pilgrims now visit during a Holy Year. Normally, the next Holy Year (a year in which the Feast of St. James, July 25, falls on a Sunday) would have been in 2021, but 2016 is a special Holy Year because Pope Francis proclaimed it a Year of Mercy. Santiago is also a major university town as well as the region's administrative capital.

Most of the photos that accompany this blog are from Don’s cameras (see the post for August 18 for what happened to his original camera); those from MT’s iPhone are indicated by “MT” placed at the beginning of the photo caption.