Jimandi

Even though we thought we’d walked our last Camino in 2019, we’re now about to do it at least one more time!

We’re three years older and recovering from a “post 2 vaccinations+2 boosters” mild version of Covid-19. Like most victims of the “plague”, we are still experiencing the tiredness that accompanies just about all of our activities. Fortunately, our fatigue is not debilitating but more of an inconvenience and a good reminder to pace ourselves.

So, the plan is for Camino 2022 to be an approach for us to work our way back to full recovery from our Covid experience to normalcy. A “paced” approach, coupled with the ever-present healing forces of the Camino Frances will, hopefully, expedite our progress to a full recovery.

While sitting on a Caribbean beach this spring, the subject of walking the Camino Frances once more came up and after a brief discussion, we decided we definitely wanted to do it again. The next question was when? The unanimous response was “sooner rather then later” (while we were still healthy and able to do it). So, we set some dates and began the planning and making reservations for planes, trains and initial lodging.

Our primary reason for Camino 2019 was to give us a goal, to provide additional incentives for us to continue to actively pursue a healthy lifestyle in our 70’s. So from that perspective alone, we succeeded.

A real bonus was that we have reached an even higher level of fitness both physically and mentally after 59 continuous days of walking over 400 miles.

An underlying objective for Camino 2019 was to exploit our previous Camino experiences to reduce or eliminate some of the less than positive aspects of this two month experience. This resulted in skipping a few unpleasant sections which not only reduced a negative that we experienced on previous Caminos, but reduced the overall distance we walked from 495 to 415 miles.

We extended our walking range by transporting Linda’s backpack nearly every day, reducing the physical burden on both of us.

We also effectively used public transportation, taxi & bus, to give us extra flexibility to skip the sections mentioned above, as well as to eliminate the problem of finding suitable places to stay when heavy pilgrim traffic and/or lack of facilities occurred.

Our stays in pilgrim hosting private homes and small hotels, especially for multiple days, was a particularly enriching experience.

None of our Camino 2019 “adjustments” adversely impacted the wonderful places we passed through or stayed on our walks. The scenery was still extraordinary, some seen for the first time, others missed but remembered from previous walks. The deliciously, comfortable food was enjoyed daily and new items were discovered as before. The interesting interactions with other pilgrims and pilgrim hosts, as before, enriched our experience and our lives.

The spiritual and meditative and healing environment of the Camino Frances was ever present, as before.

Our Caminos are different than most, because, for the most part, we do not stay in albergue dormitory’s, with communal showers and bathrooms, sleeping in bunk beds and confining our main meals to communal pilgrim settings. And our daily spending (45€) is slightly less than double that of a “typical” pilgrim. Consequently, our Camino experiences can provide alternatives to prospective pilgrims as they plan a Camino that fits their needs.

And one final suggestion: Plan to stay a day or two extra after arriving in Santiago, if you want to receive a Compostela. The pilgrim office is not equipped to handle the ever increasing traffic and no effective remedies appear to be in the works.

This is probably our last Camino. But we’ve said that before and who knows what the future will bring. The Camino Frances has enriched our lives and continues to impact the way we live. We strongly recommend it to anyone, as it can impact one’s life in so many positive ways.

We enjoy traveling by train in Europe.

The trains are predictable, almost always on time departing and arriving and much easier and faster than driving or flying. And the scenery can be quite spectacular (inspite of reflections in the large windows)

The 5 hour plus trip from Santiago to Madrid-Chamartin terminal passed quickly, mostly because we shared a four seat table with a delightful couple currently living in Denmark. Lillias, originally from South Africa, and Jonathan, originally from Zimbabwe, worked for an international construction company building bridges, roads, tunnels, etc.

We chatted about our Camino experiences (they had just completed the Portuguese Camino) and just about anything else that came to mind. The time passed too fast as we really enjoyed their company.

They are considering a trip to the US in a year or two to walk the Appalachian Train from Georgia to Maine. We encouraged them to contact us so we can possibly meet when they pass through NC.

We said our goodbyes as we left the train in Madrid as they were going back to Denmark later in the day.

Our connections from Chamartin station by local train to Atoche train station in downtown Madrid and an easy walk to Pension Barrera(95€). had us checked into our room by 2:00.

Our post Camino 2019 R&R continued for the afternoon and next day, reading, continuing to enjoy Spanish cuisine at nearby restaurants and taking brief walks around the city.

Madrid is one of our favorite cities with magnificent buildings and diverse architectural styles, treed streets and parks and spacious sidewalks, all carefully maintained and clean. Museums and historical monuments are everywhere,

but just walking around them is very entertaining and relaxing. Madrid is not as intimidating as many world capitals and large cities can be, especially if you are not fluent in the language. And also very important, its relatively easy and cheap to eat and get around.

On Wednesday morning, our taxi picked us up at Barrera at 9:00 and 45 minutes later, in heavy morning traffic, we were at the AA ticket counter in MAD, checking our backpacks. We were still over an hour before boarding time so we stopped for a snack before proceeding to our gate.

Our flight left on time and the 8 hour flight

to Philadelphia was without incident getting us into the terminal a few minutes ahead of schedule

A 3 hour layover gave us plenty of time to clear customs, recheck our packs and board the plane for our two hour flight to GSP.

Our neighbor, Ed, graciously agreed to pick us up at the airport and was waiting for us when we arrived 15 minutes early!!!

A ten minute drive by car had us opening our garage door and walking into our home after being away for 10 weeks.

It was a very smooth and easy finish for an extraordinary trip and good to be home!

Closing thoughts on Camino 2019 to follow.

Here is what a “Compostela” looks like:

Linda’s

and Jim’s

Its all in Latin, including the Latinization of our names. Translated, it says:

The Chapter of this Holy Apostolic Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint James, custodian of the seal of Saint James’ Altar, to all faithful and pilgrims who come from everywhere over the world as an act of devotion, under vow or promise to the Apostle’s Tomb, our Patron and Protector of Spain, witnesses in the sight of all who read this document, that: Mr/Mrs/Ms…………………has visited devoutly this Sacred Church in a religious sense (pietatis causa).

Witness whereof I hand this document over to him, authenticated by the seal of this Sacred Church.
Given in Saint James of Compostela on the (day) …… (month) …… A.D. ……”

After we received our Compostelas on Wednesday afternoon, we got a taxi back to San Marcos, a village we passed on our way into Santiago on Wednesday morning, where we had a reservation for the night at Hotel Akelarre.

Thursday morning we slept late and after a late breakfast, walked across the street and caught a bus (1€) into Santiago.

We had booked two nights in A Casa do Peregrino (120€/nt)

which is located on Cervantes Plaza

less than 100 steps from the Catedral (“Cathedral” in Spanish) de Santiago de Compostela. It’s a great location because every pilgrim who walks the Camino and is on his or her way to collect their Compostela, must pass by our room (with a balcony overlooking the street).

As we discovered in 2017 when we also stayed here, the positive energy and excitement of pilgrims from all over the world about to fulfill their goal fills the air throughout each day.

When we weren’t soaking up the energy from our balcony we were walking among the pilgrims, tourists and locals in this medieval city, exploring and marveling at the boundless examples of architectural masterpieces and religious relics accumulated over the past 1000 years or so and beautifully concentrated in this single location.

The Cathedral, whose magnificent exterior we happily saw uncovered for the first time and kept revisiting, viewing and photographing, was almost totally masked in the interior by scaffolding and draped in ugly plastic and fabric sheeting while a near total refurbishing effort is underway to prepare for 2021, the upcoming Holy Year celebration. The noon mass, a central part of most pilgrim’s Camino experience was not even being held here, but in another church, while work was underway. It was really sad to see all the coverings, and knowing from our previous visits, what beauty and inspiration, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims (for many, a once-in-a-lifetime- experience) are missing and will continue to miss for the next two years.

The iconic statue of Santiago (St James) the focal point of the Cathedral, was obscured by scaffolding and plastic draping. Faithful pilgrims still lined up for the chance to embrace the statute from the platform behind the altar and to view the tomb and sarcophagus containing the remains of the Apostle, in spite of the disarray of the refurbishing effort.

We has an interesting lunch at Cervantes, a nearby restaurant discovered by Linda in 2017. We selected a variety of tapas and shared a plate of Padrón pimentos.

This morning, Friday, we checked out of our hotel and walked about a half mile or so, south, away from the old city into the very much more modern version of Santiago de Compostela to Hotel Gelmirez,

our home for the weekend, and began a new phase of our post Camino 2019 adventure.

If our life was simplified on the Camino these past couple of months, it really got simple when we moved into Gelmirez. It was a very nice, modern, roomy habitacion con baño. The hotel had a buffet breakfast but no bar or restaurant or other services. It seemed to be a terminal for pilgrims finishing the Camino or tour groups doing a short version of the Camino.

Bar/restaurants, takeout food and nice grocery stores were nearly next door to the hotel, so eating and snacking were effortless and fun.

We spent our time resting, reading and exploring the area between the old city

and the train station, again, effortlessly and without a backpack.

During the two day stay we had sunshine and overcast/drizzle, but it had no impact on any of our “activities”.

On Monday morning we donned our packs and walked 10 minutes to the train station, had breakfast, bought a snack lunch for the 5:15hr trip to Madrid, boarded the train at 7:35 and pulled out of the station at precisely 7:48 to begin our trip back home.

Walked today: 5.9 miles

Walked Camino 2019: 414 miles

WE MADE IT!!!

Our walk today was about as easy as any we’ve had so far. It was mostly on pavement, only moderate inclines and they were short in duration. The fog didn’t make much difference as we were mostly in commercial or industrial areas or city streets.

We played hopscotch with a tour group of 15 pilgrims from Belgium who started their Camino in Sarria.

We also chatted briefly with three ladies from Wales who also had started in Sarria.

We got to San Marcos, where we have a reservation for the night, made weeks ago when we thought room availability would be an issue. But we continued walking on into Santiago, through city streets for nearly 3 miles until we finally saw the tower of the Catedral de Santiago. A few minutes later, we finally, after 3 Caminos, got to see the Catedral without scaffolding blocking the front entrance of perhaps the most beautiful structure in Christiandom.

We took a few photos and walked on to the pilgrims office arriving at 11:00 to present our credentials to receive our Compostela. We were issued a ticket designating our place in line, #881 and #882. At that time they said they were serving pilgrim #331 and were processing pilgrims at an estimated rate of 100/hour!

The pilgrim office recently implemented the ticket system to avoid the long waiting in line (2 hours +) which we’ve experienced in the past. The new system lets you scan your ticket with your phone and see what was the last number served, so you can be at the pilgrim office when your number is called . So the long lines have been eliminated at the pilgrim office, but based on our experience today, the wait times have been significantly increased.

Hopefully the Santiago pilgrim office people will do some more work to improve the system. Pilgrim numbers continue to increase each year (Elena, the owner of our place last night in San Paio, said this year over 350,000 pigrims will receive Compostelas) and with 2021 being a “Holy Year”, the pilgrim traffic could easily double, possibly triple current numbers.

We found a small bar and had a prolonged coffee/hot chocolate break, walked to the Decathlon store to look around, had a long lunch, then returned to the pilgrim office “waiting area”

and waited until our numbers were called finally at 4:15… after a 5+ hour wait (but not in line😜).

So at 4:15 p.m. today, we officially concluded Camino 2019.

As we mentioned earlier, because earlier flights were not available when we tried to adjust a few weeks ago, we”ll now spend the next 4 days (5 night) in Santiago, board a train for Madrid on the 30th, spend two nights in Madrid and then fly home on Oct 2. Hangin’ out in Santiago and Madrid hotels for a week is something we would normally not do on purpose, but we”ll probably make the most of it and use it as a transition from our very simplistic existence for the past 59 days back to the everyday life we left behind for a while.

We’ll also use the transition time to reflect on Camino 2019 and will share our thoughts and takeaways with you from our temporary base in Spain.