El camino de Santiago

El Camino de Santiago is not a single path, but a medieval religious pilgrimage which begins in different locations and come together at Santiago de la Compestela in northwest Spain where legend has it that Saint James is buried. I say, “legend has it” because it's almost certainly not true. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that it was the second most important religious pilgrimage of the middle ages following only that of Rome itself.

See a map here

Objective

Ms MarcoPolo and I hope to walk the part that is called “El camino frances” (the french route) from Roncesvalles which is just on the Spanish side of the border near St. Jean- Pied-du-Port and finish in Santiago. It's a journey of just less than 800 km. It would be nice if we could finish in time for the fiestas of St. James' day, July 25^th , and we have allowed plenty of time. If we finish at all that will be enough. If we're successful we will have traveled through Pamplona, Logroño, Burgos, Leon, Ponferrada, and Santiago. There are five languages spoken in Spain. Some maps show place names in the local languages. So, in Basque Roncesvalles is Orreaga and is Pamplona is Iruña. Castillian is spoken from Burgos to Ponferrada and there shouldn't be any confusion. Then you might see some Gallego (Galician?) names further west.

You will notice there is a parallel path along the coast (Camino del Norte). A mountain range called the Picos de Europa separates the two and figures into many of the things that influenced Spanish history - Spain is what it is because of its climate and geography - which I hope to talk about later.

See the links at the left. The Wikipedia article is especially good and Google Earth shows the relief.

Now maybe you're asking, “why do that”? Well, me too! I'm told that when you get your Pilgrims Passport at the start of the camino they ask you that very question and you have to tick a box, religious, cultural, or spiritual. That sounds awfully bureaucratic. I guess you can't tell them, “no reason”. But then everybody has a reason. I have lots of reasons and they are all more complex than exes and boxes. The reasons have to do with understanding – understanding history, the history of my religion, understanding a culture that I encountered as a young person and a people who have always been good to me; people that appear different than me on superficial levels, but really no different at all. It is that, the likenesses, that are important. And I hope the experience will inspire my longer journey too. Also, simply because I can. A working man can't indulge this sort of extravagance. Extravagant it is. Frivolous it's not.

I want to further those understandings and I want to share them. I hope that I'll be able to do that here.

Wish us a ¡buen camino!