On the Camino

'It takes a dream to get started, desire to keep going and determination to finish' Eddie Harris Jnr 

A Holy year for Santiago is one in which the day of Saint James' (the 25th of July) falls on a Sunday and it is known as Ano Santo Jacobeo or Another Santo Xacobeo in Galician.

Roads go ever ever on, Over rock and under tree, By caves where never sun has shone, By streams that never find the sea; Over snow by winter sown, And through the merry flowers of June, Over grass and over stone, And under mountains of the moon. Roads go ever ever on Under cloud and under star, Yet feet that wandering have gone Turn at last to home afar. Eyes that fire and sword have seen And horror in the halls of stone Look at last on meadows green And trees and hills they long have known J.R.R. Tolkien 'The Hobbit'

It is possible to start walking the Camino Ingles from A Coruna a distance which seems to be 30-40km (it seems to very depending on who has measured the distance) from a Coruna to Hospital de Bruma where the two ways meet (and from where it is 40km to Santiago making a total distance of less than 100km making any walking ineligible for the Compostela upon their arrival in Santiago). Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Hercules

 Every year I make advent calendars for my family and this year I decided to give my Dad's a Camino-theme on some days by putting in some Camino-inspired decorations fro the tree along with his chocolate. I bought some shrinkables plastic from the local bead shop (this is a sheet of plastic that looks like one of the acetate sheets that used to be used for OHPs that when heated in the oven shrinks in size). I then used some permanent markers to draw designs on the sheet Two shells and an arrow from the Camino and the symbols for the via Francigena from Canterbury to Rome (which me and Dad have walked 20 miles of) and the walk to Mont St Michel in France (not walked yet!). Seeing as the sheet of plastic is completely see-through I simply placed it over my computer screen and traced these images straight from there but you could also print out images to copy or draw them free-hand The next step is to cut the images out - obviously the Camino shell is quite fiddly

We had two days and two half days in Santiago before our flight on the 10th and we did all of the usual things: we attended Mass and bought souvenirs and gifts, we had our first (and somehow only) chocolade and churros of this Camino and we went into the square and sat there as people arrived, slightly envious of them but mainly joining in their joy at their arrival.

I came across the below image today and thought that it looked cool - it's made from a 5 euro coin but the Cathedral also appears on 1 and 2 cent pieces so those could be used instead. https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/232657399/choose-year-spain-5-euro-cent-coin?ref=market

The excitement of the last day is always something that you can feel deep within but it is always accompanied by the sense of not wanting the walk to end - you can take more of the albergues and the walking perhaps to just keep going for one more day.