Day 10 - Thursday 31st March

Today we walked the 20ish km to Santiago. I never seem to be able to get around to writing my diary for the day that I arrive in Santiago; it’s always a day filled with excitement at arriving and sadness at the journey being over.

This day was drier but there was still a light mist of rain. We had been warned that the way was not well marked but we didn’t find this until we were actually in Santiago, in fact the way markers actually had distances on for the first time.

We did stop on the outskirts of Santiago for a quick breakfast before continuing.

This way into Santiago was prettier than the Frances, staying in the woods for longer but it was harder to find our way once in Santiago as there were no arrows – we had seen the Cathedral and so knew to keep heading up and recognised that we were near the Seminary albergue so went and met up with the Frances route (we have no idea if this was the way we were meant to enter Santiago but it worked). When we were almost at the Cathedral a Pilgrim in a near-by bar smiled to us and waved us on in encouragement.

Our first view of the Cathedral!

We arrived at about two and rang home to let them know that we had made it in!

It took us a few minutes to find the new Pilgrim Office and we were surprised that the security man on the door asked to see our credentials before we were allowed in.

The queue was very short so we did not have to wait for long. We talked to the man behind us - a Frenchman who had walked from St Jean over four years. Then we talked to the two men ahead of us (possibly Father and son) who had walked from Sarria and were from Britain, in fact we found out that they were from only a few miles down the road from us!

We were both proud to receive our Compostelas and spent the extra three euros to get the certificate of distance as well as we aren’t sure if we will walk this route again.

We were booked to stay in the hotel Hospederia San Martin Pinario in Santiago who do a special rate for Pilgrims and special rooms – forty euros for the two of us (the albergue we have stayed at before near the Cathedral is eighteen euros each) and includes breakfast.

We went for a celebratory museum and then wandered around the city’s old part and later went through the Holy Door.

The next day we attended the Pilgrim’s Mass to hear about our arrival.

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The Camino Primitivo

The Camino Primitivo (or the Original Way) is reportedly the very first Camino Way to Santiago in the 9 th century when most of Spain was under the control of the Moors and it runs from near the city of Ovideo in Asturias as it starts in Villavicosa (which also lies on the Camino Norte so many people follow this Way from Basque city of San Sebastian (Donosti in Basque) or in from the French border at Irun ( this route then hugs the Bay of Biscay passing through Guernica, Bilbao, Santander, Llanes before going under the Picos de Europa and then heads along the coast to Ovideo) before branching off onto the Primitivo which goes across the mountains and through the city of Lugo before joining the Frances at Melide. The route is 320km long. Image taken from https://viaalpina2013.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/camino-del-norte-camino-primitivo/

Symbols of the three main Christian Pilgrimages

The symbol of the Pilgrim to Santiago is the Scallop shell of which many can be found on the coast of Galicia and it is actually a symbol of the Pilgrimage (and has become a symbol of other Christian Pilgrimages too) partly because you could find the shell easily there and so could go back home and show it off as proof that you had done the Pilgrimage. It has also been included in carvings in some Churches.

Pilgrims' Trail to Saint Michels Mont, France

I have only walked two of the Camino routes (the Frances and Portuguese) and still want to try many of the others and yet I am also finding other Pilgrimage routes that I want to walk - I did the Pilgrims' Way in the summer which starts from Winchester which is also the starting point for the Pilgrims' Trail a 155 mile route that finishes at Mont St Michel in Normandy, France. The cult of saint Michel was popular in Britain from the 9th century and the Pilgrims walking this way were called Miquelots and many Pilgrims on their way to Santiago. The route is marked by green way markers in Hampshire taking walkers from Winchester to Bishop's Waltham to Southwick and then to Portsmouth where ferries are caught to France and Way markers become blue. Tradition says that, in 709 Saint Michael the Archangel appeared to the bishop of Avranches, Saint Aubert, and told him to build a chapel in his honour on the island. The bishop obeyed and soon sent a group of monks over...

On the Camino

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