Camino de Santiago

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If we talk about the Camino de Santiago, we are not talking about one specific location, it is true that the road leads to the wonderful Galician city of Santiago de Compostela but if we speak of the way of Santiago, we should speak about an accumulation of experiences, feelings, about people, villages and reasons that lead this way to become itself one of the most famous pilgrimage routes in the world and, which they say, it changes the lives of who does it.

The road to Santiago has a long history, which it has been transformed along the years, we can even say that there are, not one, but there are several ways of pilgrimage route that will lead to the same place. The original path (or primitive) is the one that goes from Oviedo to Compostela across Asturias land and is the same that Alfonso II, King of Asturias (nicknamed El Casto) traveled in the S IX when some events did seem to indicate the location of the tomb of the Apostle Santiago. This king, controversial in its time and and with rather revolutionary ideas in reference to Christianity, became the first pilgrim to St James. From that moment that pilgrimage route was growing until centuries after, beginning to take relevance the route called French, route that runs from the village Roncesvalles in Navarra Roncesvalles to Santiago de Compostela, this trip is 760 km and takes place in about 25 stages of about 20-30 km walking per day, with some peak days in excess of 40 km and others more soft, about 20-25 km.

While here it is said that the road to Santiago is done on foot, in reality nowadays there are modern forms appeared to perform the same way, by bike or bus. Even today there are control points where the road made for sealing the performed route and at the end give you the corresponding certificate of pilgrim. While all these "innovations" have come to streamline the road to Santiago, it now has a more playful and tourist side and less spiritual and religious component than before, the route remains a massive pilgrimage. All these developments contribute to it, to keep it dynamic although in some respects has lost a bit of heat, the authenticity of yesteryear, as the original sense of self and life-changing perception of who made the journey can be diluted if done by car. While recognizing that the idea of making the pilgrimage route with alternative means to go on foot, borns of a good idea: to approach and make accessible the path to people who can not make such an physical effort to walk that distance.

If something marks the route of Santiago, is that is a trip, if desired, extremely cheap. Obviously we can find every options, from driving to each place and lodging at fantastic five star hotels as we relax in the Spa, to the simplest and cheapest option, which is the most authentic version of the Camino de Santiago, extremely supportive and solidary between pilgrims. Nowadays (almost) never find where they feed us free or to stay at free monasteries or similar as was done previously, but along the way we can find accommodation (hostels) specifically designed for pilgrims and places where we will eat or lodge for very little money (€ 4 or less). Moreover, whether we realize it the traditional way, we can get a pilgrims "card" along the road and with it we can stay as we said at specific sites, stores and provisions we recover our battered feet as genuine pilgrims.

If you also make your way in a Jacobean Holy Year, you will make the road to Santiago in the most appropriate time for it in the peak year of the pilgrimage route, Jacobean route, and everything that surrounds it religiously. Jacobean years are those in which July 25 falls on a Sunday. The coming Jacobean years will be 2010 (date of completion of this guide), 2021, 2027, 2032, 2038, etc.

Be Jacobean years (or Xacobeo in its official name in Galician) or not, for whatever reason that has prompted us to do the Camino de Santiago (if we talk with the pilgrims we will be surprised of the diversity of reasons there is to do the road, from stories of personal achievement, through the grounds of religious belief, to more mundane reasons such as fun or pleasure pure and simple, but all valid reasons), once we reach the destination, ie to Santiago de Compostela and before crossing the door of his famous cathedral we see the architectural wonder which is the cathedral and the square that hovers and once inside the cathedral when we arrived on Sunday and watched the "Pilgrim's Eucharist" we can enjoy a display of world's best known symbol of the Cathedral of Santiago, this symbol is none other than a kind of incense spreader, called Botafumeiro, that swings like a huge bell at the inside of the cathedral. Other days the Botafumeiro  is not shown (unless they are paid about 300 €) but it shows his "brother", another piece of metal that performs the same function.

The route (or routes) of Santiago offer a particular good experience for those seeking a more spiritual form of tourism. Surely we also change our life after traveling that. If not specifically in our activities or our way of thinking, at least it will turn on our pilgrim flame, marking forever a permanent footprint of an unforgettable experience in us.

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