We’d both really been looking forward to visiting Santiago De Compostela, particularly having watched a film recently called ‘The Way’’ starring Martin Sheen, whose character walked this trail to honour his son who died on the trail – it gives a good impression on the landscapes that the Camino covers and the many complex reasons why people choose to do it, be it for religious reasons, to get physically fit, for mental health benefits, or getting quality time away from it all with family or friends. We’d also come across the Camino signs of the shell right across our journey through Northern Spain. ‘The Way of St James’ has been a leading Catholic pilgrimage route since the 9th Century and the old town is a UNESCO world heritage site. It joins Rome and Jerusalem as being the key pilgrim destinations in the Northern hemisphere.
It was another beautiful clear sunny day with a freshness to it as we arrived at our campsite on the edges of the city. The Lavacolla site bizarrely has a sign in the style of a London Underground station, and it soon became apparent that the incredibly friendly and helpful owner, Antonio, was mad about all things British. He had a map of the Underground on his reception wall and had just purchased a red Mini Cooper and was saying his dream vehicle was a Land Rover. The site gets rammed in summer but was due to close the following week for its winter break, so we joined only a handful of other camping vehicles. I sadly got excited at seeing the washing machine and drier – after 2 weeks on the road my laundry bags were filling up – Colin’s however seemed worryingly (or as expected) rather empty…
We had booked a walking tour of the historic town the following day so that we could get a better understanding of the history of the city and the actual pilgrims, but we headed straight in on our first day to get our bearings. It was a short walk to a bus stop where a bus whisked us into the centre of the historic part of the city. It was a big wow moment as we entered the narrow streets. We saw an older guy with his backpack and walking pole in front of us – we wondered at the journey he’d undertaken and how he felt at being so close to the finish. As Colin took us off down the wrong street, we hoped he wasn’t following us and we’d added a few more hundred metres to his journey! We meandered our way to the main square in front of the spectacular Cathedral where the pilgrims complete the trail. There were several groups and individuals there and a steady trickle of others arriving. In our tour the next day our guide said in the height of summer there could be as many as 5,000 pilgrims a day turning up, so we felt lucky to see a scaled down version. We both felt strangely emotional watching the walkers and cyclists arrive and seeing the whole range of their emotions from happiness and relief for it to be over, to tears, and some just sitting or lying on their own contemplating silently their journey and achievement.
We had a look in the ornate cathedral where St James is buried and continued to wander the streets marveling at the incredible buildings without really knowing what they were and looking forward to learning more on our walking tour the next morning.
It was another cold but bright morning for our walking tour. We were joined by a Dutch and an Austrian couple. Our walking tour guide, Adrian, explained that depending on which Camino trail you have walked, you come into the main square from a different direction. The Camino Frances and del Norte pilgrims come through the East gate where there is always someone playing the bagpipes on the steps.
There are several routes nowadays for the Camino. The traditional and most popular route is the Camino Frances – 800km starting in France and traversing the Pyrenees then covering the rolling hills of Northern Spain. The trail we had been crossing on our journey in Lo11y is the Camino del Norte or Ruta de la Costa. There are also two routes from Portugal as well as routes from other parts of Spain. Tour companies also offer walking and cycling holidays covering the last 100km or so.
After our guide explained more about the city and how it came to be an important pilgrimage centre, he walked us around some of the other key buildings, explaining their origins and functions.
He also took us down to a park where there is a statue to the Two Marys – a lovely tribute to two sisters who always walked through this park at the same time each day (2 o’clock in the afternoon) during the 1950’s to 1970’s. They were always dressed flamboyantly and wearing make-up. The story is that their brothers were in exile under the Franco regime for anarchist beliefs – as the police couldn’t find the brothers they would come and harass the two sisters in the middle of the night, even stripping them in the middle of the street and raping them. They were rejected by their neighbours and no one would offer them work. Being carefree and defiant they started to dress in outlandish outfits and flirt with the local students and ended up becoming a symbol of freedom for people scared of reprisals of rebelling. Apparently, they are repainted every few years in different coloured outfits.
The final part of our tour was being introduced to the food markets at the top of the city. It was a colourful mix of indoor and outdoor stands and counters selling fresh fish and meat, cheeses, and fruit & veg. We paid a ridiculous amount for a piece of cheese, and then had a terrific lunch in a popular restaurant in the market.
We had another day at the campsite to get our washing done and go for a bike ride. Unfortunately, it was a very chilly misty day all day. It was a lovely, varied cycle route – 30 miles with lots of downs and ups. We have been very impressed with Spanish drivers behaviour around cyclists. There are usually road signs asking drivers to give 1.5m clearance as they overtake, and they do seem to generally abide by this. That combined with good road surfaces makes for pleasurable cycling here. I had been hoping to get through a whole bike ride without lying down in the road or having to push up ridiculously steep hills. All was going well until about 2 miles from the finish when my chain pinged off, breaking my gear derailleur with it. At least I didn’t have to push all the way back to the campsite – on the downhill sections Colin kindly gave me a shove to free wheel down. Colin’s rear brake also wasn’t working today, but we’d spotted a bike shop in town and were confident they were easy issues to get sorted.
Our hopes on the bikes were dashed the following day when the bike shop said Colin’s brake problem wasn’t as simple as adding new fluid – the whole brake was split and needs replacing and the model he has isn’t made any more – they only had a very expensive one, otherwise it could be a few days until they could get another one in. As for my bike, it is a Ribble specific part that they don’t have in Spain. It’s really frustrating to not be able to use our bikes now, but we are trying to get the parts delivered to a friend of Colin who lives in Gibraltar so we can at least have use of the bikes again later on in our trip.
We've really enjoyed exploring the North coast of Spain - amazing historical cities, wild coastline, mountain scenery and of course the food which we've sampled quite a lot of. We definitely want to revisit this area in warmer weather with longer daylight hours. Having looked at a map of Spain and Portugal we are slightly alarmed at how little we’ve covered so far. Next stop - the Douro region of Portugal.
Comments