We would like to provide everyone a snapshot of our next experience; walking the Camino de Santiago.
The Camino de Santiago is “a network of pilgrimage routes that converge on the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galacia, Spain … where tradition holds the apostle James is buried”. Pilgrims have been making this journey for over 1,000 years and apparently it is the 3rd most active Christian pilgrimage after Jerusalem and Rome. Also, there is not just one route. Because people would start their pilgrimage from their homes, they came from all directions, to include taking a ship to the coast of France, Spain or Portugal and starting to walk from that point. As such, the medieval church and local communities created a vast support network to to assist the (mostly) peasants who made the pilgrimage.
The most common modern-day route, the Camino Frances, begins across the border in France, crosses the Pyrenees mountains, and traverses about 500 miles across Northern Spain. Because our cruise ship ended in Barcelona, we initially planned to walk the 700-mile Camino Catalan. Once we found out about hiking the Fisherman’s Trail we shifted our focus to the Portuguese Camino. Why? First, 700 miles is a long way and it looked like the initial 200 miles would be through parts of rural Spain without much infrastructure to support the trek. Second, Barcelona and the base of the Pyrenees Mountains is much colder in early May than the southern coast of Portugal. We were not ready to pack additional clothing for the cooler temperatures (and in truth, we really don’t like cold weather anymore). Finally, the Fisherman’s Trail is considered one of the top coastal hikes in the world and we really wanted to experience that adventure. Conveniently, a lot of pilgrims also liked to start in Portugal (for different reasons I suspect) so numerous Camino routes exist throughout Portugal.
Modern day pilgrims can earn a certificate of completion if they walk at least the last 100 km to Santiago de Compostela on any of the routes. This is documented by getting stamps in a credentialed pilgrim passport from various places on the route. Over half of the pilgrims opt for the 100 km option and for the Portuguese Camino this distance is near the border with Spain. Coming from Portugal, most others start in Porto and walk about 250 km to Santiago. A small percentage start in Lisbon and walk close to 400 Km. We decided to officially start just north of Lisbon in the town of Tomar, the location of the Portuguese Knights Templars from medieval times (on the pictured map, it is a little over half way between Lisbon and Coimbra). By the way, one of the primary roles of the Knights Templars were to guard pilgrims on their journey to Jerusalem. As official pilgrims, we thought that would be a fitting start.
I learned a lot. Thank you.