Prologue

Don and Mary-Theresa (MT) Madill first heard about the Camino de Santiago from a priest friend who walked the Camino Francés from Roncesvalles to Santiago during a sabbatical in the fall of 2010. Our interest was further piqued by the movie The Way with Martin Sheen, which appeared shortly after that. At the time, Don was still working, but we started thinking about it for after his retirement. In late 2012, after setting a retirement date for January 31, 2013, we began serious planning and acquiring guidebooks and hiking gear.

We departed for Spain on May 28, 2013 and flew to Bilbao, intending to take busses and/or taxis to St. Jean Pied de Port. We got only as far as Roncesvalles, where we had just missed the last bus of the day to the French side of the Pyrenees. That turned out to be a blessing, since pilgrims we met who started in St. Jean reported that they had been told to go only at their own risk because of a snow and ice storm; we heard that two pilgrims had died that day due to poor visibility and poor footing: one who fell on the Route de Napoleon and one hit by a car while walking the lower route along the highway. So we started our pilgrimage from Roncesvalles on May 29, taking days off for rest and sightseeing in Pamplona, Burgos, and León; we eventually found some of the guidebooks’ longer stages too taxing and split some of them into shorter segments. After 36 days of actual walking, we arrived in Santiago on July 6, just in time for the pilgrim mass in the cathedral. We had originally planned for the option of walking on to Finisterre, but no longer had time, since our return flight was on July 11, which would leave us no time to spend in either Santiago or Finisterre. So we decided to just take a bus to Finisterre, but when we were ready to depart on July 7, we found that the bus schedule on Sunday was different from what we had been told. Then we shared a taxi ride with two young ladies to Finisterre, and somewhere along the way, Don lost his digital camera with all our Camino photos in it. He jokingly said that we would have to do the Camino again so he could get the pictures. There were several fellow pilgrims with whom we had shared many days along the way and had exchanged email addresses. So, as soon as we returned home, we emailed them to ask if they could share their photos with us. An episcopal priest from California sent us the link to her blog, two ladies from France sent us flash drives, two ladies from Barcelona sent a CD, and a couple from Switzerland emailed us some photos. Don had his notebook in which he had recorded the subjects of all his lost photos and spent several weeks trying to re-create this photographic record with photos from friends who were there at the same time and sometimes had us in their photos. However, it was just not the same. There were some things that virtually every pilgrim would take a picture of, but others that were unique to our experience. Working with these photos did bring back memories that made us want to experience it again.

So we finally decided to do another Camino, but perhaps not exactly the same one. We considered the Camino del Norte and even sent for a free guidebook from the tourism office in Bilbao. Our Swiss friends also told us about the Via Francigena from northern Italy to Rome, and our daughter Miriam even got us a guidebook on that route as a Christmas present. Either of those routes looked to be more challenging, without the extensive support network of the traditional and more popular Camino Francés. So, in the end, we decided that we really wanted to do the Camino Francés again, but this time start in St. Jean Pied de Port to get the Pyrenees part we had missed in 2013 and to build in time for rest days, shorter segments, and a walk to Muxía at the end (since we had already seen Finisterre).

As in the previous year, we took along the 2013 editions of John Brierley, A Pilgrim’s Guide to Camino de Santiago and Pilgrim Guided to Spain: Camino Francés from the Confraternity of Saint James (CSJ). The Brierley book was particularly good for its maps, and both books listed possible places of lodging. However, Don compiled a more comprehensive list of lodging possibilities using a combination of those books plus further research on the Internet; his list also included lodging on the extension to Muxía. The purpose of this list was to allow us more flexibility in deciding which town we would stay in each night.

For the 2014 trip, Don had purchased a new digital camera. Shortly before we departed, our daughter Angela also gave MT her old iPhone; we considered getting phone service from a Spanish provider, but elected to use the iPhone only for Internet connection when we had WiFi, and MT also used it to take some photos.

In 2013, we had arrived in Bilbao and departed from Santiago via Iberian Airlines. In 2014, since we had to use Delta/Air France flights to get to the French side of the Pyrenees, we were obliged to depart from Vigo, some 89 km south of Santiago.

Camino de Santiago Contour Map

The following posts are a day-by-day account of our Camino in 2014, based primarily on Don's notes and supplemented with MT's notes. When information from other sources is added—for further explanation to readers or to satisfy our own curiosity—that is set off  in a text box (as with the following background on the history of the Camino de Santiago).

Camino de Santiago. Legend claims that the body of the Apostle James, who was martyred in Jerusalem in 44 AD, after he had supposedly traveled and evangelized in Spain, was secretly transported to this area by boat with his followers. One version says he was rescued by angels and transported in a rudderless boat to Spain, where his body was encased in stone. In 814, a Spanish peasant led to a field by a shower of stars—campus stella—accompanied by the sound of angels singing, discovered the tomb of St. James on a wooded hillside near Padrón (20 km south of Santiago). Human bones were quickly discovered at the site, and immediately—perhaps somewhat conveniently—declared to be those of the apostle (the bones may actually have belonged to Priscillian, the leader of a 4th-century Christian sect). Word of this important find quickly spread across a relic-hungry Europe. The discovery became a focus of unity for Christians who were then separated politically and spread across a narrow strip of northern Spain. It inspired Christian efforts to carry out the Reconquista (Reconquest) that would eventually force Muslims off the Iberian peninsula. Historians now dispute whether St. James ever visited Spain, but there is no doubt that the idea of the possession of the sacred remains of the saint aroused tremendous passion an pride, and emboldened the Christians. As their battle cry, the Christian soldiers shouted “¡Santiago y cierre España!” (“St. James and close Spain!”) to urge their brethren to defeat the Muslims. Christian fighters also gave their patron the name of Matamoros (Slayer of Moors). Historians have passed on numerous testimonies by Spanish champions who said they were spurred on by “visions of a white knight on horseback brandishing a fear-inspiring sword and wearing a vengeful grimace.”In particular, St. James is said to have appeared on a white horse to lead the Spanish Christians to victory over the Moors in the Battle of Clavijo in 844.

After the discovery of the tomb of St James between 812 and 814 AD, support from the Asturian king and his successors and later the offering—voto de Santiago—of the Spanish Monarchs created within an otherwise turbulent province a bustling town. Over the saint's tomb, King Alfonso II of Asturias ordered the erection of an earthen temple, later replaced by a stone church under the rule of Alfonso III. In 997, al-Mansur Abu Jafar (military commander of the Califate of Cordoda) destroyed the entire town except for the tomb. In 1075 work began on the present cathedral by order of King Alfonso VI of León and Castile.

The Camino Francés (French Way) was already completely developed by the 11th century, but this was not the first route to the pilgrimage site. In the 9th century, there were already pilgrims following the Camino del Norte and the Camino Primitivo from the northern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The explanation for this was that, at that time, nearly the entire peninsula had been conquered by the Muslim Moors. Therefore, it was not until the Iberian Christians in the high mountains of Asturias started to fight back and regain more and more southern territories that this route could be developed. However, as soon as this happened, it quickly replaced the Camino del Norte and Camino Primitivo as the most popular route. It was much easier to travel the Camino Frances due to the fact that most of it is relatively flat and the weather is not as rainy as in the more northern ways. In addition, the Christian kings and the Pope had a great interest in developing this route, so that its pilgrims would help to repopulate and reintroduce Christianity in those former Muslim territories.

By the middle of the 12th century, about 1 million pilgrims from all over Western Europe were arriving at Santiago each year. They even had the world’s first travel guide, the Codex Calixtinus (published in 1139) to help them on their way. The French priest Aymeric Picaud traveled the pilgrim road and recorded his experiences in detail in 5 volumes that became known as the Codex Calixtinus in honor of the incumbent Pope Calixtus II. He described in great detail the various facilities available to pilgrims, which by this time included pilgrim hospitals, churches, and cathedrals that had sprung up along the route. Book V outlined the route from St. Jean Pied de Port to Santiago.

The number of pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago increased dramatically after Pope Callixtus II conceded the Roman Catholic Church's greatest privileges to the See of Santiago de Compostela and designated as Holy Years those in which the feast day of St. James fell on a Sunday. Pilgrims who reached Santiago in those years obtained a plenary indulgence and absolution for one year. The shrine became the greatest place of Christian pilgrimage after Rome and Jerusalem and the city itself emerged as one of Europe’s most brilliant, attracting outstanding artists, scholars and silver- and goldsmiths.

After the 12th century, pilgrim numbers began to decline, due to the dangers of robbery along the route and a growing skepticism about the genuineness of St. James’ remains. It was only in 1993, when the Galician government launched the Xacobeo initiative, that the pilgrimage’s popularity experienced a massive resurgence.

Although some pilgrims start their Camino in other parts of Europe, the Camino Frances has four main branches coming from France. Three of those routes, from Paris (via Tours), Vezelay, and Le Puy-en-Velay merge in the French village of St. Jean Pied de Port just before the Pyrenees. Nowadays the most popular starting points for the Camino Frances are St. Jean Pied de Port or Roncesvalles, the first Spanish village on the other side of the Pyrenees. The fourth route, from Arles in southeastern France, comes through another pass farther to the south and joins the others a bit farther into Spain at the village of Puente la Reina west of Pampolona.

Santiago is still a bustling pilgrimage city; an estimated ll million pilgrims now visit during a Holy Year. It is also a major university town as well as the region's administrative capital. 

Camino Francés Map Showing Towns We Passed Through (www.xacobeo.fr)

Camino Francés Map with Provinces We Passed Through (www.xacobeo.fr)

Camino Map Miriam Made off Instagram, Showing Places Where MT Posted Photos