Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Started out from Bilboa and kept walking until we got to Burgos. (This is the hotel we stayed in) The route was long and twisted because we had a change in plans. We started out following the northern coast traveling through Santander, Gijon, and all the way to A Coruna. It was here where we started to talk to the locals about our next destination....Santiago de Compostela. We had heard of the pilgrimage to this city but did not know much of its origins. We did a quick search on wikipedia and learned more:
"The Way of St James has existed for over a thousand years. It was one of the most important Christian pilgrimages during medieval times, together with Rome and Jerusalem, and a pilgrimage route on which a plenary indulgence could be earned.
Legend holds that St. James's remains were carried by boat from Jerusalem to northern Spain where he was buried on the site of what is now the city of Santiago de Compostela.
The Way can take one of any number of pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela. Traditionally, as with most pilgrimages, the Way of Saint James began at one's home and ended at the pilgrimage site. However a few of the routes are considered main ones. During the Middle Ages, the route was highly traveled. However, the Black Death, the Protestant Reformation and political unrest in 16th-century Europe led to its decline. By the 1980s, only a few pilgrims arrived in Santiago annually. Since then however the route has attracted a growing number of modern-day pilgrims from around the globe. The route was declared the first European Cultural Route by the Council of Europe in October 1987; it was also named one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites
The pilgrimage intrigued us. We inquired about how we could walk along this trail. This is when we were told that the most commonly used route would start not far from Pamplona (where we had been not long ago) acros the border into France. So back we walked towards the start of the pilgrimage stopping in Burgos for the night. Too tired to see anything but out beds and dreaming of our next stop Saint Jean Pied-de-Port, France. We hadn't planned to see France. The pilgrimage is already sending us in directions we did not anticipate.
- comments