Day: April 19, 2018

We have been staying at hotels and have noticed a difference from even a few years ago. Every hotel room now has outlets on each side of the bed. They know everyone has a phone to charge.

It is a commonplace to observe that everyone is on their phone all the time but it seems like we notice it more when we are traveling. On the street, at the bar, in the restaurant, everywhere, people are looking at their phones.

This means that no one can tell we are tourists. We are looking at our maps trying to figure out where we are going. The locals are checking Facebook or messages or whatever.

Also it seems that the internationalization of clothing companies means locals and tourists don’t look as different as they used to. Of course, the pilgrims look different with their quick-dry clothes and backpacks.

Post by Wynette: Where we stayed last night. Got a good night’s sleep after a hard day of touristing.

So if you are not walking the ancient paths why are you walking? For us, we are creating the kind of travel we like. The feeling in the morning when you first start out is wonderful. Stopping for coffee, and now pintxos, is a pleasure. Finally getting there is satisfying. We walk short days, 7-10 miles, and so are not usually too tired and are in time for a nice lunch. Here the late Spanish lunch hours 1-4 pm, are just perfect.

We like walking past peoples’ houses and farms and seeing how the people live. We like the little churches. We like the small restaurants where the food seems to be the same thing as their grandmothers made, simple with fresh ingredients.

In some ways rural Spain seems to be like the US was 50 years ago and we like seeing that. We like the evenings where the whole town is out walking, from the children to the grandparents.

We usually stay in hotels or pensions rather than albergues. We like having a private room and more space to spread out in.

As we get older we plan to start using the backpack transport services to make the walking easier. and maybe stick to the Caminos flatter than the Camino del Norte.

It is still a spiritual experience for us. We have modified it to fit our needs.

This is our fifth pilgrimage and fourth Camino. They have each been quite different. Comparing the Camino del Norte to the “classic” Camino, the Camino Frances:

Hilly: we heard the del Norte had a lot of up and down and it sure does. I would say it is flat maybe 20-25% of the time. The rest is up then down then up … This is typical of paths by the ocean. Sawtooth is a word the guidebooks use. The highest point is often only 200-300 meters (read yards for meters) but the total up recorded by our GPS tracker is often 1500-2000 meters and then the same down over say 7-10 miles, because the end points are usually at sea level. We are walking short days 7-10 miles so it is okay but I’m glad we are not trying to do the usual 15-18 miles that typical pilgrims go.

Beautiful scenery: the views are spectacular. We are within sight of the ocean much of the way. All of northern Spain from the west (Galicia) to the east (Basque country) have a lot of rain and are wonderfully green, especially for someone from Albuquerque. The path has been uniformly pretty and green, with the exception of walk this morning out of Bilbao through its industrial suburbs. (Full disclosure: we took the train into Bilbao and the subway part way out of Bilbao, still we walked through the industrial suburbs).

Services: not as good as the Frances but not too bad. Fewer cafes.

Food: better on the Norte. This pintxos culture is wonderful. Every bar, even in small towns has a few, usually made there, always very good. It is not just the the big cities although there is a much bigger selection in the big cities. We usually start out early and stop at a bar around 10:30 or 11 for coffee and pintxos. Then we have our big meal around 1 or 2. This is usually a “menu del dia” and has always been good, it seems like home cooking.

Culture: next post.

The pilgrim’s office in Santiago asks each pilgrim who checks in whether they walked the Camino for religious or spiritual reasons (or both, or “other”). Responses are about equal between the two. Lots of people walk the Camino for traditional religious reasons. Of course, this figure was close to 100% in the Middle Ages at the high point of the Camino.

When you spend all day walking and thinking about things, see all the other people doing the same thing, talking to people of all countries and ages, do the same routines every day (walk, wash, eat, rest, sleep, repeat) — it is hard not to start thinking about your life, what makes life worth living, what goals you have in your life, etc., that is, it brings out the spiritual side of everyone. This is one of the great things about the Camino.

The Camino Frances, the path we took in 2013, is along an ancient pilgrimage path, you walk in the steps of pilgrims from 800 years ago. My guess is that few pilgrims from long ago would be foolish enough to walk the Camino del Norte, the path we are taking now. It is so hilly and slow. So, what difference does that make? How important is it to walk an ancient path? It depends. The Norte, and the Portuguese Camino, that we walked two years ago, definitely have a different feel, the history is missing.

Long ago there was the Camino where people walked the easiest ways. In the past few hundred years there are the road builders who also go the easiest ways. Now in 2018 we find the authentic paths are along major highways, authentic but dangerous. Even along the Frances they have, for years, been changing the path to avoid dangerous road walking. Do you lose authenticity? Certainly you do in some ways.

On the Portuguese and Norte they do this extensively. We have already encountered several places where they redirected the path away from a road and up through the mountains and forests. Very pretty walking but not a way any pilgrim intent on getting to Santiago and getting dispensation for his sins would go.

Post by Wynette: We were hungry after our totally flat 5.1 mile walk this morning.