The Camino Made Easy: Reflections of a Parador Pilgrim: Three Walking Tours on the Way of St. James Through Spain and Portugal to Santiago De Compostela and Finisterre

By Olivia Pittet

The Camino Made Easy: Reflections of a Parador Pilgrim relates three fascinating, culturally rich journeys on the Way of St. James, or the Camino, through Spain and Portugal to Santiago de Compostela. This personal, practical, and informational story testifies to the advantages of doing the Camino on a walking tour, while offering fresh perspectives on this long-distance medieval pilgrimage route for pilgrims and tourists alike.

Olivia Pittet describes stunningly varied landscapes, including the Basque country, the Rioja wine region, and Celtic Galicia, as well as the World Heritage cities of Burgos, León, and Santiago, while gradually unfolding the Camino’s extraordinary cultural legacy and religious history, its present-day relevance, and its enduring appeal. She recalls what it was like to walk over one hundred miles on each journey, interweaving her Chaucer-style interactions with her fellow pilgrims, her love of landscape, and her special interest as a former medievalist in the Camino’s literature and legends. Olivia also interjects her own tale, tracing her unexpected spiritual journey from its initial stumbling blocks to a developing sense of pilgrimage the closer she came to Santiago, where there are as many answers waiting to be found as there are ways of walking the Camino.

Beautifully written and deeply felt, this rich fusion of pilgrimage and personal narrative, landscape and cultural legacy, literature and legend vibrantly re-creates the Camino anew.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Nov 21, 2018
• ISBN: 9781480863484

Olivia Pittet

Olivia Pittet was born in England and moved to America in 1963. She received her BA from London University and her master’s degree in English and comparative literature from Columbia University. Now a freelance editor, she previously worked for many years in book publishing. Olivia is also a dedicated walker who has taken walking tours throughout Europe and North America for over twenty years, on one of which she met her present husband. This is her first book.

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Copyright © 2018 Olivia Pittet.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means,

graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by

any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author

except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author

and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of

the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of

people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Archway Publishing

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.archwaypublishing.com

844-669-3957

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or

links contained in this book may have changed since publication and

may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those

of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher,

and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ISBN: 978-1-4808-6347-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-6346-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-6348-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018907496

Archway Publishing rev. date: 08/28/2020

For my grandsons, Bryce and Gavin

CONTENTS

List Of Maps

List Of Photographs

Acknowledgments

Foreword by Christopher G. Mclean May

Introduction: A Word On Walking Tours

PART I.     OUR FIRST WALKING TOUR

The Way of St. James: The Camino Francés

from Roncesvalles and Pamplona to Burgos and

Santiago de Compostela

1       Seeking St. James and Meeting the Group: Bilbao and Beyond

2       Following in the Footsteps of Roland, Hemingway, and the

Basques: Our First Two Walks

3       The Spiritual Heart of the Camino: Santo Domingo de la Calzado, and a Detour to San Millán de la Cogolla—La Rioja

4       City Interlude: Burgos

5       Meseta Madness: The Wheat and the Tares

6       City Interlude: León

7       The High Point of the Camino: The Cruz de Ferro

PART II.     OUR SECOND WALKING TOUR

The Way of St. James: The Camino Francés and

the Camino Finisterre, from León and O Cebreiro

to Muxía and Finisterre

8       Twice-Told Tales of Monks, Priests, and Celts: Two Visits to O Cebreiro and Samos

9       Marking the Miles through Galicia: Not Just the Camino’s Last Hundred Kilometers

10     Santiago de Compostela: Surprised by Joy at Journey’s End

11     A Final Day in Finisterre: Stories from the Sea

PART III.   OUR THIRD WALKING TOUR

The Way of St. James: The Camino Portugués

from Porto and Barcelos to Padrón and

Santiago de Compostela

12     The Road Less Traveled: The Portuguese Way

Selected Bibliography

MAPS

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1.   The Way of St. James: The Camino Francés

2.   The Way of St. James: The Camino Francés and the Camino Finisterre

3.   The Way of St. James: The Camino Portugués

PHOTOGRAPHS

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St. Jean Pied-de-Port

Camino road signs

Shepherd with his flock on the meseta

Castrojeriz

León Cathedral

Gaudí’s Episcopal Palace in Astorga

Samos

One of Galicia’s many corncribs, or hórreos

High Altar in Santiago Cathedral

St. James’s tomb

Journey’s end in Finisterre

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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I wish to thank Garry Budin, Pamela Ferdinand, Christopher McLean May, and Prudence Turnamian for variously sharing their knowledge of the Camino, for reading the manuscript, and for offering their creative support. Cathy Kinloch, Robert Kinpoitner, Jane Methuen, Joy Rice, and Janet Wood also provided invaluable advice, as did Jane Crosen, my indexer and proofreader. Indeed, I will always be grateful to all these people and especially also to my husband, Michael Crowley, who accompanied me every step of the way on our three Camino journeys and encouraged me to write this book.

FOREWORD

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BY CHRISTOPHER G. MCLEAN MAY

A t age seventy, for a Yorkshireman estranged from his wife at the time and having recently had major heart surgery, to walk the five-hundred-mile pilgrimage known as the Camino de Santiago was as much a major test of stamina and health as it was an emotional and spiritual journey. My body survived, and my mission to broaden my spiritual awareness to help reconstruct my life was completed, being now happily reunited with my wife and living in France. The Camino gave me a new perspective on my busy lifestyle, with time to reflect on the past in a state of semisolitude, to benefit from some much-needed meditation and contemplation, and to practice a more caring humility toward others, thus making it one of the most memorable events of my life.

Thus, it seems to me rather important that a book such as this should explain the advantages of how this seemingly endless path can be undertaken in more reasonable and comfortable tranches than by the albergue-based through-pilgrims such as I, who started in the French Pyrenees to finish at the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela with its treasured relics of St. James. The route, called the Camino Francés, simply crosses Spain from east to west through the vineyards of Rioja and Navarra, across the meseta and the Tierra de Campos, and over the mountains into Galicia to the medieval gem of Santiago. It is a journey of epic proportions, often with painful consequences.

This book is a huge help to all who want to enjoy and benefit from the journey in stages, thus limiting the physical pain and the mental anguish of finding accommodation each night. I have to say that I was often envious of los sin mochilas—jokingly referred to as pilglams—who stayed in nice hotels and slept in comfy beds, whilst I was struggling, tired, and often wet, to find a mattress in some albergue dormitory with sixty to one hundred other pilgrims at the end of the day!

Olivia’s choice to write this book comes with much experience in this field. She not only has visited the Camino three times but also has walked many other hallowed paths of Europe and North America. Having initially studied English literature at school in England, Olivia went to live in America in the early 1960s, where she continued her studies, specializing in medieval literature and liturgy. It is hardly surprising that she has effectively included relevant quotations from such English literary giants as Chaucer and Langland, Shakespeare and Dickens.

The Camino Francés is, was, and always will be an international superhighway. I met Americans, Canadians, Brazilians, Colombians, Australians, Koreans, folks from most European countries, and of course fellow Brits. I walked on my own and had meaningful conversations with most of the individuals I encountered, often forming small, unstructured groups. They came in various ages, shapes, and sizes! Some say that the Camino is the biggest international speed-dating event in the world and probably has been ever thus, well known since the publication of Europe’s first travel guide, the twelfth-century Codex Calixtinus, for its communitas, or friendliness and conviviality.

Along the way, I wrote a daily diary, which later became a blog of my thirty-one-day pilgrimage. It was published in the newsletter of a city livery company, of which both Olivia and I are members; hence the link and our meeting. This has resulted in the sharing of our walking experiences and, consequently, her much-appreciated kind request that I write this foreword for her.

Olivia has outlined the route of today’s Way of St. James so very well, opening up parallels with the past, whilst highlighting its history in a powerful and descriptive way and uniquely bringing a modernity to this medieval pilgrimage. Her well-researched book, always interesting and informative, makes for an exciting read—highly recommended and one that is hard to put down.

INTRODUCTION

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A WORD ON WALKING TOURS

W ho exactly joins a walking tour? The answer is all sorts of people of almost any age. But most are likely to be people in their fifties and sixties, looking for an active, outdoors-based, culturally informed, and sensitively planned vacation with 24–7 knowledgeable guides. Walking tours attract energetic and educated individuals wishing to experience something new; those who enjoy a mix of socializing and personal time; and those who want to be able to count on comfortable hotels, van support, and good food, as well as moderately challenging exercise. At the end of the day, one should come away from a walking tour feeling that one has learned something about a country’s culture and/or oneself; exercised body, mind, and spirit; bonded with new friends; and generally broadened one’s horizons. It’s slow travel at its best and fast becoming a leading vacation trend.

On any one tour, many are couples, but these trips also suit solo travelers extremely well (I know because for a long time I was one and was always well looked after). Sometimes, too, they include close friends or a family group (which, again, I know works out well), who wish to spend time together but not necessarily completely on their own and who prefer to leave the logistics to the professionals, rather than sorting out everything among themselves. A few tours may be for private groups or for, say, women travelers only; others are self-guided, which means that you walk independently but have a set itinerary, complete with prebooked accommodation, daily luggage transfers, guidebooks and maps, and someone to call if needed.

Active days usually stretch out from about nine to five, with guided walking—often offered at two levels, one longer and faster paced than the other—broken in half by good long lunch breaks and supplemented, where appropriate, by city tours or visits to local sites, often with a private local guide. Occasionally, too, other means of getting around are built into the program, such as a mountaintop gondola or a riverboat. In the evenings, you return to the hotel, where your luggage awaits, for a relaxing evening, maybe including a drink at the bar or sitting out in a comfortable chair, and most often topped by a gourmet group dinner, sometimes in the hotel itself and sometimes at a local restaurant in another interesting part of town.

Trips are always scheduled to take advantage of the best time to visit any one locale and range over almost all the world, although most focus on Europe and the Americas. Catalogs and websites will give you a good idea of what to look for, what you think would suit you best, and what the daily program is likely to be. You also can always contact the company to get additional information; in my experience, they are only too willing to help. No extraordinary levels of endurance are required on these walking tours. Fitness levels are important, however, although these may vary from tour to tour and, to a point, within each group. Before you leave, you should be walking, say, five miles in a day—and doing this more than once a week, ideally on varied terrain, including rough paths with roots and rocks underfoot, rather than relying on suburban sidewalks or the treadmill at the gym.

The best advice for anyone about to do a walking holiday is to have good, well-broken-in footwear, ideally light- or medium-weight hiking boots with ankle support and good treads. Also bring a small day pack, a large water bottle, and a wind- and rainproof jacket, as well as quick-drying hiking pants, a collared shirt, and/or wicking T-shirts. Jeans should not be worn on the trail. Hiking poles are often recommended, but it’s wise to try them out first.

Water is important; ideally, you should drink two liters a day, even when the weather is cool, but there is no need to carry that much with you on the trail, so long as you also drink a glass or two on waking, at mealtimes, and at the end of the day.

Most tour companies will provide a packing list; ask for this when you first register for your trip, rather than waiting to receive it with your final information package shortly before you leave. This should give you plenty of time to test out their recommendations and shop for sales. You also might need time to decide just how much to pack and how best to fit everything into the smallest-possible lightweight suitcase. Some walking tours will stay in only a couple of hotels over the course of a week, but on longer journeys, like the Camino, where you frequently are on the move, the less you bring, the less there is to unpack and repack as you go along.

For any vacation, I personally break down the items I need into three categories, while feeling free to shape-shift between categories as I please: (1) items for the main purpose of the trip, in this case, hiking; (2) an everyday travel and sightseeing outfit, with comfortable shoes; and (3) the opposite of (1), in this case, smart-casual wear—a dress or dress pants, a blazer or jacket, a sweater or wrap, or what you will, for those evenings offering fine dining in major cities and at starred hotels.

Some additional suitcase stuffers might include extra pairs of socks, a hat for rain and shine, a poncho, gloves, a neck-warmer or scarf, long silk underwear, a packable down jacket or vest, swimsuit and shorts, a bar of soap, and a washcloth.

Three ways to keep your luggage light are, first, select items of the least possible bulk of their kind (a fleece being a case in point). Second, try not to think like a centipede and limit your collection of shoes. Ideally, two pairs should suffice for categories 1 and 2, but you may wish to add a third for category 3. That said, some people also like to include a pair of flip-flops, possibly to carry in their daypacks or to keep handy in the support van, to give their feet a break from their boots when stopping for lunch or driving to and from the trailhead. And a third way to keep luggage light, as I always need to remind myself, is to try to avoid packing spares, since this is a walking tour, not a wilderness hike, and shopping time is generally built into the program.

Larger hotels on the Camino offer laundry and dry-cleaning services, which aren’t cheap but are cheaper in the long run, in my view, than lugging around an overstuffed suitcase and throwing out your back! For personal laundry, I pack Wilderness Wash—a concentrated, multipurpose liquid soap good for washing hiking pants in hotel sinks—plus a couple of wire hangers for drip-drying shirts in the shower.

Finally, there are lots of walking companies out there to suit all fitness levels, budgets, and tastes. Below is a selection of recommended companies known to us that offer custom-made guided and/or self-guided walking tours on the Camino in Spain and Portugal.

ATG-Oxford

Oxford, UK

www.atg-oxford.co.uk

[e-mail]

[phone]

Classical Pursuits/Travel Pursuits

Toronto, Canada

www.classicalpursuits.com

[e-mail]

844-378-2869

Country Walkers

Williston, VT, USA

www.countrywalkers.com

[e-mail]

800-464-9255

Fresco Tours

Bilbao, Spain

www.frescotours.com

[e-mail]

888-246-6089

On Foot Holidays

Salisbury, UK

http://www.onfootholidays.co.uk

[e-mail]

[phone]

Road Scholar

Boston, MA, USA

www.roadscholar.org

[e-mail]

1-800-454-5768

Spanish Adventures/Gorgeous Galicia

Santiago de Compostela, Spain

www.gorgeousgalicia.com

[e-mail]

Teachers Travel/Walkers World

Toronto, Canada

www.teacherstravel.com

[e-mail]

800-268-7229

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Seeking St. James and Meeting

the Group: Bilbao and Beyond

For whatsoever from one place doth fall,

Is with the tide unto an other brought:

For there is nothing lost, that may be found, if sought.

—Edmund Spenser

I n a sense, this story started in Barbados, in a small hotel near Bridgetown, where Michael and I stayed in 2009, having honeymooned there three years before. Here, we happened to meet a Canadian couple and became fast friends. A year or so later, when they visited us in the States, we mentioned that we were considering walking the Way of St. James—or the Camino de Santiago, the medieval pilgrimage trail now commonly known simply as the Camino—to Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain. Ideally, we said, we wanted to travel with a purpose, in the company of like-minded people, by joining a small-group walking tour rather than going it alone, as thousands upon thousands do every year. As it happened, Shonet and Jim were able to recommend a Canadian walking company offering exactly what we were looking for, and they put us in touch with a friend of theirs who had done just such a trip. Michael and I contacted her and made a few further inquiries, and then we paid our money and took our chance. Thus, the die was cast.

It took me a while to realize that we all make our own Camino and that each one of us makes his or her own pilgrimage and has a personal quest. The Way of St. James is for everyone: for the fit and the unfit, including for those who like their ease, at least at the end of each walking day. It is not only for those who feel compelled to walk barefoot in falling snow, as some like to think, or limp along for many a mile in blistering heat. Before this, I had been busy engaging in lively, self-generating fantasies about doing the entire Camino on foot, like a true pilgrim, as my own daughter later did, covering the entire Camino at breakneck speed in twenty-seven days. But for us, this would have involved a journey of five or six weeks, walking close to fifteen miles almost every day we didn’t need to rest. And during this time, we would each have been toting a heavy pack and sleeping cheek by jowl with fifty or more other pilgrims in the bunk-bedded, dormitory-style hostels known albergues or refugios. I envisioned an endurance test somewhat akin to hiking the Appalachian Trail, except on easier trails, closer to civilization, and without the need to carry a stove or a tent. Luckily, however, I came to realize—in the nick of time—that this was a bit of a nightmare. Operation Backpack? No way!

What we wanted was what we got: a van-assisted, hotel-based, small-group walking tour for grown-ups, with serious attention paid to the creature comforts of not-so-fit retirees like us. And the package came with 24-7 expert guides who would take us on a journey that was rich in religious and secular history while we soaked up the culture and natural beauty of northern Spain.

There would be plenty of opportunities to explore the best parts of the Camino on foot, to stop and sightsee en route, and to make occasional detours to other places of note. We would have the opportunity to walk about one-quarter of the final five-hundred-mile stretch of the Way of St. James from the French Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela, while covering the rest with the aid of our bus. Our guided hikes would take us on a series of well-maintained trails through dramatically changing landscapes, and we could walk as much or as little as we chose. We would burn calories and eat great food. The trip would prove a perfect mix of long-distance walking and sightseeing. Almost