A record number of people are expected to follow the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela this year, when St James's feast day falls on Sunday, July 25th. Peter Murtaghwrites about the joy of arriving there
WHEN YOU finally enter Santiago de Compostela, be it after the 100km-plus trot from the town of Sarria (the minimum to qualify you as a genuine pilgrim) or having done the whole 800km from St Jean Pied de Port in the Pyrenees (which most pilgrims identify as the start of the full Camino) or one of the many other routes, you will likely experience conflicting emotions.
First, there is the elation of arrival: a fantastic sense of achievement infused with joy and celebration. Striding at last into the great square in front of the Cathedral of St James, there will be much whooping, shouting, laughing and OMG-ing (especially from the youngsters!).
Emotions will overwhelm; you will find yourself hugging companions, possibly even people you hardly know but with whom you now share a special bond.
But you will also feel sad (if not now, then very soon) because your Camino is over. For however long you have been doing it, a very particular daily routine has dominated your life. If you have stayed in refugios(the special pilgrim hostels), your day will typically have begun early – rising quietly and washing, a simple breakfast of coffee with bread and jam, and then walking, observing the countryside, thinking as you go, about anything and everything.
There is no clock other than your body clock; no time, save for that dictated by the earth’s movement around the sun. There will have been a pace and rhythm to your life quite different to that back home. And each day will have ended with a communal meal, conversation with people from perhaps a dozen different countries and dormitory-style sleeping arrangement.
This simple existence and companionship you will miss more than you can imagine and the effects of your Camino will be long lasting.
NOW THAT YOU'VE arrived, you must go to the cathedral – your final destination, after all. This being a holy year (because St James's Day falls on a Sunday, July 25th) you and a few hundred thousand others can enter the cathedral by the Puerta del Perdon, the Door of Forgiveness.
Religious or not, the daily pilgrim mass at noon is a must and you must also visit the crypt beneath the altar to see the silver casket allegedly containing the remains of St James. Coming up, you may walk over the top of the altar where there is a wooden bust of the saint.
Give him a hug (it's what tradition demands) and move on . . . there are others behind you. The mass ends with the ceremony of the botafumeiro. This is a giant silver censer, weighing some 80kg and standing about 1.6 metres high. It is suspended on a thick rope looped through a strange corkscrew-like mechanism in the ceiling and held firm by eight men robed in red, the tiraboleiros.
Their job, once the censer is lit, is to pull it up and, tugging this way and that, gradually make it swoosh through the crossing, from transept to transept. It moves at great speed and, as the organ blasts away, this is a suitably theatrical event to mark the finale of your Camino.
Now, go collect your certificate from the cathedral office just around the corner (Oficina de Acollida ao Peregrino on Rúa do Vilar 1) and, having booked yourself a shortened stay in purgatory , go and enjoy this delightful medieval provincial city, filled with cold beer and the sound of Galician pipes wafting around every corner.
There are several streets worth exploring immediately south of the cathedral. Start in Praza de Fonseca, a tiny little square with flowerbeds and, in spring, azaleas and camellia shrubs laden with pink flowers and glistening, shiny leaves. This small place was designed for serious time wasting, somewhere to watch the world go by.
There are a couple of excellent tapas bars and restaurants on the square, one, the San Jaime, not to be missed. The square includes the 16th century Renaissance façade of the Colexio de Fonseca, now part of the library of the University of Compostela. You may wander in and enjoy its cloistered garden, a little pool of tranquillity in the city.
ALL THAT MOST visitors could want in Santiago is to be found among the streets south and west off the Praza de Fonseca – the Rúa do Franco, Rúa da Raína, Rúa do Vilar, Rúa Nova, the lanes and alleyways that link them and the other streets running down to Praza do Toural and the inner ring road, Rúa da Senra.
The shops tend to be small ones. There are tourist outlets, of course, selling the predictable flotsam of souvenirs and tat. But there are some lovely old-fashioned shops, ones that look still to be family-run affairs, selling clothes, shoes and jewellery. Among them is a real find: a lovely old hat shop where you can get a decent panama.
In the same knot of streets, you will find all the restaurants and bars you could want; not to mention churches and religious houses aplenty reflecting over 1,000 years intense devotion.
If you fancy more contemporary shopping, carry on down the Rúa do Vilar until you exit the old city and, crossing an inner ring road, enter the area around Rúa Montero Ríos.
Me? I stick to the old city and round off a perfect day with an evening spent in the Casino Café on Rúa do Vilar. It has been operating since 1848 but has the feel of an Edwardian salon, with a slightly raffish, bohemian air to it.
Wood-panelled walls usually display a selection of paintings by local artists. The café is one long, high-ceilinged room extending deep into the building. The room is filled with lazy, lived-in arm chairs.
Flop into one and have an ice cream, a coffee or a brandy . . . or all three.
Peter Murtagh and his 18-year-old daughter Natasha are walking the Camino for the second time, starting on Reek Sunday, July 25th, by climbing Croagh Patrick before flying to the Pyrenees
Getting there
PACKAGES
There are still packages from Ireland to the Camino and to the city of Santiago de Compostela around Jubilee Sunday, July 25th, although nearly all those to the main Camino have sold out.
You will still be able to book for one of the other pilgrim routes (there are nine in all) to Compostela. Trips are around a week long and range in price from ¤495-¤795.
There are still some flights direct to Santiago de Compostela from ¤270 on Aer Lingus (aerlingus.com). Flights are also available with Aer Lingus to Bilbao and with Ryanair (ryanair.com) to Santander and Oporto in northern Portugal.
There are train and bus services from all of these places to Santiago de Compostela. Rooms are available through booking.com and hotels.com.
WEBSITES
Follow the Camino. Tel: 1890 252602 or followthecamino.com. MAP Travel, maptravel.ie or tel 01-8783111.
Travel Net, travelnet.ie or tel 1890-303303. Uwalk, uwalk.ie or tel 046-9068686.
The Irish Society for the Friends of St James, stjamesirl.com.
CAMINO IN DUBLIN
If you can’t make it to Santiago de Compostela for Jubilee Sunday, July 25th, you can celebrate in Dublin on the day by attending a walk and conference about the Camino.
It starts at 1pm with a walk through medieval Dublin from St James’s Church in James’s Street to Trinity College, Dublin, where a conference takes place from 3pm-6pm.
Speakers from Ireland, Scotland and Spain will highlight the links between the Irish and this 1,000-year-old pilgrimage route. It concludes with a tapas and wine reception. Book tickets, ¤13, on followthecamino.com or call 1890-252602.