Camino de Santiago and Interior Decorating

In your first post @Corksfinedtboy you mention package tours. You can do the Camino two ways. As a pilgrim or as a tourist. As a pilgrim, you stay in cheap hostels (albergues), eats simply, walk when you want and the way you want and carry your own backpack. If you walk the last 100Km in one go (say five days) you qualify for The Compostela (certificate of completion). As a Tourist you stay in hotels, are driven to scenic parts of the walk, they carry your backpack and you are handed your daily meals. You don’t qualify for the Compostela.

After I walked it a lot of people asked me for info so I ended up generating a fairly long email about it. Here’s some of it. Bits added and taken out.

As posted above there are several routes to Santiago, the Camino Frances being the most popular. So the whole thing is very flexible. You’re probably looking at 30-35 days to complete the whole Camino Frances with a degree of comfort. So for most people if working that is the limiting factor. The main problem with breaking it up is getting to/from the stages. It’s tricky and can be very expensive to fly into Leon for example.

I was often asked if I was ever lonely walking on my own. That was a tricky one for me to answer. It is of course lonely and I ate many meals on my own. But I also got to meet a lot of interesting people. But for an average person loneliness isn’t a problem. At the start if you target hostels that provide communal evening meals, this is a great way to get to know people. When you stop for coffee, people will sit together rather than sit on their own. It’s very normal as there are lots of lone travellers. This is particularly true for the early stages. The last 100KM can be very busy and very impersonal, as this is the minimum distance you must walk to qualify for a certificate. Spain is the country but English is the communal language.

Is finding accommodation a problem each day?
Generally I’d say no. I’ve slept on church floors, in steeples, and in a big wardrobe. I was never stuck. The only time I pre-booked was in Refuge Orisson on the second night. I was a bit worried that the first stage over the Pyrenees would be too much for one day. So I decided to split it. Lots of people think the same which is why it can be busy and must be booked. After that I never had a problem. Most places you can phone and book ahead and your place will be held until 5pm. They of course have apps now. During quieter times hostels close down. So it’s supply and demand. You will always find somewhere. People are always helpful. In Santiago itself I hadn’t booked ahead and I had to stay outside the city.

What were the evenings like after a day’s walking? Could you have a few beers?
The day fills up pretty fast. I always got my washing done and then went for a walk around, done a lot of stretching, stop for a beer or two and sus out where to get an evening meal. The hostels close at 10pm and you’re up by 6:30am so there’s no party/ foreign holiday atmosphere. You just get sucked in and go with the flow. The Estrella Galicia is particularly good and available in most of the provinces. The pilgrim menu in most restaurants comes with a bottle of water and a bottle of local wine. I always kept the water for the following day. All fountains are clearly labelled, Agua Potable and Agua Non-potable. Water and hydration were always my number one priority, as in having to carry a minimum amount to reach the next town/fountain. I don’t know if you’re religious but the pilgrim masses (hostels attached to churches) are well worth attending. It’s mass – meal – stamp.

How did you manage the clothes washing/drying , could you wash and dry at the evening accommodation?
Most hostels have basic hand washing facilities. Carry some soap/powder. Make sure all your clothing and towel are quick drying and you won’t have a problem. Bring two sets of clothes, wash one, wear one. I decided beforehand that I would shower every day, and wash out my clothes every day. Lots of people didn’t and you could tell. Bed bugs are a problem, see the book below for best advice.

If you were to go again what would you do differently?
Next time I probably wouldn’t stay in Orisson. With that said it was a great place to stay. It’s a private hostel so it’s expensive. But they have a great communal meal where everybody is introduced to everybody else. You’ll make friends there that you’ll meet again and again. I trained beforehand in Ireland in heavy woollen socks. I never had blisters, so I decided to walk in the same socks. Bad choice, I just couldn’t get them dry and always had them hanging out the back of my rucksack the following day. Wi-Fi was scarce enough back then. So I think a good phone with a roaming data tariff to allow internet access is a must.

The agreed best trail book for the Camino Frances is here:

Make sure you get the latest addition as hostels open and close all the time, shops, fountains etc.

This website is definitely one of the best.

The forum is busy and up to date. You can find fellow travellers hoping to share taxis from the airport. Lots of other questions answered. He can organise your backpack or excess luggage. Money wise, you can survive on 20 Euros a day, but 30 is more realistic especially if you have a couple of beers and Café con leche which is addictive. They’re 2014 figures. Cash is still king over there as far as I know.

You can get an Irish credential here:

It’s just a bit different from the one available over there. So they know your Irish!

Also a film here that’s worth a look, if you haven’t already.

Buen Camino!

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Smashing stuff. :clap::clap:

Credential and compostela.


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Fair play

Is there anything we don’t have an expert in :clap:

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By God that’s bloody brilliant
Thanks

Sense

In and out like a painters elbow

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:ok_hand::ok_hand::ok_hand:


Hope CCFC will be in and out of the Athlone fc goal later on💪

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@Corksfinedtboy

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Interesting thank you

An interesting and honest article from the Clare Champion a number of years ago.

A pilgrim’s lonely journey on the camino
By MĂĄirtĂ­n Mac Cormaic

ON the pilgrim path about 20km east of Santiago de Compostela in the north of Spain, there is a simple memorial to a 52-year-old Irishwoman who died in her sleep having just walked some 800km.
Myra Brennan (nee Holland) of Kilkenny and Sligo had actually just completed her second successive camino, which meant walking all the way from the village of St Jean Pied de Port on the French side of the Pyrenees to the cathedral city of Santiago in Galicia where legend has it the remains of St James the Apostle lie.
According to the memorial, Myra died peacefully in her sleep on June 24, 2003. The memorial was erected on the fifth anniversary of her death, in June 2008, by someone describing themselves as “Bridget F”.
I had not heard of Myra Brennan before I came across her memorial last month as I approached the town of Santiago while completing my own camino. I know nothing about her apart from what is on the memorial.
For all I know, she may have done the pilgrimage on horseback or on a bicycle. But I am presuming she walked because that is how most people do the camino.
I also presume she had walked from St Jean Pied de Port because that it the most popular route to take for people from this side of the world.
But she must have been a brave and determined woman. To do it once would have taken a fair amount of willpower. But to complete it two years in succession must have taken an extraordinary woman.
I am sure she died happy in the knowledge of her achievement. But she was too young when she died. She would be 60 if she were alive today and capable of completing many more caminos. I looked her up in Google but could find out nothing about her apart from what is on her memorial. I don’t know if her husband is still alive or if she had any children. I am sure her family missed her when she died. But they must be proud of her. As befitting a person with Sligo connections, there are the famous lines from WB Yeats on her memorial:
“And I shall have some peace there for peace comes dropping slow.”
I decided to do my own camino when my older brother TomĂĄs died peacefully in his sleep last June. I was driving up through Spain when I got the terrible news. I decided more or less then and there that I would at least attempt to walk some of the camino as a tribute to my brother.
He was my hero, his death was totally unexpected and I could quite easily drift into a state of depression on hearing of his death. He and I often talked about life and death. We told each other that we did not feel our ages, that our parents, our grandparents and many of our uncles and aunts lived to ripe old ages and that we also should at least live into our 90s.
But his sudden death at the comparatively young age of 76 blew that theory into smithereens. I now felt vulnerable and thought, like my brother, I too could go at any time.
While I was waiting in the North of Spain to go on the camino, I got news from home that my nephew and godson, John McCormack of Limerick and London, had died. I decided to dedicate my pilgrimage to him also.
I decided that to walk the whole 800km was a bit too much to expect from a 74-year-old like myself who had never taken too much care of himself. So I settled on 112km over a four-day period from the town of Sarria. You need to walk a minimum of 100km to be officially recognised as a proper pilgrim.
After my brother’s funeral and throughout the summer, I read as much as I could about El Camino de Santiago, including the excellent Buen Camino by Peter Murtagh of The Irish Times. This pilgrimage to Santiago cathedral dates back more than a 1,000 years.
Apparently in medaevial times, Irish pilgrims left from St James’ Gate in Dublin. I didn’t do that but did the next best thing, I had a few pints of Guinness at the Corner Stone bar in Lahinch the night before setting out.
Also during the summer, I practised walking but never more than two hours a day. On the camino, I would be walking around six hours a day, much of it over mountains and hills.
I took the ferry from Rosslare to Cherbourg in the North of France and drove from there to Bilbao in the North of Spain. I undertook a 10-hour train journey from there to Sarria, where I spent the night before setting out on the long walk.
I had looked up the weather forecast and was confident there would be no rain so I didn’t bother bringing any rain gear.
Like a lot of people of my age, I can have problems with my back, so I had to keep to a minimum the amount of stuff I would take with me. Apart from the clothes I was wearing - shorts, underpants, tee shirt, baseball cap, boots and socks, I was advised to carry as little as possible in my rucksack: Change of socks, shirt and underwear, pyjamas (which I found not to be essential), long pants in case the evenings were cold (they were not, so the long pants remained in the rucksack), a towel, elastoplast (for blisters), a needle (to burst blisters), mobile phone and charger, money (of course), credit card, notebook, ear plugs (in case of sharing room with snorers), a torch, a bottle of water, and a banana.
I also brought a light jumper tied around my waist and which I wore only in the early mornings. I should say that apart from having a bad back, I also have a dodgy right knee for which I carried an elastic support and would strap around my knee when it gave me trouble after about 15km each day.
I had two walking sticks with me, on the advice of my doctor Michael Kelliher in Lahinch. He told me the sticks would take the pressure off my legs. I said I would look like a fool carrying two sticks. Wouldn’t one do? He replied that one was half as good as two. I certainly believe I would not have been able to do the walk without the two sticks. Before he got up on his hind legs, didn’t man walk on all fours like a horse? So my two sticks served as my forelegs.
I walked an average of 28km each day over the four days and rested up for about 20 minutes after walking about 8km, which meant taking a rest about three or four times a day before finishing.
The walk was no major deal and was not as painful as I thought it might be. It was over some of the most beautiful countryside in Spain.
However, it was a delight to reach my destination each evening. Taking off my boots and socks and then having a shower was like heaven itself. Second heaven was having two cold beers after changing into my flip flops and putting on a clean shirt. Third heaven was having my one full meal each day, around 8pm, before retiring to bed.
But the greatest pleasure of all was reaching the Cathedral of St James in Santiago on the final day of my camino. However, I had to find the place where I would receive a certificate proving I had walked over 100km. The cathedral was thronged with tourists from all over the world, most of whom seemed to have just alighted from buses parked around the corner.
I was so proud of myself, a 74-year-old with a bit of a beer belly and an obvious pilgrim with my sticks, my rucksack and the dust of the road, among all these clean people. But I might as well be one of the beggars outside the front door for all they cared about me. Anyway, I eventually got my certificate, which will probably spend the rest of its days at the back of a drawer at home.
The biggest drawback for me over the four days of the camino was the loneliness. I met nobody of my own age. Most pilgrims seemed to be in their 20s or 30s and were in small groups. They were mostly Spanish, French or Germans. There were some English and possibly some Irish but I didn’t feel like butting in on any of them. So I walked alone, I dined alone and I slept alone. I would have liked to have somebody to talk to as I drank my two beers each evening. But that was not to be.
Next year, I hope to walk over 300km from the French side of the Pyrenees - in company. The year after that, I would like to do like Myra Brennan and countless thousands of others have done over the ages and that is to walk the whole 800km from start to finish. We’ll see.
God rest you Myra Brennan and all those others who have completed the camino over the centuries. God rest you too my brother, TomĂĄs, and my nephew and godson, John. May your camino be a pleasant one.
Since then, my daughter, RĂłisĂ­n, died at the end of November. I am still grieving for her and next year, with the help of God and St James, I will do the camino again and dedicate it to RĂłisĂ­n.

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Brilliant

He was better off alone I reckon as if in company he may have had to slow down

A couple of pointers here for you and you can tell me to feck off at any stage if I’m annoying you as the Camino is a very personal journey.

Based on your posts in another thread you seem to be training too hard too soon. Now there’s no harm keeping yourself fit and in shape but the distances you’re quoting in my opinion are too much. It’s as if you’ve started your Camino now in Germany and intend finishing it in September in Santiago. You’ll be burned out. You’re a fit man but you’re not a young man. I’ve seen people on the Camino Frances who started in German. Their knees and especially feet were in tatters and they had to give up. There’s probably more qualified athletes on here than me. I don’t go on the running threads. You need to build up to your departure date with a six to eight week training schedule, hitting the 20KM lengths only two or three times a week before departure.

The Camino isn’t all about walking. You need to start thinking about your gear. Start walking with a rucksack and walking pole or poles. I trained here on the banks of the Shannon. Nice and flat. Thought I was doing great. It wasn’t until I hit Cratloe woods and a few miserable hills and rough surface that I found out how unfit I really was. After a fallen arch, torn calf muscle and a dodgy hamstring I knew I was better prepared and ready for the challenge.

You also need to incorporate strengthening and stretching exercises into your weekly programme. These are absolutely vital for stamina and overall fitness to help you recover from any injuries. You will fall, it’s just a matter of how many times and how your body recovers.

I have a six week exercise and stretching plan that I can send on to you, but you may be better advised to go to somebody local, have yourself physically assessed and let them draw up a pre-Camino plan that suits you. It won’t cost a packet and will be money well spent.

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Your sister not enjoy hiking so I take it?

I also get the impression from your posts that you want to hit this hard and fast, possibly hitting 30 plus Km per they. It can be done. I know a lad here from Caherdavin who ran it all in a week. But if you’re walking 35KM and everybody else is walking 20-25KM it’ll be a very lonely Camino for you, and you’ll burn yourself out physically and mentally.

Had no idea it was that length of a trek until seeing that illustration.

Very good advice by the sounds of it. Keep it coming. I decided yesterday that I’m going to do St Declans Way this summer. If I can manage that id think of doing a bit of the Camino and if I can’t sure then I’ll know the Camino is just a pipe dream and I’ll get on with life. I have two metal knees so they’ll be grand but my ankles are in rag order and the hands are giving in (relevant to the poles). Most of St Declans way is flattish but there is a big climb (for me) up over the Knockmealdowns at Mt Melleray.
First thing to do id say is to purchase the footwear and have it well worn in before I start.