(Shopping along) The Way

I’ve had some time to ponder the Camino de Santiago now. We Road Scholars are basically the same as the journeying pilgrims when you allow for the fact that we’re on a luxury bus instead of hoofing it on foot and we’ve opted for 4 star hotels instead of dormitories. The personal struggles…low-functioning hotel room air conditioning and limited morning pastry selection…can feel just as overwhelming.

The end result, I think, is the same, and yet we’ve had operational plumbing the entire time.

We spent a fair amount of time on the main plaza of Santiago de Compostela, watching the heartier pilgrims arrive, throw down their packs, and lay down on the ground. I found it amazingly touching. Some were in groups, taking pictures, all smiles – and some had walked alone and sat, staring up at the cathedral, propped up against their enormous packs.

I talked with a woman on the plaza, writing postcards about her Camino. She was from Norway, walking alone, and had done 100km of this Camino, but was also doing 100km of three other European caminos.

Here’s the cathedral, completed in 1211, and then a picture of some of the pilgrims, taking their final few steps:

The whole concept of a Camino as a life passage event really appealed to me and I know many of you who have had I don’t like hiking conversations with me over the years are shaking your heads. I stand firmly for my conviction that a Camino might be something more than that but don’t worry – I already brought up my Camino plan with Ron and he said no and went off to the store to buy another sweatshirt:

From Santiago de Compostela, we hopped back on the bus and headed over to Lugo, a small city of about 100,000. Lugo is famous because it’s the only city in the world with its Roman wall completely intact. Here’s part of the wall, from about 200AD:

While I agree the Roman wall was amazing, also of note was the fact that we ran into that boatload of dancing Granadan senior citizens again and they promptly started dancing!

And Ron – to memorialize his trip to Portugal and Spain – purchased this Norway sweatshirt! (Sweatshirt count stands at three with 9 days left to travel).