The Story of <em>el Camino de Santiago</em>

ASTORGA, SPAIN.  According to Christian history, James (Santiago in
Spanish) the apostle, traveled to Galacia, in what is now northwestern
Spain after Jesus´ death to preach Christ´s message.  Greeted with
little success, James returned to Jerusalem where he was summarily beheaded. 
Legend has it that his remains were returned to Galacia for their final
resting place.  

Fast forward about eight centuries to a Christian hermit wandering
around Galacia, doing whatever it is that hermits do.  He witnesses a
compostela or field of stars (a meteor shower perhaps?) and takes
refuge in a cave where he discovers some headless human remains.  He
then chats with the local Catholic Bishop who confirms that those
remains are indeed the remians of the Apostle James.  That is how the
pilgirmage to the field of stars of Saint James, or Santiago de
Compestela began. 


During the middle ages millions and millions of Christians made
pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela.  It was the third most
important pilgrimage in Christendom, behind Jerusalem, which was often
too dangerous, and Rome, which I imagine was a little too close to the
beehive for most worker bees to want to visit.  Prudent
would-be-pilgrims woud save those two destinations for when they had
some serious sins to walk off, but for lesser indescretions Santiago de
Compestela was pilgrimage enough. 




Popularity of the pilgrimage diminished in the 17th and 18th
centuries, but not before the Way of St. James, or Camino de Santiago
was permanently (and literally) etched into the terrain of northern
Spain, and not before the benevelence of Santiago was etched into the
psyches of all Spainiards.  He is said to have appeared numerous times
at the height of battle to turn the tide in the favor of the Christians
in their reconquest of Spain from the Moors.  That is why James is
sometimes called Santiago de Matamoros (James the Moor Slayer) and why
Santiago is the patron saint of all of Spain. 




 In the past couple of decades the popularity of pilgrimages to
Santiago de Compestela has soared again.  Perhaps due to a
general disatisfaction with the secularism that has spread across europe
for the past few decades, or perhaps because Europeans needed a grand
adventure like that was closer to home.  I suspect it is both. 


Mags and I started our pilgrimage on el Camino in Astorga, about 250
km from Santiago de Compestela.  Tornado warnings in Dallas led to a
cancelled flight out of Salt Lake and ultimately to our arriving in
Astorga 24 hours later than we´d planned.  They also Caused us 15 hour
layover in Newark, NJ (One hour is all anyone really needs to fully
experience Newark) for which getting bumped to first class for our
flight across the Atlantic was little consolation. 



I´ll have more to say about this tomorrow, but for now I´ll repeat
what I´ve said in the past, that there is no better way to see a new
place than by bicycle, and that long distance touring is the highest and
best use of a bicycle.  The people along el Camino are very friendly
toward peregrinos (pilgrims), probably because in some towns el Camino is
all they have going for it, economically speaking.  It´s a strngth in
numbers thing, because this pilgirm isn´t blowing a lot of euros on this
trip.  Last night we stayed at an albeurgue, a hostel for pilgrims, for
only 9 euros.  That´s not 9 euros each, but 9 euros for both of us. 
And dinner tonight was, from the ¨special pricing for pilgrims¨ menu, less than 20 euros for both of us, and most importantly, the portions
were more than enough for a pilgrim sized appetite. 

More manana.  Buen Camino!