Guidebooks for the Camino I

Camino Guide Books, Old and New, Good and Not So Good

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The photo shows a collection of guidebooks for the Camino I pulled off my bookshelves at random. There remain a number of others on those shelves, and my collection is by no means comprehensive. Writing and selling tourist guides is a big business in the world today, and there is hardly a place for which there isn't at least one readily available title in a major language. Perhaps a book for North Korea does not yet exist, I don't know, for I have not looked for one. Otherwise there are titles on all the countries I have visited, plan to visit in the not too distant future, and ones I may never get to; guides for countries so easy to travel in that  a guide hardly seems necessary and ones for states so dangerous or difficult of access that few tourists venture to them.

The increasing popularity of the Camino means there are countless guidebooks in virtually every major language, and lots in less widely spoken languages, as well as sections on the Camino in more general guide books for Spain.  I have not yet come across Camino guidebooks in Hindi-Urdu, Chinese, or Japanese, but I would not be at all surprised if they exist. Of course guidebooks for the Camino have a very long history, beginning with a section of the recently purloined Codex Calixtinus. The quality of the books currently available is hugely variable as are the topics covered. Preparing to once again walk the Camino, I have been evaluating which one(s) to carry with me.

Walking means one wants minimal extra weight in the pack, and several of the books weigh-in at more than an extra pair of shoes! Some major demands and complaints as I evaluate titles:
1. Maps are essential, so why are many of the guidebooks provided with none or with crude and virtually useless ones? If I have time before I leave, I may post some comments on maps.
2. Up to date is essential, a difficult proposition in the past. With various digital techniques, it is much easier to update content, and good guides should reflect that.
3. Are color pictures really necessary? Indeed, in most cases are pictures necessary at all? In books like the estimable Michelin Green Guides where pictures are used to point out distinctive features of a site, then perhaps, but do we really need a color photo of the cathedral at Burgos or Santiago in a book on how to walk there? Is a pilgrim unlikely to recognize those large and visually dominant structures on arrival? Color printing and any printing of pictures adds to the cost and weight of books.
4. Content should be limited to information needed by the user along with a carefully selected and edited set of additional tips which the user might find of interest or use.
5. Bindings should be flexible and durable. Ideally they should be water resistant.
6. The books should be small and easy to carry.

While they were not perfect, the early incarnations of the Lonely Planet guides met most of my needs when I was young, poor, and bumming around Asia. They were lightweight, directed at backpackers, informative but with little information not of direct interest to the traveler. Their bindings were not great, but overall they were nearly perfect for one travelling light.  Compare that to the company's current guidebook for Spain weighing-in at nearly 700 grams. My flip-flops weigh less than 500! In fairness to Lonely Planet, some of their books can be purchased as pdf files, and I purchased and plan to load the section on the Camino from Hiking in Spain onto my iPhone for consultation enroute.

Based on evaluation of a pile of titles, I am currently considering three guides to carry, each of which meets most of my criteria listed above.
1. The CSJ guide to the Camino Francés which I undoubtedly will carry. Major fault: no maps.
2. Brierly, John. 2011. A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino Santiago. Forres, Scotland: Camino Guides. ISBN 978-1-84409-192-8. Major faults: color photos and dubious quality binding.
3. Davies, Bethan, Cole, Ben and Hnatiuk, Daphne. 2009. Walking the Camino de Santiago. 3rd edition. Vancouver, BC: Pili Pala Press. ISBN 978-0-9731698-4-3. Major faults: not up to date and dubious binding.

I must say the last title came as a major surprise when I found it at Wide World Books and Maps in Seattle a few weeks ago. A decade or so ago I attended a reading at that same store when the authors gave what I thought was a very poor presentation, badly informed on too many issues relating to the Camino, and I did not even bother to buy their initial book (I am a sucker for books on the Camino as my sagging bookshelves attest). Although it is 2 + years out of date, their 3rd edition is well worth considering as a guide to carry.

Once in Spain I plan to look for titles in various other languages I can read, though this time, unlike on my past two treks where I used guides in German, French, and Castellano in preference to the heavy and out-of-date guides available in English (the CSJ guide was the exception, but it contained no maps, and in those days maps of the Camino were harder to get), I expect to use English language guides. I may just buy guides in other languages and have them sent back for later reading. When I return, I will once again post about guides, afterthoughts.

Ultreia

Scallop Shell Ornament

Sign for St. James Garlickhythe, London

©EOP

This blog began as a general overview of pilgrimage designed for use with some courses I taught on that subject. Until now it has been comprehensive, covering numerous pilgrimages in various religious traditions in many different parts of the world. For the next several months it shall be limited to commentary on el Camino de Santiago de Compostela as I prepare to make, and then once again walk, for the third time, the venerable pilgrimage route, the Camino Frances, to the purported tomb of the Apostle .

It is with considerable trepidation that I anticipate beginning in less than than a month the walk across Northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela. While I look upon this trek as more a research expedition than a pilgrimage per se, I shall walk from Pamplona to Santiago in 32 days. As I last walked from Oloron and Somport to Santiago, leaving home shortly after the events of 11 September 2001, I am intensely curious about how things may have changed. I am especially interested in how the city of Santiago de Compostela has changed in the past decade since I last walked the Camino and over the decades since I first visited that pilgrim destination in the far northwest of Spain in the 1970s. It is now not just the site of the shrine, an archbishopric and an ancient university but also the administrative capital of autonomous Galicia and a European cultural center. Changes which may have occurred in the smaller communities along the Camino and in the characteristics of those who elect to make the pilgrimage are also of interest. With plans to teach and write about pilgrimage now that I have more time for the subject, I am in a materials collection mode!

Today a nurse who gave me a vaccination (tetanus, a little overdue in what should be a once in 10 year cycle) asked “do you think you can do it?” I think I can, but I am not in the condition I was in 10 years ago, especially after a broken ankle 18 months ago. At age 66, now living in the hideous climate of Northern Virginia where the July just ended was the hottest ever recorded, getting in condition has proven a challenge. A 10 day visit to the Pacific Northwest in early August provided excellent weather but all too little time for practice walking. I think I can walk 18-30 km days with several hundred meters of climbing on a number of those days, but I do worry a little that I cannot do it. My response is to plan for shorter days and, a real cheat, to pay for my pack to be carried between stops.

That should allow lots of time to take notes, to talk with peregrinos and others along the route, and to take lots of photos. I plan to use this blog to post comments and photos while enroute. I had thought I might carry a small computer or iPad, but I think I shall limit myself to an iPhone and occasional cyber cafes, so postings may come at irregular intervals. Before I depart I plan several postings on issues of preparation, information sources, and some random thoughts about the peculiar human institution of pilgrimage.

Cultural Catastrophe!

St. James (Santiago) image in Codex Calixtinus (Wikipedia Commons)

After months of not writing, I had planned to begin adding materials to this blog as I prepare to once again walk the Camino Frances to Santiago de Compostela this coming autumn. I had not planned to begin by reporting a great crime against the human patrimony. One goal of my forthcoming pilgrimage was to view the Codex Calixtinus, one of the most important documents of medieval Europe, but alas that is not to be. Last weekend the document was stolen from the archive of the Cathedral.

On the Gocamino news group, I posted the following:
Whatever its status and history as the first European travel guide, loss of the Codex is a cultural tragedy. One of the most important extant collections of medieval music, the Codex Calixtinus is a key document for students of musicology. Other materials contained in the stolen document are equally important for scholars in various fields of medieval studies. This theft is at least on a par with the theft of a first folio of Shakespeare from Durham University (see the fascinating display currently on view at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC) or the art works taken from the Gardiner Museum in Boston as one of the great crimes against the human patrimony committed against an institution devoted to preservation of that heritage.

One must hope the Codex Calixtinus is returned to the cathedral archive quickly and undamaged, and that it is not broken into pages and then sold to unscrupulous dealers who then sell them to unethical collectors in a vast, and one hears hideously lucrative, market for purloined works of art. Once in that market documents tend to disappear forever. Should the document be irretrievably lost, there are at least good quality reproductions for scholars and pilgrims to see, though those can never convey the thrill of examining the original nor contain the possibility of discovery some new scholarly examination may uncover. Meanwhile the Cathedral needs to evaluate its security precautions, for its archive and treasury contain numerous other items of potentially great value in the illicit art market.

A frequent contributor to discussions of matters related to the pilgrimage to Santiago has posted an extensive commentary on the importance of the Codex Calixtinus to that pilgrimage at her blog Amawalker.

Pilgrims to Shia Shrines in Iraq Killed

Al-Askiriya Mosque as rebuilt, Samara, Iraq

Source: Wikipedia Commons

Iraq contains some of the most important shrines for the Shia sect of Islam including those at Karbala where in past years a number of pilgrims have been killed. Yesterday's New York Times reported on a series of killings of pilgrims, including persons coming from predominantly Shiite Iran to visit the sacred sites in Iraq. The paper reports seven blasts at various sites around Baghdad killing at least 16 people and injuring many more. The Shia pilgrimage sites in Iraq were off-limits for pilgrims from Iran for many years. While the government of Iraq now allows Iranians to visit, friction between Sunni and Shia in Iraq has resulted in periodic, violent and deadly attacks against Shia pilgrims at and en-route to or from the shrines. Both Iraqi and non-Iraqi pilgrims have been targets of Shia bombs over the past eight years.

Pilgrims have been targets of terrorists in Iraq, but so also have been the pilgrimage sites themselves. In 2006 a terrorist bomb destroyed the golden dome of the al-Askari mosque at Samarra, about 125 km from Baghdad, and much of the mosque was left in ruins, Al-Askari and its golden domed mosque is one of the most important Shia pilgrimage sites, behind only Karbala and Najaf in significance. The next year the two golden minarets and a clock tower on the site were also destroyed by terrorist bombs. While none of the buildings were very old, they were covered in gold leaf and contained the remains of two of the most revered early imams of Shia Islam. The mosque and minarets have been rebuilt, and pilgrims have resumed visiting the sacred site. Among some Sunni Muslims in Iraq the pilgrimage site at al-Askari is also revered.

The Shi'ite Askariya shrine in Samarra, Iraq, June 23, 2003. The sacred mosque was destroyed February 22, 2006. (Mandi Wright/Detroit Free Press/KRT)

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/03/06/63436/iraqi-pilgrims-visit-samarras.html#ixzz17LjRA6Tj

A New Session of the Pilgrimage Course, ALRI Spring 2011

St. James Major (Santiago), 16th Century, Alabaster 

Victoria & Albert Museum, London

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The Pilgrimage course, one I greatly enjoy leading, is to be offered at ALRI again in the Spring 2011 term, and I am looking forward to it. As always when a course it repeated, it is a chance to do some additional research and to flesh out ideas and topics covered in the past. 

I have been doing some reading about pilgrimages in exotic places including the Shikoku pilgrimage, about 1,300 kms on the island of that name in Japan. The husband of a former student was so kind as to give me a copy of a book I had scan read a long time ago, Japanese Pilgrimage by Oliver Statler (1983. New York: Morrow. ISBN 0688018904). I plan to do enough reading about that fascinating Buddhist trek to comment more intelligently on it in the Spring, having just shown a map and said the route existed the last time I taught the course. I also plan to spend a little time looking further into the Qoyllurití pilgrimage in Peru. If time allows, I would also like to do a little work on pilgrimages in Africa, a part of the world largely ignored in the past editions of the course due to my ignorance.

The year 2010 was a holy year for Santiago de Compostela, and I had hoped to walk at least a part of one of the pilgrimage routes. An ankle injury in last winter's ice and snow made that impossible, but I do hope to be in shape to walk some section of one of the Camino routes this coming autumn. As a consequence I have been doing some reading about routes other than the popular Camino Frances from the Pyrenees to Santiago. Having walked that 800 kms twice, this next time I am considering the possibility of the short Camino Portuguese from Lisboa or perhaps only from Oporto as well as the rugged Camino del Norte (also called the Camino Primitivo) and the spectacular Camino de la Plata from Sevilla via Extremadura through Salamanca and onward to Santiago. The last is the most attractive but also by far the longest (2 months about) and most difficult option.  

Hajj 1431 ( November 2010 in the Western Calendar)

Grand Mosque, Mecca 2010 Hajj

Source: Chiru Fans Site, India

The 2010 Hajj saw a peak of nearly 3 million pilgrims in Medinah and Mecca over the period 14-18 November, and it passed without major problems. Torrential rainstorms near the end of the Hajj made for slippery conditions, but otherwise the weather was cooperative, and there were no problems of terrorism, no stampedes or other events which have marred pilgrimages in past years.

Meanwhile the Saudi government is remaking Mecca with the eventual goal of allowing 5 times as many pilgrims to make the Hajj annually. Much redevelopment of the core of the city has already occurred, but it mostly provides luxury accommodations for the rich. Poorer pilgrims making the required visit to the sacred city have not fared so well. The Pakistani government has arrested the official in the Ministry of Religious Affairs responsible for Hajj and there has been a call for the minister to step down after poor pilgrims were badly housed in Mecca. The charge is misappropriation of funds after housing in the Saudi city was unfinished and pilgrims stayed in places without adequate water and sanitation and no electricity. At nearly $3000 each charged by the Pakistani government for transportation and housing, poorer Pakistanis must save over many years to pay the cost of the pilgrimage.

An American company arranging for visas to Saudi Arabia for United States Muslims returned passports somewhat late, and those passports were, in turn, delayed by the customs service. The delay caused a number of pilgrims from northern Virginia to miss scheduled flights. The customs service was forced to pay for replacement flights in order to get those pilgrims to the international airport at Medinah on time to make Hajj. The Saudi goverment has been concerned with firms not meeting contractual obligations when providing services for pilgrims.

St James in London

Statue of Peregrino atop Clock

St. James Garlickhythe, City of London

© EOP

London
5 September 2010


It has been a little difficult to find time to write a blog while on holiday here, but I have found a few things worthy of mention. As all know, London is a city rich in museums and especially rich in collections relating to the Middle Ages. There are worthwhile images of St. James in the medieval collections of the Victoria & Albert and in the National Gallery. A fascinating little gem is the small Wren Church of St. James Garlickhythe. It is a little difficult to locate and even more difficult to access since one of its walls faces on a busy street without a pedestrian footpath. The short walk to the Church is well worthwhile, for the still active parish church includes all kinds of St. James symbols as part of its decoration.