Pamplona

Tomorrow I start walking, today is a rest day to cure jet lag. In the decade since I was last here, Pamplona has become much more prosperous, and it appears as if the Camino has become much more popular. Before the heat of the day, I walked down to the bridge across the Arga and then up the ramparts to take some photos, and the number of pilgrims entering the city in the morning, on foot and on bicycles, was quite amazing, this nearly a month for walkers and at least 2 weeks for bicyclists, prior to Santiago. Of course European summer holidays are still on, and I talked with several only doing a couple of weeks, perhaps going as far as Burgos, before quitting for the year. Hope so, as I do not relish the prospects of a crowded Camino. Walking a decade ago was luxurious, I guess.

Ready to Leave - Labor Day 5 September 2011: Maps

Scallop Shell Decoration on Building, 8th Arr., Paris

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Given the jobless rate, the stagnation of worker incomes, and the demise of unions as a countervailing power to oligopoly capitalism and the plutocratic accumulation of wealth in the US, Labor Day is a rather bitter joke, but this holiday does mark the end of summer. For me it is also the last day before leaving for Spain and the Camino. I fly to Madrid tomorrow evening then go on by bus to Pamplona where I begin to walk on Friday after spending Thursday to recover from jet lag and to once again sightsee in the capital of Navarra. For a change, I am completely packed with everything in order. Usually I fail to finish until a few minutes before leaving for the airport. As always, there will be the thought "what did I forget." Last time it was my jacket, so that was one of the first items into the pack yesterday. 

Spent a little time reviewing maps over the past few weeks, and I had planned to do an entire posting on maps before leaving, but that shall have to wait until I return. For use while walking, I evaluated two map sets currently available, and one of them is far superior to the other. On one or another Camino email list a map set published by Camino Downunder, Camino Santiago: 30 All Weather Walking Maps (ISBN 978-0-646-52975-2) was recommended, though I really do not know why. The set is a handy size and published on water resistant paper, but the maps per se are poor in the extreme. The route is shown in yellow on a shaded relief map but few details are shown. None of the landmarks which might confirm the location of the route are indicated on the maps, and no street maps for the larger towns and cities are included. While the back side of the map pages list accommodations, those are not pinpointed on the maps themselves. At a list price of Australian $39.50 (I paid almost $50 US when tax and shipping were included), the set is not worthwhile. The map pages in the Brierly guide (see the discussion of guide books several postings back) are far superior.

A much better and cheaper map set is the Camino de Santiago Map published by Vancouver's Pili Pala Press (ISBN 978-0-9731698-5-0). Also on somewhat water resistant paper, the maps provide sufficient detail as to be useful for wayfinding and for locating accommocations. Decent street maps are included for the larger towns, and points of interest along the way are indicated. I plan to carry this with me, and at $18 (Cdn $16) it is available from Wide World Books and Maps in Seattle. It is a map collection I recommend.

Where does the Camino Begin? The St. Jean-Pied-de-Port fetish

Route Napoléon, 1998

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Why and how did the peculiar idea that the Camino to Santiago de Compostela somehow starts at the  French tourist-trap St. Jean Pied-de-Port get its start? Most of the guidebooks in English describe the route of the Camino Francés from that point onward (though at least one of them, the CSJ guide, discourages starting there), and all too many reminiscences of walking the route describe the horrors of the Pyrenees crossing  following the Route Napoléon as the first day on the Camino. Several pilgrims of my acquaintance have either terminated their walk at Roncesvalles or seriously considered doing so because of the rigors of beginning in St. Jean, even when walking the Valcarlos route, lower in elevation and somewhat safer in bad weather, into Spain.

While St. Jean Pied-de-Port has its charms, the Route Napoléon over the Pyrenees is the worst of all possible trails for a pilgrim, especially one from outside Europe (or from more distant corners of that continent) to begin the walk to Santiago. Arriving late in the afternoon after a long flight or set of flights and then a long train, taxi, or bus trip, the pilgrim begins the next morning a 25 km alpine hike including a nearly 1300 meter climb followed by a nearly 400 meter descent into Roncesvalles. Especially enjoyable and easy if one comes directly from North America, out of shape from several days of travel and with a 6-9 hour jet lag to recover from! In fact, that combination of distance and elevation change is likely to tax a hiker who is in first-class condition. If penitence is the goal, why not get off the plane in London, walk to Dover, swim the channel, and then walk on to St. Jean? At the foot of the Route Napoléon, the North American pilgrim would then be in reasonable condition to face the Pyrenees crossing.

In the Middle Ages, only the relatively few pilgrims from the local parish would have started in St. Jean. Almost all others following the route would have had days of walking behind them with the consequent conditioning. And those pilgrims were more accustomed to walking and heavy exercise in their daily lives than most modern people are. Following the path of least resistance, early walkers would have likely selected the lower and somewhat less challenging Valcarlos route. Once in Spain, only one section of the Camino Francés offers a similar challenge, the climb to O Cebreiro, and that comes well into the route, after the pilgrim is accustomed to walking carrying a pack (and it is easy to arrange for transport of the backpack to O Cebreiro from Villafranca del Bierzo) and climbing.

And for all the rigors of alpine hiking it demands of the pilgrim, the vistas afforded by the Route Napoléon are pretty but hardly awesome. The true grandeur of the Pyrenees is not apparent until one gets quite a distance further east. The far western Pyrenees have a landscape not too different from the mountains of West Virginia, while the eastern portions compare favorably to the more rugged parts of the Rockies or the North Cascades. If one wishes to include some true Alpine walking as part of their Camino, it would be better to start in Pau, Oloron, or at the top of the Somport Pass, all readily accessible by public transport. Uphill to Somport is challenging but gentler and far more gradual than the uphill out of St. Jean. Downhill from the top of Somport to Jaca is a beautiful walk, and it is followed by several days along the bucolic and lovely Camino Aragonés, with a view of the high Pyrenees in the distance, before joining the Camino Francés at Puente la Reina.

The St. Jean fetish has bothered me since I first walked the Camino in 1998 and discovered what a terrible place it is to begin. My second walk started at Oloron via Somport to Jaca, and it was a far more satisfactory beginning. The Somport route is quite as historic and culturally important as that through Roncesvalles. Some pilgrims from far western Europe, the ones who did not make part of their trip by sea or follow the coastal route,  passed through St. Jean. A huge number of pilgrims from Italy, the Rhone Valley and parts of Europe north and east of there, including Poland, Switzerland, Scandinavia and much of Germany, crossed the mountains at Somport.

Why then do so many walkers work so very hard to arrange transport to St. Jean in order to face the unnecessary rigors of the Route Napoléon? It was but one of the routes into Spain in the great age of pilgrimages, but it has few special distinctions other than offering a somewhat lower pass than is available to the east. The convergence of the St. Jean and Somport routes at Puente la Reina really marks the commencement of the Camino Francés suggesting that the Camino begins there. Most Spaniards consider they have done the entire Camino when they start at Roncesvalles. Starting at St, Jean, in short, makes no sense!

From a practical point of view, using public transport it is easier to get to Pamplona than Puente la Reina, and as a matter of time and personal conditioning, I plan to begin this autumn's walk at Pamplona. If I had the extra time and felt I was in condition to do climbing early in the Camino, I would begin in France at Oloron St. Marie. If it were absolutely essential to pass through St. Jean, I would arrange to do a week of walking on the Chemin in France prior to the ascent on the Route Napoléon.

Camino Aragonés near Ruesta

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Packing for the Trek

Ready to Pack for the Camino, 28 August 2011

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In a week that included a substantial (5.8 Richter) earthquake, with two aftershocks strong enough to be felt, and a hurricane. it is amazing that anything has been accomplished here in ole virginny. In fact I have booked the final details for leaving home on 6 September and starting the Camino on 8 September. Included among my last minute tasks now is putting together things I need to pack. In 2001 I published a packing list on GoCamino, but I have been unable to find a clean copy of that document, so I went to the internet and found several lists that, if not derivative of mine, parallel it closely. A packing list that is for me a little too inclusive is available at On the Camino, a website new to me but one that appears to be at least marginally interesting (do not have time to investigate it now, shall leave that task until after I return). Another is available at the website of Paul Nelson a composer who walked the Camino several years ago. The venerable CSJ website also has a packing list.

Having walked twice in the autumn, my significant addition to these lists for my autumn walk is a pair of light gloves. Leaving the albergue at 6:30-7:00 am means an hour or more of walking before light and in the early morning when it can be quite cool. Layering is also a good idea – a t-shirt, shirt, polar fleece, and a light jacket worked for me and I plan to use that same system this go. Other good packing tips are provided on the three links suggested above, not least a list of things best left at home (hair dryers, jeans, etc.). My goal, perhaps achievable is <12 kilos!

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

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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.