By car to Santiago de Compostela
About seven years ago we went to Santiago de Compostela by car. We didn’t go inside the church because it looked closed for other visitors than pilgrims. At that time we concluded that we had to do this pilgrims walk to see it from the inside. Jaap-Willem always wanted to walk this caminho, for me it sounded ridiculous, walking for a week or longer, just too long for me but the question is also when can you go away for a long period?
Now we own a house (Casa da Lima, next to the Caminho Portuguese to Santiago, we do need to walk it ourselves to experience the caminho to Fatima and Santiago de Compostela. We promised to go back to Santiago de Compostela by foot one day…
By foot to…
Now the time has come. We choose the hottest month of the year: August 2022. It was now or never because our daughter went to my parents for a while in The Netherlands, so we ‘seize the month’. We have exactly one month to prepare.
Of course we didn’t plan anything but now I look back we did the camino backwards. First visiting the city, later the first part (Vigo) to the city, afterwards the second part from our house Casa da Lima towards Santiago. And yes even from Lisbon to Casa da Lima.
100 km!
We thought about a feasible length of the journey. For us it is around 15-20 km a day for a period of 6 days. Enough to get so bored that you keep having miraculous dreams and thoughts. We read that in a novel about pilgrims, and we heard it from our friend the chief pilgrim who lives a few villages further north (Refugio peregrino Nicolau). Obviously miraculous things happen on the caminho. Also a time of reflection and coming back to your true self, since you have nothing else to do than walk, walk and walk.
Starting from Vigo, the coastal route
When we have a closer look on the map, we see we have to start somewhere around Vigo in Spain. From Vigo it is called the coastal route. And what is better than the coolness of the sea and a maybe a dive after the walk? Also we read that in order to earn a Compostela, the certificate or a kind of Medaille you have to walk at least 100 km. Vigo is just 100 km away from Santiago de Compostela. We know our starting point! With in our mind our Compostela hanging on the wall of our Casinha we will make preparations.
Prepare and you are half way…
What do you have to do to earn your Compostela?
- Walk for spiritual or religious reasons;
- Complete at least 100 km by foot or on horseback, or 200 km by bicycle. Prove this by collecting 2 stamps a day.
It is not just going there and collecting your Compostela. It is a true business with lots of people from all over the world, so there need to be more preparations. The following things need to be done and then the Compostella is yours:
- Pre-registration on the website www.oficinadelperegrino.com
- Once arrived at the Pilgrim’s Office you must collect the digital ticket with your turn.
- Check the queue. Check the QR code on your ticket to know when to show up
- Finally get your Compostela.
We will keep you up to date from this coastal route Vigo -Santiago de Compostela every day. Where we stayed, if the path was easy or hard, what we had for food etcetera. Of course we hope that you will walk more than our 100 km, starting south of Coimbra and stay in our Casinha da Lima. In that way you don’t have to read, just asks us all your questions!
To continue with this caminho read further on my Aylinkho blog….
