Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

[sillydoll]

"A family journey of spirit & adventure, pedalling the ancient Pilgrim's Route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Una familia de peregrinos sobre bicicletas."

http://pedallingpilgrims.blogspot.com/2 ... stone.html

Part of: http://www.familyonabike.org/

[KiwiNomad06]

Thanks sil... I think their blog is just wonderful! And it is interesting to get the cyclist's perspective on the walkers!
Margaret

[sillydoll]

It is a charming blog but not all pilgrims feel the same about children on the camino. This was posted a few days ago by a young pilgrim:

CHILDREN. Grrrrrrrrr. I visited my friend Trinity before I left. She has two small boys, 1 and 2, and wants to walk the Camino BAD. She was wondering how old her boys have to be before they can go. I SAY SIXTEEN. Not a DAY less. I can´t quite make you understand how it feels to come off of 35km like we did today, and sit in the hot sun outside the albergue with the COMPLETO sign in the window, and watch 8 children under the age of 13 burst happily out of the albergue. But it´s something like murder. Today on the Camino, there was a family with a stroller and a four-year-old. I love my nephew, and I want him to have wonderful experiences, but the Camino is serious business to those of us who have been walking for a month. We don´t walk for 30 days to get to an albergue and see a bed taken up by a 6-year-old, or some obnoxious teenager who has no concept of what this pilgrimage really means. This may sound harsh, and I´m sorry. But I don´t think it´s fair that the available beds in an albergue can be decimated by a family with three or four children who started 40km ago and are ¨just out for a cheap walking holiday,¨ as Christa put it. It really sucks for us, and it doesn´t seem right. I´m not saying they should be sleeping in a gym like us, but we´re doing this thing for REAL, and the least we ask for is a bed. Kids don´t get this. We do. It´s been almost 800km. Give us the beds. Go to a hotel room with your family. Or wait until they´re old enough to appreciate this walk. Leave the albergues to the pilgrims.
Like I said, that may be harsh, but until you´ve walked 800km in my boots, please don´t judge me.

[Bridget and Peter]

We don´t walk for 30 days to get to an albergue and see a bed taken up by a 6-year-old, or some obnoxious teenager who has no concept of what this pilgrimage really means.

Whew!!

Like I said, that may be harsh, but until you´ve walked 800km in my boots, please don´t judge me.

Well, OK, I won't.

But I very VERY much don't agree. For a family to get out of the everyday round of plastic toys and TV, school and home with all their familiar routines and experiences, and embark on a journey in a new environment where they will be exposed to new concepts, challenges and culture, is every bit as REAL and worthy of respect as an adult struggling for 35 km and sitting in the hot sun.

I think this blog (the peddling pilgrims) is inspiring. The parents are not dragging unwilling children along on their adult agenda, but enabling the whole family to have an adventure together. They don't seem to have a religious motivation (nor do lots of others) and the camino is providing them with lots of opportunities for spiritual insights - (again, as it does for so many).

Please, everyone, don't disappoint me with lots of anti -children opinions - I can't believe it when pilgrims do that!

And I agree, Margaret, its refreshing to read descriptions of pilgrims from a different angle! (As a cyclist at my age and in my dress, I'm more of a walnut than a peanut, I think!)

[sillydoll]

Bridget and Peter - in your quotes you added "Sillydoll wrote". Sil didn't write those words - they were written by a young woman walking her first camino.
I forgive her because she has not yet had her own children and one day, when she has children, she might look back on her blog and learn a thing a two about herself!
When I read the diary of my first camino I realise what a naive, arrogant, ignorant, uninformed pilgrim I was. Hopefully this young lady will get the opportunity to walk it again. We are all evolving pilgrims and the camino can teach us many lessons.

[Bridget and Peter]

Sil

I did realise that those weren't your views but I'm not clever enough to do a quote from a quote and didn't actually realise that it said 'Sillydoll wrote' and therefore looked as if those were your views until after I'd submitted it. (And I did see Omar (I think) instructing someone else on how to edit - but if I edit it now then Sil's post won't make any sense.....)


anyway - sorry!

Back to the peddling pilgrims - we once took 4 children aged 8 to 14 on a five day youth hostelling expedition cycling ('Six Go Sycling' in Sussex would have been the blog's title if we'd heard about such things then)and that seemed challenge enough so I'm totally amazed by these parents with their three under 7! (And the children's blogs are brill)

[falcon269]

If you read Cameron's blog, he talks of camping and staying at a Parador.

I did neither, so he certainly was not competing for MY bed!

Jenna Bush stayed at the Parador's. Maybe he got HER bed.

[KiwiNomad06]

Yes, actually one of the entertaining entries on this blog was the one occasion when the briefly stumbled into a pilgrim albergue..... at Hospital de Orbigo, and couldn't get out of there fast enough!!!!
http://pedallingpilgrims.blogspot.com/2 ... ergue.html
Margaret