Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

[Percy]

I have become a bit obsessed by walking the while nothern Spanish route but cannot take this amount of time off work. Can I take a straw poll - what would others do

1. Do the whole Spanish walk in stages (for me this would probably be 3 stages over 2 years)
2. Just do a shorter section - say the last 200kms

Do you know if the Compostela is awarded if achieved over 2 years.

I would be grateful for veterans advice.

[WolverineDG]

All that's needed to get the compostela is proof that you have walked the last 100k. It doesn't matter how many trips you take to the Camino.

Kelly

[KiwiNomad06]

Many, many Europeans do the walk in stages of a week or two or three, when they have their holidays. They just start off again where they left off last time.
Margaret

[MermaidLilli]

I will address the emotional equation..... I personally would feel a great sense of accomplishment if I walked from the beginning (whichever that may be for you... I would think SJPP mostly), walked until I had to leave and take it back up next time. The arrival to Santiago and/or Finisterra is a wonderful feeling. Just walking the end, then getting the Compostela is not as great to me as waiting and walking to it. Then receiving it. Does this make sense?
LOVE
Lillian

[Bridget and Peter]

I am limited by how much holiday from work is permissable/reasonable to take, so we are making our pilgrimage to Santiago in stages - from home in England. Ist stage(July 2007) - a weekend trip to the port of Harwich, stage 2 (Sept 07) two weeks from the ferry port in Holland to Rheims in France. Stage 3 begins on Sept 15th this year, from Rheims to as far as we get on the Vezelay route in three weeks. We don't know how many stages we will actually need! We are cycling, so far, but there's a thought that we might do the final stage on foot - whenever that is! And we're not really decided whether to do the camino frances or the camino del norte when we get there. There's plenty of time to decide in!!

The benefit of doing it this way is that we have time to reflect on and absorb the experience of one stage, and to prepare for the next by reading etc - I don't feel any less a pilgrim than those who spend weeks and months on the way. Maybe we'll be able to do that later on!

[sillydoll]

There are at least 15 official Spanish camino routes - ranging from the Camino Ingles - 107km - to the Via de La Plata which can be over 1000kms. Many of the others, Camino Catalán, Camino del Ebro, Cami de Sant Jaume, Ruta de la Lana etc. join up with one or the other (usually the Frances) en route to Santiago.
If you wanted to do a 'whole' Spanish route and get a Compostela, you could do the Camino Ingles from Ferrol.
As for the Camino Frances - ideas on starting points differ. Many guide books begin at St Jean - because of the great scenery in France - but I'm sure very few Spaniards have ever felt the need to travel to France before walking to the tomb of their patron Saint! Most start at a point closest to their homes and if that happens to be Pamplona, Burgos or Sarria, then they have done the camino. Walter Starkie considered Paris as the start of the Camino Frances.
If you want to do the 'Whole" northern route then you might have to start at Handaye. Even on this route there are variants - some following 'authentic' ways and others not.
All a bit confusing, I know, but why don't you just walk a section that you can manage in the time you have and really enjoy that bit?

[Alan Pearce]

The two best examples I saw on my recent camino of Europeans splitting up the route were as follows:
A lady from Latvia in her early thirties with three children, the youngest only two years old, who had left her children with her husband and mother-in-law for two weeks while she walked a section of the camino, intending to come back some time in the future to finish at Compostela. On the morning she left to fly back home, I asked when did she expect to return and finish her walk. "In 15 years, when my youngest is 17," was her reply.
A couple from Switzerland, who had started walking from Geneva. They walked an average of 4oo km each year. This year was the final stretch, and after 10 years and 4000 km, they made it to Compostela. I saw them in the cathedral, and didn't they look p;eased. As you would.

Buen Camino

Alan

[surlechemin]

The two best examples I saw on my recent camino of Europeans splitting up the route were as follows:
A couple from Switzerland, who had started walking from Geneva. They walked an average of 4oo km each year. This year was the final stretch, and after 10 years and 4000 km, they made it to Compostela. I saw them in the cathedral, and didn't they look p;eased. As you would.

Buen Camino

Alan

I think you might have got some something wrong here. It's 350 km from Geneva to Le Puy and roughly 1650 km from there to Santiago.

[Alan Pearce]

Hi Surlechemin
Thank you for your correction. It must have lost something in the translation, and my profound ignorance of European geography did the rest. My apologies. Can we then make it 200 km each year fo 10 years? I'm sure I got the time frame right, and it was the length of time taken by some Europeans to complete their camino that I wished to draw attention to.

Buen Camino

Alan