Are all routes to Santiago equally valid?

[Robert Spenger]

The most lonely experience I ever had on pilgrimages was being in SdeC
after taking the Portuguese route. I hadn't met any Santiago pilgrims
at all on the way and didn't know anyone in the city. I never felt
loneliness on the road itself, but there were lonely times in the
cities along the route, especially at meals. On that whole trip I can
count only 5 shared meals and one of those was lunch with Pieter in
Amsterdam, where I had a flight layover on the way to Lisbon.

The feeling was the strongest in the newly moved Cafe Manolo. Eating
dinner there by myself in the unfamiliar, big, new dining room I could
see groups of pilgrims all around me who were having the kind of
wonderful reunions that I had experienced in the funky old, crowded
Manolo's around the corner just a year before. This was probably one of
the reasons that drove me to do one more pilgrimage the following year
and finally giving in to the modern preference for going through SJPP.
Even then I was maverick enough to start two stages earlier - from
Saint Palais - which, as it turned out, was an excellent decision.

My initial pilgrimage experience, starting from Arles, was mostly solo.
I met only five pilgrims and spent two days walking with one and a half
day walking with the other, both of them French speaking only. I also
walked a couple of short sections with non-pilgrims just taking their
vacations walking the GRs. Once with an American couple and and a
couple of days with an English speaking French couple. On a few of
occasions I was fortunate enough to have English speaking hosts, so
even though there were almost no pilgrims, I enjoyed occasional dinner
conversations. After crossing the border at Somport, I began to meet a
few pilgrims, but was not prepared for the heavy flood that I joined
when I connected with the popular route at Pamplona. That came as a
shock after the small groups that I had met before.

regards,

Bob S.


On Mar 24, 2004, at 10:13 AM, Ed wrote:

>  Is it easy to share
> with anyone who has arrived in Santiago by a different route as
> yourself
> since there is no common shared experience other than the arrival.?
>
> Ed
>
>