[Gocamino] Credential requirements. From the horse's mouth. Message 2

[Rosina]

Hi Cheri,
As you start the Camino, or before, you can get a "pilgrim's credential that, among other things, will entitle to sleep in the albergues, if they have room?. Most pilgrims get it as they start out, at Roncesvalles, SJPP, etc. They have a whole set-up there to dispense them. Others who start out, let's say, at Pamplona, Burgos, Sarria, Ourense, can go to the local church and get it. If the particular church does not dispense it they will tell you where to get it, mostly at a nearby Friends' Association.? In lovely Sevilla one can even get the Via de la Plata credential at a bar! (The Miami bar in Triana).
Often?pilgrims who hail from other countries like to get their credential before they leave, and they usually do so through the local Friends' Associations.
When you have the credential you get it stamped at the albergues?where you stay. Austrian, German and Italian pilgrims get their credential at home so that they can keep the hundreds of seals that they collect from the albergues in which they stay if they make the pilgrimage from their home land. (Once I saw an Austrian pilgrim who had filled up four credentials with seals).
But, for the purposes of qualifying for the Compostela the credential need only? show that you walked the last 100 kms. (or bicycled or rode on horseback the last 200). Familiar with the routes, the distances, the albergues, etc., the people at the Pilgrims' Office examine the credential and its seals (with dates) to corroborate, or not,?what a pilgrim may state.? (It would not have been possible, for instance, to sleep in an albergue in?Ponferrada one day and claim to have walked to sleep in an albergue in Sarria the next).
Of late, more and more Compostelas are being denied to people who show up at the Pilgrims' Office because the credential seals do not support a pilgrim's claim. Such people, may, however, get a "certificate of visit".
Personally, I don't understand?all the fuzz? about getting a credential.....It is so very easy!
Hugs!
Rosina








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I'm a little fuzzy as to how one gets a credential under this system.??Does that mean that the credential must be obtained before starting the pilgrimage????There will not be any place on the route to obtain it?? Thanks for keeping us informed.

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Cheers,

Cheri Powell

--- On Wedthem.





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