The Camino de Santiago with family: blisters and fatigue with a happy ending
Good journey! The greeting that pilgrims repeat to Santiago renews the strength of an adventure, whether it be secular or religious, that deserves to be experienced once in a lifetime
The Camino de Santiago with family: blisters and fatigue with a happy ending
We didn’t make it in time for the botafumeiro, the ritual of incense, but that was the least of it. The entrance to the Obradoiro square was the most exciting part. The final stretch of the last stage through Santiago de Compostela, after seeing the city so close and at our feet from Mount Gozo, seemed endless.
At that moment, we hadn’t fully processed the experience, but the Camino de Santiago ignites a light in a corner of the soul that grows stronger with time.
Memories surface from time to time, thoughts about the journey are recurring, anecdotes bring laughter again, and the characters are not easily forgotten.
This route, born as a pilgrimage to visit the tomb of the apostle Santiago, discovered in the 9th century, changed my life.
You don’t need to have a religious or spiritual goal to enjoy the Camino de Santiago. I didn’t have one: I let myself be seduced because of my two teenage daughters, and, above all, to have a family goal, to set a routine of walking for hours each day despite the summer heat and to try to overcome the challenge.
And after finishing my experience.
I would say that behind each of the almost 400,000 people who cover this French route or any of its variations – the Portuguese, the English, the Primitivo, the Silver Route… – there is a unique and different motivation.
“The entrance to Obradoiro square was the most exciting, an indescribable feeling marked by fatigue. The final stretch of the last stage through Santiago de Compostela felt eternal to us” Santiago Urquijo Zamora
The road gradually engulfs you.
The first two days, I tried to capture every detail and share it on social media, but by the third day, it became impossible as fatigue was overwhelming, and the road had completely engulfed me in its mystery.
My younger daughter was struggling because her backpack was too heavy, although she never complained. When we took it off her, the result was astonishing. The older one immediately developed a huge blister that had to be treated at a clinic in Villafranca del Bierzo.
“I had never seen one like this before,” said the nurse. So, she took a day off to rest and then continued walking. My partner got bitten by a bug, and their leg swelled up on the second to last day: the entry into Santiago was torture for them, but they made it.
The Camino de Santiago has a lot to do with how to face adversities and get to know oneself better
We were four on this adventure. The Camino de Santiago has a lot to do with facing adversity, getting to know ourselves better, and surprising ourselves with what we are capable of.
That happened to us, constantly.
And those hardships that sometimes make you wonder if it’s worth walking 318 kilometers (from León to Santiago de Compostela, in 13 stages) are the ones that remain somewhere inside and emerge to remind you that you have to take steps forward, even if they are difficult.
Landscape of gentle rolling hills with meadows dotted with small villages are part of the route Ben Holgate
It is also important what you find along the Way, which in the Middle Ages became the third most important place of Christianity, after Jerusalem and Rome.
That bond that arises with the route and disconnects you from your world to hook you into theirs, like the family of storks in a low tower of a church, the beautiful spider web woven on any illuminated fence by the lights of dawn, the river that heals the punished soles of the feet (like the Meruelo in Molinaseca), or the centuries-old tree that presides over the entrance of the village of Ramil, in Triacastela, and which is so wide that it is impossible to hug it (it has been standing there for over 800 years).
The characteristic “Good journey!” becomes the best incentive to keep going
And, of course, the characters that appear to make those kilometers of walking more bearable.
We were lucky to meet Javier, who claimed to have completed the Camino 33 times! Or Bienvenido, who told us that he used to break stones – his twisted and rough hands showed the years of hard work – and now sells scallop shells – the symbol of the pilgrimage – and other souvenirs in front of his house in the Leonese moorland.
Or Cruz, who came from the United States and embarked on the journey alone, like many other women with whom I could share the trip.
And all those who pass by your side and whose greeting, the characteristic “Good journey!” becomes the best incentive to continue. They all are part of what will remain with us from the Camino de Santiago… I might just dare to do it again!
