Martin0642
Member
This carries on from the thread about Ivar's exciting new pension opening soon (if it hasn't already by this time).
The basic idea is this; pilgrims arrive in Santiago to find an admittedly beautiful cathedral but..if I can use our experience for a moment..they also find:
Relatively poor signs directing weary pilgrims to the cathedral. It's very easy to get lost in Santiago and the new city that you first encounter is like all new cities at first sight, cold, busy and unwelcoming. The old city is lovely but to find it you have to follow fairly poor signs. I found Leon better signposted than Santiago which seems strange given that Santiago is the destination! Surely there could be better efforts than there are?
However, you find your way to the Cathedral and as you enter the small narrow streets of the old city you realise how beautiful the place is...and how much more confusing it gets. And how many tourist souvenir shops there are. And how many people there are trying to get you to stay at their pension/hostal on your way in.
And then you arrive at the main square of the cathedral. A beautiful building and a beautiful square...which was overflowing with tourists when we arrived (another reason not to go in August!).
So..as we did...you climb the steps to the cathedral. You've walked a long long way for this. You've cried. You've overcome pain from blisters, tendonitis, sunstroke, some other malady/emotional upset...and you've made it. You've pushed yourself and had a great time but whatever else...you've made it. And with new friends....so you enter the cathedral...
And find that the central column, the Tree of Jesse is cordoned off by seemingly permanent railings so you cant touch the treee or bang heads with Maestro Mateo. RIght - well thats half the pilgrim ritual scuppered. Onward. TO the HUGE queues watiting to climb up and speak to St James. Ok...we'll do that later. (Except its August and unless you're there when the place opens "later" is always busy) On to the last part...nope, can't touch the relics either. RIght.
Ok so off to the pilgrims office for the compostella it is then. A predictable queue (but at least they appreciate what you've been through and achieved..and some you know of course) and you get the treasured document. Then what?
We went off to find a nice bar for a celebratory cervesa before we all parted to find our accomodation, freshen up and meet for dinner. We tried several bars....most were very small and cramped (not good when you have 4 people with packs) and some were actually very rude. At this point it was almost an anti-climax....we came all this way for....this?
In reality of course we came all this way for the experience of coming all this way, i genuinely believe the journey is the important part and I treasure my first credencial more than my first compostella. Much more.
I liked Santiago I really did but we all felt a bit like noone really cared that we had done this pilgrimage. Obviously there is pilgrim overload there and I suppose such familiarity will inevitably bring complacency. And tourist towns will always be rife with sharks and tourist traps. But wouldn't it be nice to have some sort of alberque there...not to stay in, there's plenty of places for that, including several alberques (and lets face it a nice hotel/pension room at the end is VERY welcome) but a place simply to meet. To catch up with fellow pilgrims you lost sight of on the journey. To simply sit and enjoy the fact you've arrived. Somewhere that pilgrims can guarantee finding an approriate welcome, where packs arent a problem; the fact that you're hot, sweaty, muddy and tired isn't a problem. Admittedly it would need to be a fairly big place but it's sorely needed I think.
I have no idea if it's possible to galvanise such a thing into existence..or more importantly if such a thing already exists (or something close anyway) but it's worth putting the idea up here for discussion..who knows, maybe some enterprising entrepeneur will create this pilgrim utopia? (Ok utopia is going a bit far but frankly somewhere like this would have had me in a true state of bliss when I arrived!!)
What does everyone else think? Especially those who know far far more about the camino and santiago than i do?
The basic idea is this; pilgrims arrive in Santiago to find an admittedly beautiful cathedral but..if I can use our experience for a moment..they also find:
Relatively poor signs directing weary pilgrims to the cathedral. It's very easy to get lost in Santiago and the new city that you first encounter is like all new cities at first sight, cold, busy and unwelcoming. The old city is lovely but to find it you have to follow fairly poor signs. I found Leon better signposted than Santiago which seems strange given that Santiago is the destination! Surely there could be better efforts than there are?
However, you find your way to the Cathedral and as you enter the small narrow streets of the old city you realise how beautiful the place is...and how much more confusing it gets. And how many tourist souvenir shops there are. And how many people there are trying to get you to stay at their pension/hostal on your way in.
And then you arrive at the main square of the cathedral. A beautiful building and a beautiful square...which was overflowing with tourists when we arrived (another reason not to go in August!).
So..as we did...you climb the steps to the cathedral. You've walked a long long way for this. You've cried. You've overcome pain from blisters, tendonitis, sunstroke, some other malady/emotional upset...and you've made it. You've pushed yourself and had a great time but whatever else...you've made it. And with new friends....so you enter the cathedral...
And find that the central column, the Tree of Jesse is cordoned off by seemingly permanent railings so you cant touch the treee or bang heads with Maestro Mateo. RIght - well thats half the pilgrim ritual scuppered. Onward. TO the HUGE queues watiting to climb up and speak to St James. Ok...we'll do that later. (Except its August and unless you're there when the place opens "later" is always busy) On to the last part...nope, can't touch the relics either. RIght.
Ok so off to the pilgrims office for the compostella it is then. A predictable queue (but at least they appreciate what you've been through and achieved..and some you know of course) and you get the treasured document. Then what?
We went off to find a nice bar for a celebratory cervesa before we all parted to find our accomodation, freshen up and meet for dinner. We tried several bars....most were very small and cramped (not good when you have 4 people with packs) and some were actually very rude. At this point it was almost an anti-climax....we came all this way for....this?
In reality of course we came all this way for the experience of coming all this way, i genuinely believe the journey is the important part and I treasure my first credencial more than my first compostella. Much more.
I liked Santiago I really did but we all felt a bit like noone really cared that we had done this pilgrimage. Obviously there is pilgrim overload there and I suppose such familiarity will inevitably bring complacency. And tourist towns will always be rife with sharks and tourist traps. But wouldn't it be nice to have some sort of alberque there...not to stay in, there's plenty of places for that, including several alberques (and lets face it a nice hotel/pension room at the end is VERY welcome) but a place simply to meet. To catch up with fellow pilgrims you lost sight of on the journey. To simply sit and enjoy the fact you've arrived. Somewhere that pilgrims can guarantee finding an approriate welcome, where packs arent a problem; the fact that you're hot, sweaty, muddy and tired isn't a problem. Admittedly it would need to be a fairly big place but it's sorely needed I think.
I have no idea if it's possible to galvanise such a thing into existence..or more importantly if such a thing already exists (or something close anyway) but it's worth putting the idea up here for discussion..who knows, maybe some enterprising entrepeneur will create this pilgrim utopia? (Ok utopia is going a bit far but frankly somewhere like this would have had me in a true state of bliss when I arrived!!)
What does everyone else think? Especially those who know far far more about the camino and santiago than i do?