CHILDREN. Grrrrrrrrr. I visited my friend Trinity before I left. She has two small boys, 1 and 2, and wants to walk the Camino BAD. She was wondering how old her boys have to be before they can go. I SAY SIXTEEN. Not a DAY less. I can´t quite make you understand how it feels to come off of 35km like we did today, and sit in the hot sun outside the albergue with the COMPLETO sign in the window, and watch 8 children under the age of 13 burst happily out of the albergue. But it´s something like murder. Today on the Camino, there was a family with a stroller and a four-year-old. I love my nephew, and I want him to have wonderful experiences, but the Camino is serious business to those of us who have been walking for a month. We don´t walk for 30 days to get to an albergue and see a bed taken up by a 6-year-old, or some obnoxious teenager who has no concept of what this pilgrimage really means. This may sound harsh, and I´m sorry. But I don´t think it´s fair that the available beds in an albergue can be decimated by a family with three or four children who started 40km ago and are ¨just out for a cheap walking holiday,¨ as Christa put it. It really sucks for us, and it doesn´t seem right. I´m not saying they should be sleeping in a gym like us, but we´re doing this thing for REAL, and the least we ask for is a bed. Kids don´t get this. We do. It´s been almost 800km. Give us the beds. Go to a hotel room with your family. Or wait until they´re old enough to appreciate this walk. Leave the albergues to the pilgrims.
Like I said, that may be harsh, but until you´ve walked 800km in my boots, please don´t judge me.
