mike mcbroom
Active Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Francis June 17, 2015 ,Portagusee from Porto to Santiago August 2016, Francis may 2018 this year wil
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You get a very cheap meal if you go to the Economic Kitchen, and also get to meet the real people of Santiago that live on the streets all year, i go there every time after entering Santiago, they do a breakfast, dinner or lunch for very cheap and there is no camino talk in there(If you need a break from the talk) the place is run by nuns and they are very nice people, one of the rare times you see true Christianity along the camino for the homeless people that have either lost their way in life or been dumped and forgotten by society, a few times in there i have been moved to tears and realize that i have no real problems when back in England.Is it true that if you get a Compestela that you get a free meal at the Parador in Santiago?
@RoboThis kind of makes me uncomfortable.
I think if you can not afford a meal, then fair enough.
It is not in the staff cantina it is in the restaurant. I got it in 2017. They hand out a voucher to the 1st 10 Pilgrims in the morning getting their compestella.No. A limited number of pilgrims are provided with a free meal in the staff canteen.
You are correct. I got it last year and it was a very nice meal with wine. Why do people post things they really don’t know about or heard from someone or read about 10 years ago.I understand that the first ten pilgrims who line up at the Pilgrims Office in the morning get a free (set) meal from the Parador - and it is no longer in the staff dining room. One of my walking companions a couple of weeks ago just happened to be among the lucky ten. She enjoyed the experience.
You are correct. I got it last year and it was a very nice meal with wine. Why do people post things they really don’t know about or heard from someone or read about 10 years ago.
That’s a bit of a harsh comment if I may say so!
Looks like things have changed quite recently because in August 2016, you weren’t handed the tickets when getting your Credential. You had to queue in an entrance of the hotel and only the first 8 (maybe 10, I cannot remember) got in. Two of the young peregrinas we had been walking with stayed for the meal, we queued with them to keep them company but didn’t join in. They reported it WAS indeed in the staff canteen.
@Robo
The Hostal de los Reyes Catolicos (the Santiago parador) was founded and funded in the 15th century by Ferdinand and Isabel to be a pilgrim hospice (hostel and infirmary). The vagaries of history, and the Franco government, converted it in the 20th century into one of a chain of luxury hotels. But it was still honouring the original charter in 1974, offering three days free food and lodging to pilgrims to Santiago when Gitlitz and Davidson arrived there with their first group of student pilgrims. [see Gitlitz, David and Davidson, Linda Kay. The Pilgrimage Road to Santiago, 2000, pp. 361-362]. Since then, numbers of pilgrims have increased and the service to pilgrims has changed to giving one meal to a limited number of pilgrims. But the right to be served by the parador is not a charity to the poor, but a service to pilgrims, for whom the building was built. I was given a ticket for a free lunch there in November, 2017, when by chance I arrived at the Pilgrim Office as one of the first ten pilgrims one morning.
@RoboYes I understand the history...
I would still feel very awkward
I preferred the Cantina. But then my experience is from so long ago, like 2015, wow, I mean history. Thank you for your kind up-date.It is not in the staff cantina it is in the restaurant. I got it in 2017. They hand out a voucher to the 1st 10 Pilgrims in the morning getting their compestella.
I preferred the Cantina. But then my experience is from so long ago, like 2015, wow, I mean history. Thank you for your kind up-date.
@Robo
Of course, if your concern is that you are eating one of only ten free pilgrim meals, which many others finishing that day may need more than you do, this concern does you credit. .
Antediluvian, @Tinkatinker!I preferred the Cantina. But then my experience is from so long ago, like 2015, wow, I mean history. Thank you for your kind up-date.
Clearly a century-old tradition that is dying out, so make the best of it while it lasts, peopleMust have been brightened up or moved since I ate there in 1990I took up the offer at that time of 3 meals per day for 3 days.
I know very little about these economic kitchens in Spain in general. For Santiago, is it this one linked below? With a lunch meal for 80 cents?You get a very cheap meal if you go to the Economic Kitchen, and also get to meet the real people of Santiago that live on the streets all year, i go there every time after entering Santiago, they do a breakfast, dinner or lunch for very cheap and there is no camino talk in there
Cute. Are you allowed to keep the voucher as a souvenir?It is not in the staff cantina it is in the restaurant. I got it in 2017. They hand out a voucher to the 1st 10 Pilgrims in the morning getting their compestella.
The Parador, a state-owned hotel chain member, got the building for free with the stipulation that it continue to provide meals to Pilgrims. Long ago that was limited to 10 meals for the first to line up in the garage for each meal, and it was simple fare served just off the garage.I think it would be a logistical (and not just financial) problem to prepare and serve 500-1000 free meals, which is probably Compostela's release in the season in one day. At other times, this had some other purpose (meaning).
The Parador, a state-owned hotel chain member, got the building for free with the stipulation that it continue to provide meals to Pilgrims. Long ago that was limited to 10 meals for the first to line up in the garage for each meal, and it was simple fare served just off the garage.
Last year or the year before, the service was closed during renovations. When it reopened, the meal, which appears to be only lunch now, depended on a ticket issued by the Pilgrim Office.
So, yes, this had some other purpose. Now it is just the government whim of the moment.
You can get a very nice, basic menu at lunch at the medical school on the way to the Pilgrim Office. I think the price is 5.90 E. You can enter through the front door if you know how to meander the halls past the anatomy lab to the stairwell to the basement, or you can enter through the car entrance on the north side. You will get to dine with the next generation of Spain's doctors!! Most were women. You buy the ticket from a vending machine, but the cashier will help you with the process. And, you won't risk offending the sense of entitlement of the Parador patrons.
A pilgrim was required to provide a photocopy of his/her compostela dated within three days of the meal in the "good old days." You could get three meals a day for three days if you had nine copies (they kept the copy, and sometimes asked to see the original). I stopped by the garage a number of times to partake of the tradition, but even being an hour early for the mealtime was never enough to be in the first ten. I did observe several of the same pilgrims in the line for successive meals, but I was more interested in Santiago than I was standing in line. So the meals always were provided to pilgrims, not just anyone!the free meal is now definitely going to recently-arrived pilgrims, not just anyone who stands in line outside the Parador garage. I have nothing against "just anyone" of course, but I do think that a free pilgrim's meal should go to a pilgrim who just made it!
A pilgrim was required to provide a photocopy of his/her compostela dated within three days of the meal in the "good old days." You could get three meals a day for three days if you had nine copies (they kept the copy, and sometimes asked to see the original). I stopped by the garage a number of times to partake of the tradition, but even being an hour early for the mealtime was never enough to be in the first ten. I did observe several of the same pilgrims in the line for successive meals, but I was more interested in Santiago than I was standing in line. So the meals always were provided to pilgrims, not just anyone!
Because I am overly impatient, I never did get a free meal, and gave up trying after a few years!Glad you enjoyed both the free meals
Thank youI know very little about these economic kitchens in Spain in general. For Santiago, is it this one linked below? With a lunch meal for 80 cents?
http://www.cocinaeconomicadesantiago.es/servicios.aspx
I understand that the first ten pilgrims who line up at the Pilgrims Office in the morning get a free (set) meal from the Parador - and it is no longer in the staff dining room. One of my walking companions a couple of weeks ago just happened to be among the lucky ten. She enjoyed the experience.
The words playing poor for a while have sometimes crossed my mind in this context and I take up your words by saying that I have no intention of causing offense to anyone and so please don't take any. It's a topic that deserves consideration but I'm not sure that I'm up for it on a public forum.It just looked strange to me. Aren’t Albergues really supposed to be for those who need, through a lack of means, cheap/subsidized accomodation? Or is it perhaps, that these Pilgrims ‘of means’ feel more like real Pilgrims by using this type of accomodation?
There as a line in ‘that’ movie that keeps playing in my head.... and Yes I know it was just a movie.
Something like, do we honour the poor by imitating them?
Sorry I have probably not articulated this very well, and maybe my thoughts are a bit screwed up on this.... Feel free to shoot me.... Or tell me what I am missing here...
No intention of causing offense to anyone, so please don’t take any.
At the risk of incurring the wrath of all the members here, I’ll explain why these free meals make me uneasy. (Or at least those who don’t need them, taking them)
...
But more than a few times (many many) I noticed people wearing what was probably $2,000 + worth of gear queuing up at Albergues, or collecting their fancy luggage in the lobby of the Albergue.
It just looked strange to me. Aren’t Albergues really supposed to be for those who need, through a lack of means, cheap/subsidized accomodation? Or is it perhaps, that these Pilgrims ‘of means’ feel more like real Pilgrims by using this type of accomodation?
...
Something like, do we honour the poor by imitating them?
I find it easier to admit that I am not a "good" person, so I do good works for cosmic balance.Our students work 3 hours a week in placements in the community, and read various anti-poverty, liberation pedagogy and service-oriented texts (many that come from the Jesuit tradition in liberation theology). But I am wildly uneasy about them taking volunteer positions in settings where there are people who need those opportunities *more* (i.e., our students are generally very wealthy "do-gooders" and the risk is that they are getting professional credentials on the backs of those in need). I work with them for several months to have them get out of their "noblesse oblige" self congratulatory take on the course and into a perspective that we call "walking with" rather than "doing for". By the end, some "get it" and some are still taking more than they are giving. But I try to prevent them from becoming "voluntourists" who get a thrill out of other people's suffering.
I have walked into Santiago so many times in the last ten years and know that the free meal at this Parador is a crock of shit..i know the same old faces and some of the people that were once pilgrims a few years ago but now just sleep rough in Santiago all year round and walk in for free food because they sleep near the door...surley there is more to walking the camino than a Piece of mass printed A4 paper with some words in latin and some random person writing your name on it to sign...and the desire to eat at the Parador...there must be a deeper meaning than this?..i hope so.Is it true that if you get a Compestela that you get a free meal at the Parador in Santiago?
As soon as I read this, I looked up the exact location of Saint Cross and thought of perhaps asking for this one day - we've embarked on a really slow going pilgrimage/walk to WinchesterI went to the Hospital of Saint Cross in Winchester, England, which offers "The Travelers Dole" . It used to be a loaf of bread and a mug of ale. Now it's half a slice of bread and a shot glass of ale.
As soon as I read this, I looked up the exact location of Saint Cross and thought of perhaps asking for this one day - we've embarked on a really slow going pilgrimage/walk to Winchester.
Indeed you do. I was one of the first 10 the day I got my Compostela. It was a damn good meal in a very pleasant restaurant - wine included.....Is it true that if you get a Compestela that you get a free meal at the Parador in Santiago?
Thank you for this post, I have walked to Santiago twice, but would love to find this place. Santiago is certainly a culture shock after walking for days!You get a very cheap meal if you go to the Economic Kitchen, and also get to meet the real people of Santiago that live on the streets all year, i go there every time after entering Santiago, they do a breakfast, dinner or lunch for very cheap and there is no camino talk in there(If you need a break from the talk) the place is run by nuns and they are very nice people, one of the rare times you see true Christianity along the camino for the homeless people that have either lost their way in life or been dumped and forgotten by society, a few times in there i have been moved to tears and realize that i have no real problems when back in England.
A pilgrim was required to provide a photocopy of his/her compostela dated within three days of the meal in the "good old days." You could get three meals a day for three days if you had nine copies (they kept the copy, and sometimes asked to see the original). I stopped by the garage a number of times to partake of the tradition, but even being an hour early for the mealtime was never enough to be in the first ten. I did observe several of the same pilgrims in the line for successive meals, but I was more interested in Santiago than I was standing in line. So the meals always were provided to pilgrims, not just anyone!
Not being indigent, I had breakfast buffet in the Parador at the slowly increasing price from 18E to 23E (it may be more now; I have not done buffets in general for a couple of years, so I don't know the current price). I now will always be able to say that I had caviar for breakfast...
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