New record in August with 54 764 Compostelas

[sillydoll]

The pilgrim office says that this is a provisional figure since they have not yet incorporated the figures of the European Youth Pilgrimage. The largest number of foreign pilgrims were Italian, followed by the Germans , French and Portuguese.

Although numbers are expected to decline in September to around 30 000, yesterday over 700 pilgrims had registered at the Oficina del Peregrino de O Vilar.

 

[JohnnieWalker]

And you should see the office right now...whilst the queue of pilgrims has dwindled therer is a room full of people stamping crdenciales and writing compostelas for the 12,000 young people who walked on the Youth Plgrimage. Current estimates are that it will take 1 month to complete the task and then post them to them in groups.

 

[sillydoll]

Phsew!!! The mind boggles!
How long before the Compostelas are issued electronically? Then all they have to do is punch in a name and a date!

 

[MarcCramer]

This amount is fantastic. Hope its not as busy when I go on 15th September. Can anyone help me with a transport question?
I will arrive in Barcelona at 08h30 on 16th September. I need to catch a bus or train to Pamplona as I have booked accomodation for that night. Can anyone help with info on busses and/or trains. Thanks

 

[sillydoll]

The Bus line for Barcelona to Pamplona is Vibasa: http://www.vibasa.es . There are usually 5 bus connections daily.
At the BCN airport, exit the secured area and walk through the sky tunnel and left to the Cercania. It will take you to Sants Estación. Sants Estación has both the train station and the bus station you need. There are also 3 trains to Pamplona

 

[JohnnieWalker]

Phsew!!! The mind boggles!
How long before the Compostelas are issued electronically? Then all they have to do is punch in a name and a date!

Fascinating. The technology is already in the Office and there has been much discussion on this. The conclusion is that handwriting the Compostela is continuing the long held tradition which stretches back to the beginnings of the document. Then there is the problem of deciphering names, spelling them correctly with the huge variety of accents which appear over or under letters in many languages. Pilgrims also want to arrive and spend at least a few minutes chatting about their experience.

All that being said, at the height of the queues we did fantasise about machines on the street where you feed in your credencial which reads the sellos, prints your compostela and an image of the archbishop appears on the screen to congratulate you - press button a) for Spanish, b) for German c) for Korean etc Then if you haven't done it as you walk away he reappears to remind you about the donation

 

[Priscillian]

Any idea what the projected 2010 pilgrim/compostela numbers are likely to be?

 

[sillydoll]

225 000 - and another 500 000 walking parts of the route.

 

[dutchpilgrim]

Looks more to 250.00 to me.
225.000 point is already passed.
I made some extrapolation from numbers on the past 10 years, and 250.000 pops out.

Ultreya,
Carli Di Bortolo

 

[JohnnieWalker]

I think 250K is about right imho. However there are 12000 young people who recieved Compostelas and I am not sure if they are on the system yet. I'll ask.