Shirley Maclaine - The Camino - Swimming place

[davejsy]

*update

I finished, or rather skimmed through the last chapters of the book yesterday (although I haven't read the epilogue yet), the whole account of the last 24 or so hours into Santiago was difficult to follow and just seemed so crazy - maybe because she was been chased by hundreds of journalists, but I just couldn't read it. I really don't know what is true in the book and what isn't. It's a shame as for me the book started so well and I thought I was really going to enjoy it.

However, one thing that was discussed further up was the foot-bathing at the end in Santiago which someone said was in the pilgrims office. But in the book it seems this was done by the priest in the Cathedral? But then perhaps back then they were both one and the same?

 

[Bradypus]

However, one thing that was discussed further up was the foot-bathing at the end in Santiago which someone said was in the pilgrims office. But in the book it seems this was done by the priest in the Cathedral? But then perhaps back then they were both one and the same?

I do not know what the situation was in 1994. In 1990 Compostelas were issued in an office in the cathedral itself though a temporary office was sometimes set up elsewhere for exceptionally busy periods like July 25th. Usually issued by one of the cathedral priests with special responsibility for pilgrims. As I said before in this thread I think it is quite plausible that foot-washing was performed as a one-off for the famous visitor even though it was not routinely done at the time.

Edit: Just checked with Johnnie Walker who managed the old pilgrim office in Rua do Vilar for some time. He tells me the pilgrim office there was opened for the 1993 Holy Year. So normally that is where Compostelas would have been issued. But it seems very unsafe to assume that anything about Ms MacLaine's journey went strictly by the book at the time.

 

[Kathar1na]

I think that the book has to be seen as fiction based on facts (and I don't mean the metaphysical / new agey or whatever one wants to call it part).

@Bradypus, since you are one of the Camino pioneers - you walked for the first time in 1990, didn't you? Something I always wanted to ask: Were the "refugios" and similar shelters free of charge in those days? Were pilgrims expected to make a donation or was it customary? And the soups and bread - garlic or other, did you pay for it? BTW, I am just curious - not interested in a discussion about morals and ethics in the 1980s and 1990s and comparisons to today.

And also out of sheer curiosity - could you say how much you spent in 1990?

 

[Bradypus]

Something I always wanted to ask: Were the "refugios" and similar shelters free of charge in those days? Were pilgrims expected to make a donation or was it customary? And the soups and bread - garlic or other, did you pay for it?

Some charged a set fee. 300 pesetas was about normal. Most were donativo. A few like the Burgos municipal even refused donations though Burgos did charge a very small amount for food if required. Very few refugios offered any food. They were usually small and not staffed by hospitaleros. The only albergue in Astorga had 4 beds. Often you just picked up a key from a bar or the local police. Only two I noted at the time provided food - Burgos and San Juan de Ortega. San Juan de Ortega was a notable exception and it was donativo. I didn't have the chance to try the famous garlic soup as I was violently ill that day but the priest did give me a dangerously large dose of neat gin to settle my stomach. Which worked miraculously!

PS: At the time a typical menu del dia would have been in the 600 to 800 peseta range. So accommodation costs were typically lower in comparison than today. But so was the standard of accommodation which was often very basic.

 

[Kathar1na]

Some charged a set fee. 300 pesetas was about normal. Most were donativo. A few like the Burgos municipal even refused donations though Burgos did charge a very small amount for food if required. Very few refugios offered any food.

Thanks! So that was about $2 in June 1994. Just curious, as I said.

 

[Kathar1na]

Ooh, I forgot to mention this. It may be nice to see. We Kindle readers see only text but those who bought a print edition, depending on the country where it was marketed, got to see photos of what looks like the credencial that she received in SJPP from Mme Debril (or De Brill as it is misspelt in the book).

From purely a historical point of view: There is a sello from Molinaseca among the stamps, dated 27/6/94, preceded by stamps from Gaucelmo in Rabanal and Manjarin and followed by Ponferrada - the massive sello of the AACS Friends of the Camino association who attended to several refugios in the region at the time including a refugio in Ponferrada (I checked lossellosdelcamino.com).

 

[Bradypus]

@Kathar1na I recently changed my Facebook avatar to an image nicked from the sello of the famous Bar Chonina in Rabanal. The year before Refugio Gaucelmo opened. At that time people occasionally slept on the floor of the bar or in the abandoned school room in Rabanal. I had lunch there and spent the night in the equally abandoned school room in El Acebo. Which has been much improved since I first saw it!

 

[Smash123]

What I find remarkable about Shirley MacLaine are not the nuttier parts of her book but the fact that she was 60 years old and walked in 1994. Not the done thing for a senior American woman at the time. She had not even seen The Way which premiered in 2010. I’ve not read the book, I only read what is posted on the forum and seen some interviews on YouTube. 1994 … 30 years ago … a generation. She must be 90 now?

Right? It wasn't "hip" then. And I totally get that whatever she says about it after the fact is weird and doesn't make a lot of sense. I tried explaining to my partner what I went through when I did it, and he looked at me sideways. There is no great way to describe what is both an intense personal, yet universal, experience.