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In 1974, Galicia was very different.@LynnT walked the Camino in 1974 as part of a student group led by David Gitlitz.
See also https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/walking-the-caminos-in-the-70s-or-80s.51565/
My first camino was only in 2006, so I really ought not to be commenting at all. However, I do have one significant photo to contribute...in the sense that it is no longer possible to pose this way... I am on the left.In 1974, Galicia was very different.
Appart from the Spanish names ( El Cebrero, Mellid, Ferrol del Caudillo, etc,) the landscape in summer was full of yellow fields of wheat, rye and oats after harvest, much less prairies, meadows, corn fields and eucalyptus forests and much more gorse and heather fields and traditional style houses.
Few bars, few hotels, no Centros de Salud, hot beer, lots of caldo , no tapas, no paella, no Albariño (only bad and hot Ribeiro)......
I wasn't able to play that video. Not really a surprise, for a video from that year!I enjoyed watching the film of the three guys from Estella in 963
Is this what you mean? If so, it is still there, but access is restricted and you need to go on the tour of the Portico de la Gloria to see it now.I walked the Camino Frances in 2005, I haven't walked it since so I can't tell, how it has changed.
One thing I remember was walking into the Cathedral in SdC (carrying my backpack) and there was a huge rock. You could walk around the rock and there was a rounded dent in the rock, this particular spot had been touched by the pilgrims arriving at the Cathedral. It was a very special moment touching the spot knowing that it had been touched by so many before me and I was overwhelmed by feelings of gratitude and humbleness.
I have not been able to find the rock again, maybe it has been in storage and now the Cathedral has been restored, it will be displayed once again.
Following with this:In 1974, Galicia was very different.
Appart from the Spanish names ( El Cebrero, Mellid, Ferrol del Caudillo, etc,) the landscape in summer was full of yellow fields of wheat, rye and oats after harvest, much less prairies, meadows, corn fields and eucalyptus forests and much more gorse and heather fields and traditional style houses.
Few bars, few hotels, no Centros de Salud, hot beer, lots of caldo , no tapas, no paella, no Albariño (only bad and hot Ribeiro)......
I’m really just curious... I wish I’d discovered the Camino years ago!
My first Camino in May 2002 wasn't really the romantic stroll people think the Camino was 18 years ago!
In the monastery at Roncesvalles they had triple bunks. I slept in the middle, on top of a German, with a Dane on top of me . (It was the first time in 32 years of marriage that I'd 'slept' with another man!)
The walk down to Zubiri was rocky, muddy and excruciating (ditto to El Acebo and to Molinaseca).
We had to sleep on the floor, cheek by jowl in an office in Larrasoana.
The 2002 CSJ Guide for the CF listed about 165 albergues (now there are probably 465) and many were "Completo" by the time we got to them in the afternoon.
The distances in between villages were much longer so it was not always possible to walk less than 40 km in a day if you passed the first albergue at the 15km mark. There was much more road walking with heavy vehicles thundering down on you from both directions. This was improved when I walked again in the 2004 Holy Year.
We slept on concrete slabs in a cold storage room that was a like a morgue, on the floor in three kitchens, in a makeshift barn (60 people and one porta-toilet) and in a number of lofts. The 'albergue' of wooden cabins in Burgos was 3km out of town and was bitterly cold. Romantic? Not really.
No smartphones (didn't even have a dumb phone) meant that after a long hard walk you had to go in search of a working Telefonica (public phone) in order to phone home with a World Call card that had a 16 digit pin code.
Internet Cafes usually had a foreign keyboard which made finding the @ key impossible and messages with any Capital letters sent home were often gibberish! We queued for ages to use the internet in the few albergues that had them and it cost €1 or €2 for 20 minutes. They were so slow that your long message often timed out and vanished before you could send it!
Some small villages had a bar but no cafe-bars (no food) or shops to buy food and we often went to bed hungry. Romantic? Not really.
My title is a bit odd but what I mean is this...
Reading another thread David said that he walked first in 1989 and it got me wondering about how the Camino Frances or indeed any route looked back then. It’s changed a lot over the last 6 years so it must have been transformed in the last few decades. And then I wondered, of the folks within this group, who walked first? When was your first Camino? And what was it like? How many albergues? Were towns and villages quieter or more lively? Did local politics have any impact? How was the Trail? How did locals react to a pilgrim? What was Santiago like? Do you have photos?
I’m really just curious... I wish I’d discovered the Camino years ago!
I started my pilgrimage by attending church, but the old woman who ran the pilgrim office from her house, refused to give me a credential because I hadn't walked from home and no letter from my priest, and shooed me out telling me I couldn't walk HER route.
Not much different in 1990. Madame Debril also refused to give me a credencial - I am not Catholic, I did not have a letter from my local priest and worst of all I had interrupted her lunch
I enjoyed watching the film of the three guys from Estella in 963... it looked sooooo different back then! Looking at the footage it looks ancient and yet I was born in 1963 and I dont feel ancient
I remember those old ladies well! They were wonderful and I had many a bargain.It was a lot different 17 years ago. Elderly peasants worked in the fields in the foothills of the Pyrenees , The Euro had just come out but many prices were still in Pesetas, far fewer Albergues , less paved paths and fewer pilgrims. Prices were a lot cheaper.
I also walked across the old bridge just before Loca before renovation.
Nearing Santiago . I seem to remember crossing the highway a few times.
Finally , there were old ladies waiting outside the pilgrim's office offering one of their private rooms for €15 per night , solo.
Edit - then again , many things have remained exactly the same.
Had I been younger I would have enjoyed what you did then. With a service background and some experience of mountain rescue I am sure I would have coped and after two years in Bahrain, would have managed the heat. As it was I was 65 when I started Camino (2003) and found it tough enough! It still is ! But the older I get I compromise, and do things in my own way and short stages. As to gadgets, I gave in and got the Moby! It is now packed with route apps! Keep on truckin! Buen Camino !I walked the Frances from Saint Jean in August, 1984. Some memories are a bit vague and I have no idea how I found out pre internet days about the Way of St James, as I knew it.
If there was any pilgrim infrastructure other than churches I didn't see any, But I was wild camping so wouldn't have noticed Hostels or Albergues although I did stay in a campsite in Saint Jean.
I started my pilgrimage by attending church, but the old woman who ran the pilgrim office from her house, refused to give me a credential because I hadn't walked from home and no letter from my priest, and shooed me out telling me I couldn't walk HER route. In my confusion I set off in the wrong direction only realising my mistake at nightfall,
There were lots of Basque flags and ETA separatist graffiti and I had to evacuate a train on the way to Saint Jean because of a bomb threat and stopped by a mobile military patrol somewhere towards Roncesvalles who gave me a bar of chocolate.
Many villages seemed rather run down and deserted. Apart from in larger towns I don't remember there being bars or cafes but this may have been because I couldn't afford them. Although I do remember being in a bar with a cobbled floor that was part of a cow barn, where the cows were munching happily on hay on the other side of a low wood partition which they occasionally stuck their heads over mooing loudly.
Whilst I rested by and occasionally in village water fountains to escape the heat, the locals would bring out their kettles and pans to fill, presumably they had no water in their houses, I also remember seeing the women washing clothes in outdoor communal sinks
I don't remember any supermarkets, and shops were few and far between and often shut. Several times I would be directed to a house, where the shop was just a spare room with the barest essentials, sometimes large hams and sausages were hanging from the ceiling, Buying small quantities of identifiable food suitable for a camping meal wasn't easy. I once downed half bottle of juice as I was so thirsty, after not finding any water, and nearly killed myself as it was pure concentrated lemon juice.
Once I had to eat in a rather posh restaurant as I hadn't found any shops that day, but the owner refused payment, some shops wouldn't accept money either and occasionally passers by would force money on me. I was invited to a local bull run and several religious services by the friendly locals who would wave or shake hands as I passed.
However wild farm dogs were not so friendly, rushing towards me ferociously, luckily mostly on chains. I soon learnt to carry a stick..
I don't remember any arrows and certainly no large markers, I think the markers were yellow stripes like on the French GR routes, but whatever they were, I do remember they were well hidden on the yellow rocks or yellow stone houses, in a landscape of yellow stubble fields and yellow dirt tracks with yellow post boxes and yellow mail vans and yellow dogs.
I didn't carry a guide book, but a Michelin road map of Spain and some tourist leaflets and navigated by instinct and asking directions in towns,
I also carried or wore no technical gear: Just cut off jeans, desert boots, sports socks and cotton t shirts and a light tarp which doubled as a poncho, a goatskin water bottle, and a portable sundial which I bought in St Jean I think.
I probably sent a few postcards home to let them know where I was or at least had been. That was keeping in touch back then.
Maybe it was because I was camping, but I saw no other Pilgrims or anyone else walking in the countryside apart from an occasional farmer. Unfortunately I abandoned half way near Leon due to the unbearable heat, being used to the cold wet mountains of the Scottish highlands.
Things have certainly changed a lot from what I've read here but I'm glad I experienced it before the infrastructure, commerce and crowds, the technical gear and internet gadgets although I am looking forward to seeing the changes either in 2020 or 2021,
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