How wonderful that you can walk as a family!
I'm sure you will find beds at the end of June.
(From my book)
The number of children on the Camino is growing. More and more young families and individuals are doing the Camino together with their children. Unfortunately, there are no up to date statistics on babies or very young children but these stats for children from 0 to 12 years are from 2006 to 2009:
2006 – 930
2007 – 1 070
2008 – 1 093
2009 – 1 272
In the 1999 Holy Year 1 470 children were registered at Santiago and in the 2004 Holy Year 7% of the pilgrims registered at Santiago were from 0–10 years of age (925 children) and 11–15 years (15 967 children).
Useful websites
• After a week’s training and a fitness test during the Easter holiday in April 2005, eight-year-old Camille started her pilgrimage to Compostela by walking the 65 km from Puy en Velay to Saint Roch. terragalice.blog4ever.com/blog/lirarticle-45469-167723.html
• Pint-sized pilgrims on the Camino.
http://www.soultravelers3.com/
• ‘El
Camino de Santiago. La Ruta Xacobea Paso a Paso’ (The Way of Sanitago, the Xacobean Route, Step by Step) is a lovely French documentary that focuses on the pilgrims’ experiences, reasons for undertaking the pilgrimage, and spiritual changes felt. It shows some ingenious means created by pilgrims with children, such as carts fashioned with mountain bicycle wheels. The documentary is available only in French and Spanish. It is distributed by DVD Spain:
http://www.dvdspain.net/
• ‘Little Pilgrim’s Journey to Santiago de Compostela’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnqpoELm ... dded#at=30
• ‘El
Camino de Santiago: Rites of Passage Chimenti, Wayne. Trafford Publishing. This is about the Chimenti family’s travels on a 500-mile walking pilgrimage. It started as Nahja, their 12-year-old daughter’s ‘rite of passage’. It turned out to be a test for everyone.
The Compostela
Children under a certain age are not given a Compostela. Confession and communion remain essential to the granting of the certificate of having completed the pilgrimage and if a child has not yet received their first communion they cannot comply with the requirements for the Compostela. Parents can request an alternative certificate.