Baby Camino (Part Two)

I have to say that Spain is very kind to pilgrims. It cannot be easy to have thousands of people from all walks of life traipsing through their country. (One to three thousand pilgrims arrive in Santiago each day.) I especially thought this during morning rush hour when the locals were trying to get to work while having to wait for 30+ pilgrims to cross the street.

As we made our way through Vigo, one local woman got very animated insisting we follow her back a block. I was glad my cousin took her seriously because I kind of thought she was loony and wanted to keep walking. She led us to a Camino sign pointing out the turn we missed. Although the much traveled route of the last 100km on the Portuguese Way is nicely marked, if you’re not paying attention, you could easily miss these sometimes subtle signs. Another woman did the same thing later that day and it took us a while to explain to her that we were looking for our apartment not the Camino.

Pilgrims were typically very kind to everyone. When we stopped at one of Spain’s many ancient churches, I noticed a solo fellow who had obviously worn the wrong shoes. A group of pilgrims that were gathered at the entrance of the church rallied around the young man from Hungary offering him Ibuprofen and KT tape.

One fellow heard German being spoken and asked where we were from. When we told him America and Germany, he assumed we met on the Camino. When we told him that wasn’t the case, he said, “Okay, now you must explain this.”

After day one it was obvious that I better get used to be passed by most folks. This was made a bit more tolerable by hearing “Buen Camino!” which is an expression that pilgrims say as they pass you by meaning “happy trails!” or “have a good walk!” Needless to say I heard that many, many times a day.

Next up: Favorites