Part 2 El Camino: Two Alfonsos and a Slug
Expect the Unexpected
The Camino de Santiago, the Way of St. James, is not just a garden variety ancient road. In its day, the Camino was a medieval Spanish “superhighway” traveled by the Crusaders, Knights of the Templar, royal processions, merchants, and ordinary working Jose’s. In the 1500s after Martin Luther turned the Roman Catholic Church upside down with the Protestant Reformation, converts to the new religion gradually stopped taking sacred pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela along the Camino. The famed road was largely abandoned, left to crumble to pieces as nature reclaimed it for three long centuries.
It wasn’t until the latter part of the 20th century that the Camino de Santiago started to regain its standing once again as a world-renowned pilgrimage.
Unlike the religious pilgrims of old, at least 65% of modern pilgrims cite non-religious reasons for walking the Camino.
To qualify for an official Pilgrim’s Certificate, a pilgrim must provide documented proof of walking at least the FINAL 100 km of the Camino to the Pilgrim’s Office at the Cathedral de Santiago de Compostela.
Hubs and I planned to walk the most popular route, the Camino Frances, the French Way, so our starting point was the town of Sarria, 115 km to the east of Santiago. 35-40% of pilgrims start their journey at Sarria.
The entire Camino Frances stretches across northern Spain 820 km from the border of France to Santiago.
Surely you didn’t think I was going to tackle the whole 820 km. I might be adventurous, but I’m NOT off my flippin’ rocker.
Chomping at the bit to get this pilgrim show on the road? Hold on, we’ll get there soon enough. In the meantime, I’ll give you a taste of what’s to come…
There, you have it. The Camino is all about putting one foot in front of the other for hours and days on end. There’s more to it, but that’s the basics.
Ancient kings named ALFONSO flanked our journey at BOTH ends.
In 813, King Alfonso II of Asturias became the FIRST DOCUMENTED PILGRIM to visit the tomb of St. James the Apostle in Compostela, a town in the Galicia region of northwestern Spain. (now Santiago de Compostela)
King Alfy II financed the construction of a temple to preserve the Apostle’s remains and to protect the holy site for future Christian pilgrimages.
Of course, King Alfy’s motives were above reproach, pure and honorable. Can you believe his generous investment lined his royal coffers as pilgrims, settlers, knights, and merchants raced across the Camino from all over Europe? What luck!
Fast forward four hundred years to the last King of León, Alfonso IX.
Alfo 9 was doing his deal as a pilgrim on the Camino when he suddenly keeled over dead in Sarria on September 24, 1230. Alfo’s fame is still alive, well, and flourishing in Sarria. Aside from starting a university, having a penchant for war, and croaking while walking the Camino, Alfo 9’s biography doesn’t have a lot of wow factor.
He does, however, have a few eyebrow-raisers buried in the archives.
First, Alfo 9 had 22 children and when he died the transition of his throne to his son was not quite as smooth as most historical accounts portray. He was married twice but he was a bit of a hound dog with the women.
Second, according to reputable historian Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), Alfo was called the Baboso - the Slobberer - because he threw such angry fits of rage that he spewed slobber all over the place and foamed at the mouth.
I guarantee you, they DID NOT tell us that when we checked in to the King Alfonso IX Hotel in Sarria!
Way to go Alfo 9! Eleven hundred years have passed and your legacy as a slobbering hot-head still lives on.
Ready to walk the Camino. Starting in front of the King Alfonso IX Hotel Sarria.
The road behind us led to the Camino, so we just had to follow it and we were on our way! Two blocks later we encountered our first stairway, one of several we’d climb along the way. For some reason, the stairways got more challenging in the days that followed.
At the top of the stairs, the Camino veered to the right, gradually climbing to a lookout point over the town of Sarria. The sky was overcast and dreary and it started to drizzle rain. We stopped to adjust our packs and check the map. Our journey would take us 21.6 km from Sarria to Portomarin and we would pass through several tiny hamlets along the way.
The monument in the photo is a cruceiro, one of several granite crosses found along the Camino. Historically the stone cruceiros served as directional markers for medieval pilgrims of the Camino.
The light rain and gathering clouds made me edgy. I envisioned myself drenched to the bone, water splashing off the end of my nose, my feet soggy and oozing squish with every step.
No! This would NOT and could NOT happen! I HAD TO put on my rain gear. ASAP, before the clouds broke open and unloaded torrents of rain on me.
Hubs, ever the experienced boy scout tried to talk me out of it. According to him, I wouldn’t need it. What did he know about the weather in the Galicia region of Spain? Didn’t he notice the rain had already started? If he wanted to walk in soggy clothes then all power to him.
I rifled through my pack and dug out my raingear. I was prepared for the deluge!
We started gathering our gear again.
Camino launch - attempt two!
While slinging his backpack over his shoulders, Hubs announced, “Time to start SLUGGING it out!”
I STARED at the ground. WAS HE SERIOUS? Or did he just have a serendipitous choice of words? DID HE SEE WHAT I SAW?
My first reaction was repulsion - slugs are NOT my favorite critters.
I cringed, “Ugh! It’s a slug!”
Really, what was that little (not so little!) slug going to do to me? Zip all. He was just minding his own business slugging along the Camino. The fastest slugs race around at .03 mph, earning them the status of being the slowest animals on the planet. At that rate, it would take my Camino slug about three hours to attack me.
The most challenging hill between Sarria and Portomarin was at the beginning of the day, just outside Sarria. It wasn’t torturous, but it wasn’t a breeze either.
I got the message, in no uncertain terms,
this pilgrim deal was NOT going to be just a sneeze and a whistle.
After the semi-grueling uphill trudge, I did not want to admit…
I was sweating like a sunburned bull underneath all my rain gear.
I had to STOP and take it ALL off.
I was getting nowhere fast.
The rain gear got stuffed into my pack, where it stayed for the rest of the Camino.
Hubs the Boy Scout was right.
Camino launch - attempt three!
Buen Camino! We have a long journey ahead of us and many more footsteps to walk together.
Sarria to Portomarin to be continued next posting.
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