1. Our biggest bugbear, locked churches. Spain was much more of a culprit than France. It really made us growl to find, time after time, locked churches, bang on one of the world's most famous pilgrimage routes. They were even locked on Sunday.
Here was all too familiar example.
And then, on the rare occasions we did get in, we found the amount of gold and ornate decoration quite off-putting ...
... or we'd sit through a service conducted entirely in Spanish, or French, with the only words spoken in English, being a warning that non Catholics were not welcome at the Communion table ... more growls.
2. Plastic Pilgrims. Our hackles really rose when we encountered able bodied 'pilgrims' not bothering to put the effort into walking, but taking regular short cuts by bus, while pretending to be walkers. It's a good job we don't know names, but the 2 hot water bottle girls will know who they are (not that they're likely to ever read this blog). It was also disappointing to find the Le Puy route in France so busy, especially with groups of daysack walkers with full vehicle support. This put pressure on the accommodation so that it was necessary to book ahead. We didn't want to have to do this, not only because of the language difficulties, but also because we wanted the freedom to take each day as it came and stop when we were ready, rather than at a place determined in advance.
3. There were some stretches in Spain that needed a bit more scenery and something to look at other than a bit of soil. We were also not too keen on the 'sendas' (paths running alongside main roads) such as this one ...
... as we much preferred to get further away from the traffic.
4. Ipods going to sleep and not waking up. We were quite reliant on our Ipods for blogging, music, games and electronic books, so it was a real disappointment to see a screen looking like this ...
... not once, but twice, once on each Ipod. As the only solution was to reconnect to the parent computer several hundred miles away, it was very frustrating, although it was good to be able to call on the hammer treatment from Fred of the Suffolk Branch.
Thankfully, we have now loaded the software fix so hopefully, when we return to Spain to finish the walk, this problem should not occur.
And finally ... there was the rather big lowlight of not being able to finish to walk this year due to our minder's stress fracture. This was a whimper, rather than a growl, as it wasn't his fault. On the positive side it means we can all look forward to some more Camino walking before too long.
Lots of love, the Camino Bears xxx
1 comment:
I can easily understand your feelings regarding locked churches and plastic pilgrims. I felt that way also while doing two pilgrimages from Le Puy en Velay to Santiago de Compostela. However, I it was explained to me, that regarding the churches they are kept closed because the Church has nobody willing to look after them and thus they are prone to having their "insides" stolen, which has happened very much, or casually vandalised as you have wittnessed in another church. Then regarding the plastic pilgrims, it must be remembered that the Camino in France is also along the GR65 which is a walking trail similar to, for example, The North Downs Way in England and most of the walkers one meets on it are not pilgrims. I know this does not explain those in Spain but this subject has many different views as can be seen on various Camino blog sites.
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