I started walking the Camino de Santiago, the 500-mile pilgrimage route in Northern Spain, last year with my husband. The route, which is also called the St. James Way, was a popular pilgrimage route in the 12th and 13th centuries. Pilgrims would congregate in Saint Jean Pied de Port, a small French town in the foothills of the Pyrenees. After climbing the mountains, they would then spend weeks walking through fields, towns, and flatlands before arriving at the cathedral in Santiago de Compostello. While few modern day pilgrims walk the Camino for religious purposes, the 7-week journey creates time to think and connect with others.
While on the Camino, we met many groups of women walking the route. One was from Norway: 6 women who spend one week each year walking the route. They started 5 years ago in Central France and hope to get to Santiago in 2018. Another group of 5 women was from Ireland, all of them doctors or nurses. My favorite group, however, was a 75-year-old grandmother walking the Camino for her third time, but with her 19-year-old granddaughter. Just the two of them. But instead of doing the pilgrimage in one-week intervals like the other groups, they were hoping to complete it in 7 weeks.
We met the pair at the Abbey of Ilarratz and Eskirotz, a 12th century structure located about 12 miles northeast of Pamplona. The smiling face of the grandmother, her granddaughter (back to us), and a guide at the Abbey, is a wonderful reminder of my trip.
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