Finding myself with a week of holiday in October, and with the Scottish weather rapidly turning Autumnal, I managed to be book a cycling holiday in Spain at relatively short notice. Cycling the Camino de Santiago from Leon to Santiago sounded worthwhile. The route would be on and off road along the pilgrim’s trail which has been followed for many hundred years. I actually hadn’t heard of it before, but it’s apparently one of the three great European Christian pilgrimages, along with the journey to Rome and the journey to Jerusalem. Some people would tell you that cycling rather than walking is cheating, but hey, I wanted some exercise and a cycling holiday – the fact that it’s along a pilgrim trail isn’t really important to me...
From the trip notes: “The Camino de Santiago de Compostela across northern Spain is one of the world’s oldest pilgrimage routes. For more than 1000 years pilgrims have made their way to Santiago and in 1987 it was declared the first European Culture Route. Also known as ‘The Way of St James’, it originated in the region of Galicia where the tomb of the Apostle James the Great was discovered in the 9th Century. The way is marked by the symbol of the Scallop Shell, typically found on the Galician shores, and the grooves in the shell that join together are said to represent the many different ways pilgrims travelled from to reach the tomb of Saint James....”
Easyjet actually did pretty well at getting me to Northern Spain via Stansted, along with my bag and my bicycle (considering the last Easyjet flight I went on lost my bag for five days on the way to a skiing holiday, this was great news). I even managed to watch most of the rugby world cup match with England losing to France in the quarter final while waiting between flights in Stansted. There turned out to be fifteen cyclists in our group – a good combination of single travellers and couples/friends. Unexpectedly, I appeared to be the youngest in the group – with a number of people in their forties, fifties and even sixties.
Saturday evening was a chance to get to know folks over a drink, and an evening meal of Tapas, in Leon. Bikes had been sorted out, and my bicycle put back together. With no idea of the likely fitness levels or cycling experience of my companions, the first day’s cycling was a little into the unknown, but the weather forecast suggested blue skies, sun and heat which boded well for a good trip.
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