Northern Spain ‘In the Path of the Pilgrims’

A blog in several episodes so that there is something to follow!

Episode One
In the path of the ‘Peregrinos’ or ‘The Walk of St James,’ both titles signify only one thing – walking and I only walk under protest. The idea is to follow the path to the resting place of St James the Apostle (Santiago) whose remains were taken supposedly along this route to the coast of Galicia. Certainly in the Cathedral Santiago de Compostela there is a magnificent urn said to contain his remains and that of two of his followers. And I believe anything that does no harm.
We fancied visiting some more of the State hotels of Spain so we decided to follow the ‘path’. Did I walk it, did I heck! ‘Matilda’ our twelve year old Nissan was selected for the trip and across France we went to find the start for us, this was on the French/Spanish border.
Now followers of my blogs have by now worked out I like to treat myself, so the choice of State hotels doesn’t seem to fit. However there are in Spain, and on their Islands, over one hundred State hotels called Paradores. Try their web site http://www.paradores-spain.com I’ve been lucky and visited about fifty, but I digress.
The routes through Northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela are followed on foot by the pilgrims. The main ones are the French Path and the North Path; we are modern pilgrims and prefer a car. So the following photographs are taken as we followed the North Path in and the French Path out ‘sort of’. And this trip was without blisters.

If you can follow the map you will see the route for all four blogs (episodes).
The way in took in the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and followed the coast via Argomaniz, Cangas de Onis, Ribadeo, Vilaba and into Santiago de Compostela. The route out was Tui, with a diversion into Portugal, Villafranca del Bierzo, Leon and Santiago Dominigo de la Calzada. We stopped for the night at the Parador’s as these were one of the main reasons for the trip being an historic treat themselves.

And on the drive back through France a visit to ‘Monet’s gardens at Giverny, which will be a blog another day’