The Couple Who Held Hands on the Camino de Santiago is a detailed account of a tea drinking dog fearing vegetarian’s long distance walk with her husband on the Camino Frances and Camino Finisterre in Spring 2015. Lucy and Martyn were referred to as “the couple who held hands” by an American pilgrim who became one of their friends on the camino. Don’t worry, they did not encounter any really fierce dogs on the camino path and there was plenty of vegetarian food. Cups of decent tea were somewhat scarce, so instead they drank a lot of very nice “cafes grandes con leche”. This provided lots of opportunities to meet other pilgrims in the plentiful supply of cafes along the Way.
They met a wide range of pilgrims from around 35 different countries. They heard different languages being spoken around the dinner table every evening. They had different experiences in the Albergues and other accommodation they stayed in. This ranged from kind friendly hospitaleros who went out of their way to ensure pilgrims had a great experience and cooked tasty shared pilgrim meals, to not very clean Albergues with not especially friendly hospitaleros and not such good behaviour from some fellow pilgrims. Lucy’s favourite albergues were the vegetarian ones which she describes in some detail.
Lucy and Martyn enjoyed the wonderful countryside, interesting villages, towns and cities. The camino took them straight to the doors of many beautiful churches and some magnificent cathedrals. They heard cuckoos calling and saw storks nesting on top of churches, phone masts and anything else that was a little bit tall. They saw fire salamanders, processional caterpillars and red squirrels. They saw glorious displays of brightly coloured spring flowers, fields of red poppies, blue cornflowers, orchids and many other flowers. They saw the tallest Eucalyptus trees they had ever seen in Galicia and Finisterre. They saw the red fields of Rioja, where they also sampled the very tasty Rioja wine almost every night with their pilgrim meals. Moving through the landscape from one type of scenery to another was a wonderful experience. They reached the end of their journey at the sea in Muxia and Finisterre. They were only fully able to realise what they had achieved when they found themselves standing by a stone way marker that said there were zero kilometres left to walk. The way marker was at Lands End Finisterre by the sea. This was the end of their journey.
They met a wide range of pilgrims from around 35 different countries. They heard different languages being spoken around the dinner table every evening. They had different experiences in the Albergues and other accommodation they stayed in. This ranged from kind friendly hospitaleros who went out of their way to ensure pilgrims had a great experience and cooked tasty shared pilgrim meals, to not very clean Albergues with not especially friendly hospitaleros and not such good behaviour from some fellow pilgrims. Lucy’s favourite albergues were the vegetarian ones which she describes in some detail.
Lucy and Martyn enjoyed the wonderful countryside, interesting villages, towns and cities. The camino took them straight to the doors of many beautiful churches and some magnificent cathedrals. They heard cuckoos calling and saw storks nesting on top of churches, phone masts and anything else that was a little bit tall. They saw fire salamanders, processional caterpillars and red squirrels. They saw glorious displays of brightly coloured spring flowers, fields of red poppies, blue cornflowers, orchids and many other flowers. They saw the tallest Eucalyptus trees they had ever seen in Galicia and Finisterre. They saw the red fields of Rioja, where they also sampled the very tasty Rioja wine almost every night with their pilgrim meals. Moving through the landscape from one type of scenery to another was a wonderful experience. They reached the end of their journey at the sea in Muxia and Finisterre. They were only fully able to realise what they had achieved when they found themselves standing by a stone way marker that said there were zero kilometres left to walk. The way marker was at Lands End Finisterre by the sea. This was the end of their journey.
