Credential: first stamp and starting date

[Annet2020]

I will be in Porto the day before I start walking the Camino Portugues. I already ordered my credential online but of course I will have to get my first stamp from the Cathedral in Porto.

If I get my stamp the afternoon/evening before I start walking, does that mean that date will be put in my credential as the date I started my Camino?
Because that would not be correct as I actually start my camino the next morning.

I want to get a distance certificate at the end which mentions the day you started, so I would like to have the correct starting date on it.

The other option is that I would wait until 9.00 next morning, get my stamp at the Cathedral and start walking. That would mean I can not get a stamp at my hostel in Porto the morning I leave because I would not have my stamp from the Cathedral yet.

If I could get the first stamp from the Cathedral the day before I could get a stamp from my hostel in Porto the morning I start walking.

 

[Annet2020]

I have a Portuguese credential with a first page for personal details + starting place + starting date.
The second page (first page for the stamps) has place for the first stamp + date.

 

[Gillean]

I think if you were to just explain the situation and ask them to use your actual start date on the Certificate of Completion when you visit the Pilgrim Office they would be willing to do that. Seems like a small ask to me.

 

[lt56ny]

I will be in Porto the day before I start walking the Camino Portugues. I already ordered my credential online but of course I will have to get my first stamp from the Cathedral in Porto.

If I get my stamp the afternoon/evening before I start walking, does that mean that date will be put in my credential as the date I started my Camino?
Because that would not be correct as I actually start my camino the next morning.

I want to get a distance certificate at the end which mentions the day you started, so I would like to have the correct starting date on it.

The other option is that I would wait until 9.00 next morning, get my stamp at the Cathedral and start walking. That would mean I can not get a stamp at my hostel in Porto the morning I leave because I would not have my stamp from the Cathedral yet.

If I could get the first stamp from the Cathedral the day before I could get a stamp from my hostel in Porto the morning I start walking.

I think you are overthinking this small dilemma. Do not worry about it at all. I got a distance certificate once. I got my credential and she figured out the distance from where I started and she gave me the certificate. My friend payed for it or I would not have gotten one. I think this was at the old pilgrim office. Now I think after you get your credential you go to another desk and you can buy a tube and get your distance certificate. I think it basically works the same way at the new pilgrim office.
Don't sweat it at all. You will be fine the distance police are very understanding

 

[C clearly]

Why don't you consider your pilgrimage to begin with your visit to the Cathedral? You will walk from there to Santiago, with many little "detours" to hostels to sleep for the night. That first night is no different. All along the route there will be similar diversions from the trail.

 

[gloria lowe]

Looking at my old credentials I have tended to collect stamps before I started walking. In 2018 I went to Paris for a week before I started walking and the 1st stamp I had on my Credential is from Norte Dame. The 1st page of the Credential is where you put your starting date and place. That is what they look at not where or when the 1st stamp was done. All my credentials are this way and none were ever questioned. Have fun collecting the sellos. In photo I spent time in Pamplona and collected sellos before starting.

 

[The Ghost]

I will be in Porto the day before I start walking the Camino Portugues. I already ordered my credential online but of course I will have to get my first stamp from the Cathedral in Porto.

If I get my stamp the afternoon/evening before I start walking, does that mean that date will be put in my credential as the date I started my Camino?
Because that would not be correct as I actually start my camino the next morning.

I want to get a distance certificate at the end which mentions the day you started, so I would like to have the correct starting date on it.

The other option is that I would wait until 9.00 next morning, get my stamp at the Cathedral and start walking. That would mean I can not get a stamp at my hostel in Porto the morning I leave because I would not have my stamp from the Cathedral yet.

If I could get the first stamp from the Cathedral the day before I could get a stamp from my hostel in Porto the morning I start walking.

There is a lot you could do here. A lot of places didn't even date their stamps on my passport, I had to write it in. You can ask that they stamp a specific area of your passport - meaning you could have the hostel stamp the second spot leaving the first area for the cathedral.

In the end, when you do the paperwork for your Compostela, you put the date and location you started and at this point the person doing the compostela might verify via the stamps but you could just explain what you wanted and why.

My Camino started the day we arrived in Irun, we actually backtrack 3 miles to the French boarder then back to our pension where we stayed before starting two days later, taking the first day to get my buddies phone set up and he had another issue we needed to fix but our date started showed that first day we arrived Irun

 

[The Ghost]

I think you are overthinking this small dilemma. Do not worry about it at all. I got a distance certificate once. I got my credential and she figured out the distance from where I started and she gave me the certificate. She asked me where I started. She figured out the distance and gave me the distance thingy. My friend payed for it or I would not have gotten one. I think this was at the old pilgrim office. Now I think after you get your credential you go to another desk and you can buy a tube and get your distance certificate. I think it basically works the same way at the new pilgrim office.
Don't sweat it at all. You will be fine the distance police are very understanding

The same person did both the distance and regular certificate for me, info from July 2021. The tube and the wall maps we bought there were handled by a different person.