Hi Meridok
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you will be able to pick one up in the albergue - Albergue Santos Martires
Thank you Sil for your reliable and helpful comments: We got our credential (and more) from the Santander albergue:
Rather than looking for my credential in Satander I obtained one in advance from the national asociation in Canada where I am from. It just seems to make sense as it is one less thing to sort out my first day in Spain
John,
We switched off our motors, which was overheating due to the stress in life, and on impulse dropped into the first albergue, this happened to be the one in Santander to start our Camino. It was one of the wisest things we could have done:
a) we met one of the friendliest hospitalero, with a thousand kilometer smile, who for a Euro each, helped us (because of our language deficiencies) supplied as well as fill in our credential.
b) he gave us a free glossy brochure (in Spanish), seen on the table, of the section from Leon to Sarria, there were others for sale
c) there were maps, a message board with messages from other pilgrims, photos, and other Camino related stuff pinned on the walls.
It was a wonderful welcome to the start of our Camino, we would have missed the spirit of the Camino if we had planned our Walk to the nth degree. We would have missed seeing some of the most typical Spanish streets, and the beautiful Shell marking the route as shown.
We would have missed even more the friendly people on the streets who eagerly gave us direction to the albergue, perhaps as they could see we were not Spanish. Why no backpack? In the albergue as hunting for food.
Kwaheri