The documentary evidence!

After a good night’s sleep, I was awake by 7.30. It felt strange to jump in the shower in the morning, as opposed at the end of a day’s walking, but I guess that’s a small step back towards normality.

I left the albergue at just after 8.30, stepping out into the chilly morning air. I returned towards the Praza do Obradoiro, to find the Pilgrim Office, a few hundred metres from the far side of the square, in order to present my credencial and claim a Compostela, the official certificate from the Cathedral of Santiago.

As I approached the Pilgrim Office at about 9, when it was due to open, there was a large queue, the length of the building. Breakfast first seemed like a good bet, and there was a convenient bar across the street from the Pilgrim office. By the time I emerged, after breakfast, the queue had vanished, and there was just a single pilgrim near the door, talking to the security guard.

In recent years the system has been automated, so you simply scan a QR code to access a website on a smartphone, which collects your details (kiosk-style terminals are also available in a hallway). This produces a QR code, which the office team would later use to retrieve my details. The security man pressed a button to produce a reciept with second QR code and my number in the virtual queue. There was also a screen which said that 127 pilgrims had already been welcomed in the first 15 or so minutes of the morning. Presumably I was therefore number 128.

I was then directed into an office at the end of a corridor, where my queue number flashed straight up on the screen, and I was immediately called forward to the counter. A friendly lady scanned my QR code, briefly looked over my credencial and printed off my Compostela. I quite like the fact that my first name had been translated into Latin, as “Joannem” (because of course, Iain is a form of John).

She then asked where I’d started for my separate certificate of distance. I explained the couple of jumps forward I’d made and she asked if I knew the distance I’d actually walked. I gave her the figure, which she promptly typed in, and the certificate of distance was printed off.

The Compostela is issued without any charge but there’s a small charge for both the certificate of distance, and for a very convenient small cardboard tube for safekeeping and transporting the certificates home. Within no more than about 6 minutes, I walked out with my tube and both certificates (at least half of which was spent paying at the cash desk!)

As you can see, the Compostela is in Latin, but here’s an English translation:

“The Chapter of this Holy Apostolic and Metropolitan Cathedral of Compostela, custodian of the seal of the Altar of St. James, to all the Faithful and pilgrims who arrive from anywhere on the Orb of the Earth with an attitude of devotion or because of a vow or promise make a pilgrimage to the Tomb of the Apostle, Our Patron Saint and Protector of Spain, recognises before all who observe this document that: …………… has devotedly visited this most sacred temple having done the last hundred kilometers on foot or on horseback or the last two hundred by bicycle with Christian sentiment (pietatis causa).
In witness whereof I present this document endorsed with the seal of this same Holy Church.
Issued in Santiago de Compostela on ……… of …………… year of our Lord ……….
The Dean of the Cathedral of Santiago.”Read more