St. Jacobsroute revisited

It's been a whole year since I left on my bike trip to Santiago. It's hard to believe it's been that long, and the weather is just as gorgeous and tempting today as it was then. Sadly, I haven't had time to take my touring bicycle down from it's winter hooks. I had hoped to bike to Rome this year but that won't happen. Maybe next year!

I have been bicycling nevertheless, on my regular city bike, so don't think I haven't stayed in shape. What I do hope to do for all those who bought the same map guides as I did, is to write something here about the St. James tradition in Haarlem, the official starting point of the St. Jacobsroute according to the cycling maps. Of course, the St. James pilgrim is welcome to start from his or her doorstep, but many people enjoy starting from Haarlem. Unfortunately, for the culturally minded pigrim, there isn't much information available.

There are three choices for your starting stamp; the Big Bavo on the market square (they have a St. James stamp on order, but this was put on hold when the various Protestant church fathers united and now they can't quite agree on a stamp according to the Coster), the old St. Jacobsgodshuis location on the Hage straat (with plaque for pilgrms on the wall), and the tourist office. I assume, though I haven't checked this yet, that you can get a stamp from the Catholic Bavo and probably also from the current location of the St. Jacobsgodshuis (in Heemstede). The problem with all of these options is that these places aren't open all the time.

My starting stamp was from the Utrecht St. Jacobs Confraternity, and they will be happy to pre-stamp this for you if you ask them and order it by mail. I guess they assume any pilgrim asking for a pilgrim passport is close enough to make it to Utrecht. There are places along the way which will not give you a stamp until you tell them how you got there, so I think the Dutch are quite friendly about this.

I hope to post some pictures and more information about Haarlem as a starting place soon.