The present-day walkers do nothing but follow the ways opened by our ancestors in heroic times, searching for peace, moved by faith and a heap of feelings, and tracing on the ground ways that were marked out in the highest. 

     Compostela has been the aim for about a thousand years, the end of the Way -of all ways- and the third of the holy cities of Christianity. The capital of the West.

Eight ways
There are almost as many ways as walkers, but there are eight of them that have an accredited nature card:
-The Primitive Way is the first of them all, from Oviedo crossing Lugo. The first pilgrims came this way.
-The French Way is the most known and passable one. It comes in Spain from Roncesvalles and Somport. Its two branches join in Puente la Reina. It has been the Way par excellence for centuries.
-The North Way comes from the Basque Country, Cantabria and Asturias and gets into Galicia through Ribadeo. It joins the French Way in Arzúa.
-The English Way comes in through Ferrol and A Coruña. The pilgrims from bordering lands on the North Galicia came this way through the sea.
-The Route of Arousa Sea and Ulla River also received by sea pilgrims for the Northern lands.
-The Way to Fisterra - Muxía, terrestrial in the Galician section, with pilgrims defying the dangers of a hard navigation.
-The Silver Way from the South of Spain: Seville, Zafra, Mérida, Cáceres, Salamanca, Zamora and Ourense.
-And the Portuguese Way that linked the Portuguese lands with the tomb of the Apostle in Compostela.

There are many other ways that will go on reappearing and we will go on discovering, such as the Winter Way that from Ponferrada went to Valdeorras, Quiroga, Monforte, Chantada, Lalín and Silleda, looking for better climatological conditions during winter.
Researchers keep on rescuing from oblivion old routes with hospital remains, memory of names related to St James, memories of the age-old pilgrimage that will be rescued from oblivion. But for now these eight ways are the greatest routes for pilgrims to Compostela.