"Whenever I was asked: 'Why did you go to Santiago?', I had a hard time answering. How could I explain to those who had not done it that the way has the effect - if not the virtue - to make you forget all reasons that led you to become involved in it in the first place." Each year, tens of thousands of backpackers (Christian pilgrims and many others) set out from either their front doorstep or from popular starting points across Europe, to Santiago de Compostela. Most travel by foot, others ride a bicycle, and a few of them travel as did some of their medieval counterparts, on horseback or with a donkey. In addition to those who undertake a religious pilgrimage, the majority are hikers who walk the way for non-religious reasons: travel, sport, or simply the challenge of spending weeks walking in a foreign land. Also, many consider the experience as a spiritual adventure, with a view to removing themselves from the bustle of modern life. Jean-Christophe Rufin followed this "Northern Way" to Santiago de Compostela by foot, on over eight hundred kilometers. Much less crowded than the usual pilgrimage route, this one runs along the Basque and Cantabrian coasts in Spain and through the wild mountains of Asturias and Galicia. Translated from the French by Malcolm Imrie and Martina Dervis
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017 - Publisher: Maclehose Press
"Whenever I was asked: 'Why did you go to Santiago?', I had a hard time answering. How could I explain to those who had not done it that the way has the effect - if not the virtue - to make you forget all reasons that led you to become
Type: BOOK - Published: 2016-04-07 - Publisher: Hachette UK
"Whenever I was asked: 'Why did you go to Santiago?', I had a hard time answering. How could I explain to those who had not done it that the way has the effect - if not the virtue - to make you forget all reasons that led you to become
Type: BOOK - Published: 2001 - Publisher: Signal Books
The Long Road to Heaven", the annual pilgrimage to the Galician city of Santiago de Compostela has taken place for over a thousand years. In the great cathedral of Santiago are said to lie the bones of St. James of the Great, cousin to Christ, an original disciple and later
Type: BOOK - Published: 2004-05-19 - Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Traveling two and a half months and one thousand miles along the ancient route through southern France and northern Spain, Conrad Rudolph made the passage to the holy site of Santiago de Compostela, one of the most important modern-day pilgrimage destinations for Westerners. In this chronicle of his travels to
Type: BOOK - Published: 2015-03-10 - Publisher: Hillcrest Publishing Group
People go on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage for a variety of reasons: religious, midlife crisis, a need for adventure or miracle, to visit Hemingway's 1920s hangouts, to pay homage to Saint James . . . Author Jean Mitchell-Lanham went for all the same reasons, and then her academic and