Since 814AD, when legend has it that a hermit found the tomb of St. James, people from all walks of life have made the pilgrimage to the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela in Spain. I studied Spanish 4 weeks at Aula sin Fronteras near the Northern Spanish town of Burgos, while living with a host family for the month. My ‘pilgrimage’ started at the French-Spanish border, and continued some 550-miles and 36 days to Finisterre, the ‘end of the world’ on the Atlantic Coast.
Prologue
People from all walks of life have made the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. They make the trip to visit the remains of St James in the cathedral. I studied Spanish near the Northern Spanish town of Burgos while living with a host family for a month. My ‘pilgrimage’ started at the French-Spanish border. I walked some 550-miles and 36 days to Finisterre, the ‘end of the world’ on the Atlantic Coast.
Legend of St James
Legend has it that a hermit found the tomb of St. James in 814. Since then, the faithful have made the pilgrimage to Compostela de Santiago. In the Middle Ages half a million pilgrims a year flocked there from all over Europe. I read a journal by a 16th-century pilgrim that reminded me of AT thru-hiker journals. So I had to add it to my list of ‘future’ adventures.
My Pilgrimage
On September 13th, 2002, I began my pilgrimage along the Camino Frances route. I started in St-Jean-Pied-de-Port at the Spanish-French border. Then I headed west about 550-miles across Northern Spain to Santiago de Compostella. I finished in Finisterre in little more than five weeks. I was blessed with great weather even though it was one of the wettest summers on record. Hostels, also called refugios or alburgues, are set up along the route in Spain. They are for the pilgrim’s use, most costing little if anything. But the highlight of the entire adventure is all the wonderful people I met along the way. It was a melting pot of the world, with pilgrims from all over Europe and the World.
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