Reflections
“When the fresh showers of April have pierced the drought of March to the root…then folk long to go on pilgrimages.” (Geoffrey Chaucer in his Prologue to “Canterbury Tales” – loosely translated from the Middle English) Six and a half centuries after Chaucer led a diplomatic mission to the kingdom of Navarre, I passed …
Continue reading “Camino de Santiago – On the Frontier Between Faith and Culture”
On the last evening of a memorable week in Paris, trusting instinct and serendipity to determine where I would go and what I would do, I set out to find an appropriate place for supper. Sure enough, I not only found the perfect bistro, but also gained an insight into the history and ritual of …
Continue reading ““Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder” – Paris, 2025″
After walking across the Pyrenees from France into Spain, my plan was to continue along the thousand-year-old “Way of Saint James” as far as Pamplona. There I’d declare an end to my brief pilgrimage and catch a train for Madrid and a flight home. But what I love about the Camino de Santiago is its …
One difference between pilgrimage and a walking adventure is that while everyone may be treading the same physical path, the pilgrim is also on an inner journey: walking mindfully; living simply; accepting rather than avoiding challenges; being open to lessons along the way. On my first Camino de Santiago, walking mindfully along the eight hundred …
A few more days and I’ll be leaving for another camino; walking a pilgrimage toward the great 12th Century cathedral in Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain. This will probably be my last post until September, so I’ll leave you with some personal thoughts on pilgrimage in general and the camino tradition in particular.
In the historic town of Carrión de los Condes in northern Spain, a diverse group of weary guests gathered in the vestibule of the albergue (pilgrim hostel) at the convent of Santa María to join some of the nuns for an evening sing-along before the nightly Pilgrim Mass. Most of us were strangers, united only …
Continue reading “A Musical Interlude on Camino – Spain 2016”
I love the serendipitous rewards of unstructured travel. If I had any doubts about spending a week in Paris with no plan other than to immerse myself in the local scene, they were dispelled before even checking into a hotel where Ernest Hemingway stayed in the 1930s, conveniently located in the Latin Quarter and one …
Continue reading “A Flâneur on the Way of Saint James – Paris, 2025”
On a hot mid-morning during a 6-week walk from France to Santiago de Compostela I was grateful to see an enterprising young man selling cold drinks, fruit and souvenirs to pilgrims in the middle of nowhere. His little dog bounded up, wagging its tail and barking so furiously that I couldn’t resist joking “¿No pasarán?” …
Somehow I had imagined Spain’s Cape Finisterre – “End of the Earth” – to be like a finger of Europe pointing westward toward the open sea. But it isn’t. It’s more like an appendix, hanging “down” from north to south. And that’s part of the magic. The pilgrim who augments their Camino de Santiago (the …
Continue reading “A Walk to the End of the Earth – Galicia, 2023”
Five years ago, lingering over a last glass of wine and aftertaste of delicious Basque cooking, I was savouring the ambience of a little courtyard restaurant tucked under the medieval walls of St. Jean Pied de Port at the foot of the French Pyrenees. Calling for the bill, I jotted a few final notes in …
Links to Categories and each of the stories are listed below. In addition, you can look for any keyword using the “Search” function on any page. Most stories are also linked by thematic tags (#) at the bottom. If you have questions or comments, feel free to email me. CATEGORIES Arts and Culture Common Humanity …
Spring is a fine time to walk the “Way of Saint James” from the south of France and across northern Spain to the great cathedral at Santiago de Compostela. It can mean fewer crowds and cooler (if unpredictable) weather. On the other hand, some things are still closed early in the pilgrimage season, not least …
Continue reading “Plodding Across the Pyrenees – France to Spain”