I always think it’s in the starting that a journey takes its shape. How have I come to this point of departure and how did I decide this was the time I needed to travel? How did I get to a place where a 300 km hike in the month of December seemed like the […]
Sarria to Portomarín (2010)
I’m really not sure what I was thinking. December 27, 2010 and I take off like I know what I’m doing and I walk right out of town, right into the countryside – alone. How I became this reckless, this fearless, this full-on crazy different from my normal indoor self, I will never know. But […]
What is an Amigo?
In the late fall of 2013, the American Pilgrims on the Camino put out a call to the membership to see if anyone would be interested in volunteering in the Pilgrims Office in Santiago de Compostela for a two week gig. Airfare and daily expenses would be on the volunteer, the housing would be on […]
New York City to Sarria (2010)
2010 was, in the language of pilgrims, a Holy Year. They don’t come around all that often and when they do, the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela greets many thousands more visitors than in an ordinary year. I had read about holy years for some time and thought it was really nice to have a […]
St. Jean Pied de Port to Roncesvalles (2009)
One thing I can tell you about walking the first stage of the Camino, typically the route through the Pyrenees from France into Spain, is this: it’s just really not all that easy. You leave the sweet village of St. Jean Pied de Port and start climbing into the mountains and before you know […]
Winter Tips
I love a winter pilgrimage. I prefer the solitude, the challenge, the weather, and the extra indulgences. But it does take some doing if you want to enjoy yourself. Here are some quick tips – from my own experience walking three times during the months of December and January: 1 – Take a sleeping bag. […]
Paris to St. Jean Pied de Port (2009)
In late May of 2009, I flew to Paris with my son on a mission to explore a number of pilgrimage sites I had studied in college. We visited the Tour St. Jacques which had just recently been restored. It was more a symbolic gesture than anything substantive because we were not going to walk […]
Tumbleweed Pilgrim 