walking "El Camino de Santiago", or: a home journey

the day yesterday, and the places it took me and my sister actually began in April and in Spain, with this note of my island diary:

"The book I am reading while here on this island is fitting, too: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, about hiking the Appalachian Trail, and being out of the usual urban rhythm for a while.

Reading it made me think of the book I read a while ago, about walking the pilgrimage way “Jakobsweg” to Santiago de Compostella in Europe. There are several "Jakobswege" leading towards the main passage – and when googling it, it turned out that one of it actually leads through a city not too far from where I live.

I might even have walked a part of the trail at some point, without knowing about it. It’s one of the synergies of travel: the being away from home that makes you see and find things you otherwise would have missed, abroad, but also at home."

*

of course, after returning home, the plan to check the exact route faded - until it was brought to surface again last week, when my sister said she will visit, and we said we could go for a walk if the weather allowed, and i wrote back with the idea to follow the "Jakobsweg" together for a bit, “El Camino de Santiago". and so i looked for details. and here's where we arrived:



as it turned out, one of the trails that lead from Eastern places in Europe towards Santiago runs right past the train station where my sister was arriving. how's that for chance? we met right there, and followed the blog entries of a blogger who recently walked that part of the trail, too, and it only took a minute until we saw the first way-sign. 

the skies were kind enough to let us walk without rain, even when darker clouds passed. then the sun came out again. so good. while walking, we thought of the times when travelling pretty much meant: walking to another place, or if you could afford it, going by horse-carriage. the times when a trip to Austria or Italy was an endevour that took weeks.

my sister also told about a friend of her who had walked the Camino de Santiago this year, starting at the lake Geneve in Switzerland, crossing France, and then walking onwards to Santiago - a walk of 3 months.



we walked a 5k-passage yesterday, walking past old trees, wide views, a farm house, and places like the one above with the old stone cross.

towards the end of our walk, i thought that i might walk the following parts, step by step. just to see where they lead me - and to follow the series of home journeys with a wider view that started this year with a drive along the Alb.

links, map & more
here's the wiki page of the Jakobsweg / Way of St. James / Camino, with more information

and as all those home road trips start to connect more and more, here the links to the previous regional road trips, the tag is: homejourneys

1-day road trip along Roman roads and home rivers (following travel routes from the past)

into the past: a Celtic settlement from 2200 years ago (where i first saw a Celtic mound grave this year, in March)

the bluest pond and oldest Venus of Germany: Blaubeuren (further back in time, to neolithic figurines that lead back 35.000 years in time)

our local ex-vulcano: Randecker Maar / Swabian Jura (and even further back in time, to the time this region was shaped by vulacanic activity, 17 million years ago)