Introduction

Camino de Santiago

I plan to start this walk on 11 Sep 2011 with my friend Ian. This walk is approximately 800 km (500 miles) From St Jean de Port in southern France over the Pyrenees and along the northern part of Spain to Santiago de Compostela. However, if we have the energy and the will we will probably walk the extra 100 km to Fisterra on the coast! We will fly out on 10 Sep 2011 and plan to start the walk the next day.  It will take about 35 days if we walk every day.

The pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain owes its origin to the discovery, in what is now Galicia, of the tomb of the Apostle James the Great sometime early in the 9th century. It probably achieved its greatest popularity in the 12th century, when it came to rival Rome and Jerusalem as goals of Christian pilgrimage, and though it declined thereafter, it has never been entirely forgotten. In recent years it has seen a renewed surge of interest, and in 1987 it was declared the first European Cultural Route by the Council of Europe.