The Camino is an ancient pilgrimage route in Northern Spain. There are many routes, or caminos, which lead to Santiago de Compostela; several begin in Spain, others in various parts of Europe or the UK. The way we will walk is called the Camino Frances. It begins just near the Spanish French border in a town called St Jean Pied de Port, and leads to Santiago de Compostela. The walk is nearly 800 km. A mighty long way.
There are lots of sites devoted to describing the Camino de Santiago and I recommend checking these out. Diane will post her favourites for you. This brief description of the Camino comes from a really good Uk site http://www.caminodesantiago.me.uk/
The Camino de Santiago de Compostela, also known in English as The Way of St James, is a collection of old pilgrimage routes which cover all Europe. They all have Santiago de Compostela in north west Spain as their final destination. For more than 1000 years pilgrims have been walking along the Camino de Santiago.
The main Camino route is the Camino Frances. This part of the Camino de Santiago traditionally starts in St Jean Pied de Port and finishes in Santiago de Compostela about 780km later, after traveling the breadth of Northern Spain, (In Santiago you can collect your Compostela). However you can start anywhere and even continue past Santiago to the sea at Finisterre. Finisterre was thought to be the end of the world in medieval times
We will begin the travelling portion of the pilgrimage on April 19th - the preparation in other ways is already happening. And the walking part of the experience will finish with a flight home on May 28th.
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