Billboard in a town near Santiago

On a flight not long ago I watched The Way with Martin Sheen. It was a moderately good movie about a middle-aged American who walks the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain, in honour of his son who had just died.

I’ve had an interest in doing some or all of the Camino for quite a while. More likely I would choose one on the alternate routes rather than the most popular 800-km one across the north of Spain. I`ve been to Santiago, but travelling by train, and only for a few hours in the daytime.

In research over the years I’ve read:

• The Camino, by Shirley MacLaine. It was bad. A year or so later, I read it again just to see if it was better the second time around. It wasn’t.
• What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim, by Jane Christmas. I enjoyed this one quite a lot. I read some unkind reviews of it but disagree with them.
• Travels with My Donkey, by Tim Moore. (Subtitled: One man and his ass on a pilgrimage to Santiago). This was a bit silly. The only reason I can think of to take a donkey from the UK to Santiago would be to write a funny book about it. It took me awhile to get past that persistent thought, but then I enjoyed the book.
• Probably some others that slip my mind at the moment.

Here a very well done video (8 minutes or so) describing the Camino and I’ve found a blog about a couple embarking on their camino in April, that I think I’ll follow.

Here I am blogging about reading about the Camino – not actually doing it! That is pitiful.

An excellent source of information is this forum, which I keep on my Favourites list and visit from time to time.