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I have just returned from a four week vacation in Spain/France and the UK with my DH (darling husband). The focus of the trip was to walk part of the medieval pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain:  The Camino Santiago de Compostela.

The route begins in France and crosses the Pyrenees - a journey of around 800 kms. Alas the unreasonable demands of employers did not permit us the 7-8 weeks required to do the entire walk so we opted to do the last 115 kms from Sarria in Galicia to Santiago - a more achievable 5 days of walking through the gentle (and surprisingly English) Galician countryside.

The medieval pilgrims came to seek penitence at the Shrine of St. James and there is something awe inspiring in walking in the footsteps of the faithful who have been walking the same path for nearly a thousand years. The way is marked by yellow arrows and there is a great comradeship of the trail. Regardless of language (and we encountered a wide variety of nationalities from Koreans to Mexicans), no pilgrim would pass another without wishing them "Buen Camino".

Modern pilgrims are more varied in their reasons for undertaking the walk - for some it is just a good excuse for a long walk, for others a chance to reflect on their spirituality (whatever form it takes) and for others we encountered it was a journey of faith just as strong as the faith that had driven their predecessors. At Santiago the pilgrim is rewarded with their Compostela (a certificate confirming that the bearer has undertaken the pilgrimage - I rather irreverently refer to it as our "get out of pergotary free" card!). The following day the experience concludes with the Pilgrim Mass in the Cathedral and whatever your spiritual beliefs, it would be hard not to be moved by the service.

I will be posting a longer account of the Camino to my website in due course. In the meantime I have posted just a small representative selection of our photos to the gallery. I hope you enjoy them.