General

Caminho Portuguese: Part 2

For part 1 of the Caminho Portuguese, click here.  The first week on the Caminho Portuguese had proved to the most difficult and demanding of all my caminos, but I as long as I could get out of bed in the morning and put my boots on without assistance I was prepared to carry on. I had reached the town of Alviazare, about half way between Lisbon and Porto, after six days, and I expected to reach Porto in another six. Carlos, the owner or the albergue in Alviazare, had provided great hospitality to all his guests, and he kindly…

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Caminho Portuguese: Part 1

Most families have a black sheep, the person they store in the proverbial attic for fear of embarrassment, who they only acknowledge at funerals. I’ve probably been that person in my own family. Let’s face it, no one who walks multiple caminos could be considered sane, and the insane are rarely welcome in polite society. I’ve been fortunate to walk the Camino Francés, a beautiful journey of spiritual fulfilment, redemption and lasting friendships, the Norte and Primitivo, a challenging trek of stunning vistas and warm collegiality, and the Via de la Plata, an epic journey of haunting isolation that rewards…

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Camino Finisterre: Part 2 – The Road to Redemption

For Camino Finisterre part 1 click here By the time I'd finished my second day's walk I was really starting to hate the Camino Finisterre. I was also really starting to hate life. The first time I had walked that path, back in 2004, I thought it was long and monotonous, isolated and lonely, tiring and dull, but at least it was a new and novel experience. Walking in the footsteps of ancient pilgrims and seeing the sun set at one of Europe's most westerly points would be a perfectly fitting way to end my epic journey which had began nearly…

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HAPPY NEW YEAR – A PILGRIM’S PERSPECTIVE

So you thought 2020 was bad? Welcome to 2021. The new year has certainly started with a blast. The Covid numbers are rising faster than the Qatari skyline. Here in Ireland we've had more cases in the first few weeks of January than in the entire first wave. With the whole country on lockdown again and our hospitals overflowing things look as bleak as ever. In America, a deeply fractured nation became even more radicalised when a defiant President Trump provoked a mob to storm Capitol Hill and desecrate the hallowed halls of their democracy. It was a shocking and…

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Camino Finisterre: Part 1 – To the End of the World

Not all caminos end in Santiago de Compostela. Reaching the grand cathedral, which houses the tomb of the apostle St James, is for many pilgrims the ultimate conclusion to their long journey. But for others, the road has a little bit more to run before the odyssey is over. Another older camino begins at the same cathedral. Following the Milky Way overhead, pagan pilgrims travelled these roads to the what was thought in Roman times to be the most westerly point on Earth. Here, the setting sun could be witnessed disappearing beneath the Atlantic Ocean. The Romans named this place Finisterre…

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LOCKDOWN 2.0: A PILGRIM’S PERSPECTIVE

The streets of the world are empty yet again. The lights of business and trade have gone out, with no certainty over when they will be turned on again. In Ireland we've been restricted to travel within a 5 KM radius from home, and we're prohibited from visiting other peoples' houses. Bars and restaurants are shuttered. There are few places for us to meet in person, and when we do see others half our faces are obscured by masks. Only essential workers are allowed to go to work. The skies are closed, and we can but dream about travelling to foreign lands.…

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CHINATOWN

Layovers can be the perpetual curse of travellers. No one wants to be stuck inside an airport for hours, where they have to contend with hoards of anxious tourists, massively overpriced restaurants, and a shortage of seats which, if you're lucky to snag one, will probably facilitate back problems later in life. Should you need to take a nap under such circumstances a general anaesthetic would come in handy, but if you had packed the right materials they were probably confiscated at security before you had a chance to use them.

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The Seven Keywords of a Pilgrimage – Simplicity

A pilgrimage is a journey of the body and soul, along arduous paths, to a destination of some religious or cultural significance. Usually undertaken for personal, spiritual or penitential reasons, such an expedition allows the pilgrim an opportunity to travel inwards, and acquire profound personal insights or existential truths that will be the lasting legacy of their odyssey.

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The Silver Route – Part IV: Travels in Galicia

Facebook Twitter Instagram Tucked away in the northwest corner of Spain, bordered by mountains to the south and the east, and exposed to the ravages of the Atlantic on its coasts, lies the land of Galicia. This is the part of the Iberian peninsula where the Celts came to call home many moons ago. The lush, green, rainswept landscapes abound in vegetation, and look far more like other Celtic countries to the north than they do to most of mainland Spain. Galicia is a land that seems lost in the fog of time. Its countryside is dotted with tiny lifeless…

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The Silver Route – Part III

Facebook Twitter Instagram The life of a pilgrim regularly resembles the life of a soldier in terms of discipline, routine, marching long distances on foot, and living in very basic conditions with meagre rations for sustenance. The main difference is that on the camino no one is normally going to point a gun in your face. But there's a first for everything. One Saturday in late October I was walking a lovely section between Santa Marta de Tera, a pretty little village in the middle of nowhere, to Rionegro del Puente, another pretty little village in the middle of nowhere,…

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