How About Walking the Camino de Santiago in 2012?

Dare I say it out loud?

“I will walk the Camino de Santiago this year.”

There.  I said it. With so many things happening last year,  my dream of walking The Way was relegated to the bottom of my list of  “Things To Do Eventually”.  But this year feels different.  This year feels right.  I think this year is the year I will go on a pilgrimage of a lifetime.

Just as I was thinking these thoughts, I got an invitation from Ms. Vien Cortes of the Spain Tourism Board to attend a presentation  on January 30, 2011 at the Instituto Cervantes. This is so reminiscent of what happened last year when Marc Grossman stumbled upon my post on the Camino and sent me his precious all weather walking  maps!  Vien, who learned about my Camino plans from Marc, contacted me last year expressing her interest to help me. We have been e-mailing each other since.

On January 30, Vien will be in the country  to give a presentation on one of the world’s oldest pilgrimage sites, Santiago de Compostela.  For those who are not familiar with it,  Santiago  de  Compostela  is  the third most important Catholic site in the world  after Jerusalem and Rome. The body of Saint James, one of the twelve Apostles  of Christ is believed to be burried in the Cathedral, down in the basement. For over a thousand years, millions of pilgrims have been walking along  the  road to Santiago de Compostela. Traveling  the  breadth  of  Northern Spain, the road to Santiago stretches from  the scenic Pyrenees Mountains of France all the way to Galicia, where  Santiago de Compostela is located.

Here’s a video that captures both its beauty and significance:

If, like me, you’re interested to walk the Camino,   why not drop by on the 30th?  Here are the details:

Date:                  30 January

Time.                  0900H to 1200H

Presentation:  The Road to Santiago de Compostela and the Religious Routes in SPAIN

Presenter:         Spain Tourism Board and special guests

Venue:                The Auditorium of the Instituto Cervantes

Admission is free.  The Spain Tourism Board will also be raffling off some door gifts from Turgalicia  on this day.  For more details, drop me an e-mail or leave a message here.

By the way,  here’s a map going to Instituto Cervantes:

writer. director. dog-walker. cat-tamer. furniture-rearranger. wanderer. wonderer.  writer. director. dog-walker. kitten-tamer. furniture re-arranger. wonderer. wanderer. also a pasteis de belem nut. Read more from this author