Gareth Thomas has started his 2000km walk to Santiago de Compostela. He describes himself as follows in his blog:
Following long and careful discernment, I gave up my job as a teacher in Canterbury last year to explore the question of vocation. I’m still waiting on the Lord to see what He intends for me now. I know the surest way to make God laugh is to tell him your plans… so I’ll speak no more about my hopes! Just now, the only part of my future that is planned is the walk to Compostela, and I am doing that as a Catholic pilgrimage of faith to the shrine of St James the Apostle. If, while walking, I can use my good health and energy to raise funds for Whizz-Kidz, that is a privilege, and I’ve set an ambitious target of £10,000. Help me realize that please. Follow the blog and watch my progress: pass it on to others, and please, of your charity dig deep. May God give you His blessing.
Gareth walks for charity and is hoping to collect 10 000 pounds for disabled children and young people in the UK.
Via Stellae Festival de Música is a series of concerts that was started in 2007 and now the 2008 season has been presented. The caminos that will see performances are:
This year, May 1st fell on a Thursday, leading to many Spaniards to take Friday off and make a long weekend out of it. The city of Santiago de Compostela invited to a party.
20.000 people showed up to the party held at the south campus of the university of Santiago de Comostela.
Luar na Lubre (more on them at Wikipedia here) is one of the most known groups from Galicia and I thought it would be fitting to add this video to the blog today since it has been raining in Santiago for the last 2 weeks. We need the water…. but some sun would be nice now.
This is a list of bus companies that I compiled back in 2005, but i think it can still be useful for those of you that are looking for bus schedules to/from a specific place in Galicia.
The links to the bus companies are still working, but please note that route information below might not be update.
El Correo Gallego reports today that Travelodge are considering building hotels along the camino francés. They had some initial meetings with the Xunta in Galicia recently.
Travelodge is a low-cost hotel that, if they actually do this, would offer pilgrims a room for about €35,- / night.
I wonder if some of the spirit of the camino will be gone if pilgrims sleep in Travelodge’s instead of the local albergue?
Most pilgrims walk from Roncesvalles to Santiago in about 30 days, Julián Sanz has decided that he would like to bike this distance in 24 hours.
Why stop at albergues when your first bed is ready and made for you in Santiago?
So, this Saturday he will start in Roncesvalles and with his support-car he hopes to be in Santiago some time Sunday. El Correo Gallego reports today that he will be using a gps device on his bike, so that it will be possible to track his progress on his website: http://www.juliansanz.com/es , but at the moment this website does not seem to be down.
I guess he is still a pilgrim, in his own way. Although many will probably disagree… at least he does not take up space in the albergues along the way
Easter is around the corner and the local government has presented a new website that is focused on presenting the easter program. As you may know, in Spain easter is know for their easter easter processions (see photo).
In Santiago de Compostela this year there will be 14 of these processions. Have a look here for the program. Each procession walks a different route, click on one to see the route and to get some more historical information on each route. It seems like English is not available.
For more information on the easter celebrations in Santiago de Compostela, have a look here:
We have had some strong winds in Galicia in the last few days, but nothing out of the ordinary. Even so, the waves at sea has been enormous.
The light house of Cabo Vilan (just north of Finisterre) recorded waves of up to 20 meters yesterday, and as you can see on the beach-front in La Coruña large amounts of wather entered the city.
The weather report can report of calmer weather from now on.
March 8th 2008, the German author Hape Kerkeling was featured in the New York Times in relation to his book “I’m Off for a Bit, Then,”. This book is about his camino to Santiago and has lead to making the camino popular in Germany.
HAPE KERKELING is the kind of comedian who is not above putting on funny wigs and false teeth to get a laugh. His best-known character, Horst Schlämmer, is a tiresome, booze-addled reporter for a small-town German paper who snorts when he laughs, revealing a mouthful of nasty dental work, and paws any young woman within reach.
