Walking the Milky Way

This is the story of a walk from the Netherlands along the Camino de Santiago to the 'end of the world' at Spain's Cape Finisterre; a journey that took close to seven months and covered about 3500 kilometres.Starting in Mid January Tineke Vlijm takes the reader through four countries, from bitter cold to blistering heat, and describes the challenges and experiences of living from day to day. It recounts fascinating encounters with people en route and the various places that for...
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This is the story of a walk from the Netherlands along the Camino de Santiago to the 'end of the world' at Spain's Cape Finisterre; a journey that took close to seven months and covered about 3500 kilometres.Starting in Mid January Tineke Vlijm takes the reader through four countries, from bitter cold to blistering heat, and describes the challenges and experiences of living from day to day. It recounts fascinating encounters with people en route and the various places that for centuries have played an important role both historically and for the pilgrims who travelled across Europe.In search of an answer to the question what to do next in her life, the author walked the camino and found an ever increasing freedom. 'Going-with-the-flow' became more than a concept, time lost its meaning and distances became irrelevant.There is a magic on the Camino de Santiago that works silently and mostly unnoticed, but walking the 'Milky Way of Europe', as the assembly of pilgrims' routes to Santiago and Finisterre is called, affects every single person who makes this journey. What makes the Camino de Santiago so different from any other long distance walk? There is no single answer except that "You have to walk the Camino to understand. You have to feel it."This personal account aims to strike a chord with the reader that might start resonating and entice him or her to discover the magic of the camino.