Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #369390 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Synopsis
Use this book to walk a medieval path off the beaten track. This Village to Village guide enables the walker to follow the 1,000 year-old pilgrimage footpath to Santiago de Compostela and to re-enact Europe's most historic journey. This guide is recommended by the Catholic Church to those making the pilgrimage to Santiago on foot. It is a detailed directional guide for the 800 km footpath in Spain. The book contains listings of budget accommodation and other practical information. In the middle ages, a network of foot paths carried pilgrims to the shrine at Santiago from every country. The roads went over the Pyrenees and into Spain, either by way of the great monastery at Roncesvalles, or via that of Santa Cristina and the Somport Pass. Santiago, far away under the mists and Atlantic skies of Galicia, all woods and water in a Celtic landscape of menhirs and lost gods, exerted an appeal that was infinitely pre Christian. The route to Santiago was a Roman trade-route. It was nicknamed by travellers la voje ladee, the Milky Way. It was the road under the stars. The pale arm of the Milky Way stretched out and pointed the way to the edge of the known world : to Cape Finisterre The vast majority of those who walk The Way of St James today, are not experienced walkers at all. Many have never done any serious walking in their lives. and many will never do anything like it again. Most long-distance footpaths avoid not only large towns but even quite small villages as well; the Way of Saint James, on the other hand, because of its historic origins and the need for shelter, deliberately seeks them out. It passes through ancient places rich in art and architectural masterpieces

Customer Reviews

A Very Comprehensive book
The first edition of this book (also listed at Amazon) had some pretty good reviews and that was what made me decide to buy the second edition of the Village to Village Guide.
Cannot say I was disappointed. I believe in travelling light less then 7kg in my backpack so I posted the other guides back at Estella and kept this one as a one stop resource on the Camino.
My only criticism of the book is that since it has been recommended by the Catholic Church, it has excessive descriptions of the religious establishments along the way. Without these the book could have been quite a concise directional guide saving on weight.
What may make this book worth buying (for those walking on a budget) are up to date prices on accommodation and listing of the free Refugio's which for me were useful. The directions were very clear except for a stretch just outside Pamplona where there had been recent roadworks and the path had been obscured for about half a mile.

a disastrous choice of a guide book
I bought this book on the strength of the one review available but after using it found it so sloppily inaccurate and full of factual mistakes as to be dangerous to rely upon. For example accommodation in Estella is omitted but referred to as being in the next village, some distance away. The walking distance to Pamplona, in the book, adds up to 20k more than it actually is. Prices are given sometimes in euros and sometimes in pesetas, often in the same sentence. ie A room costs 30 euros. For an extra 4000 you can have a meal??????. It is full of typos and errors of layout and editing that make it feel extremely unreliable to use. I accept that it has a lot of historical detail but if the factual on the ground detail is such a mess can you even trust the history.?