The Why for The Way

The Cowling Way - Our adventure begins – February2015!

The Way of St. James (also known as the Camino) officially begins at Saint Jean Pied de Port, France and travels 500 miles through northern Spain ending at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in the Galicia region. Named for Saint James, an apostle and rumored brother of Jesus, who is believed to be buried under the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Beginning in the 9th century, pilgrims would begin at their doorsteps and trek to the apostle’s resting place seeking forgiveness for their sins.Today, the route begins wherever the pilgrim does and it is not necessarily religious. In our case, we are starting in Ponferrada, Spain. Once we land in Madrid, we will take the train to our staring point. Our journey will be 211 kilometer or 131 miles. We will walk between 10 and 18miles per day for 10 days. To “complete” the Camino, pilgrims must walk 114 kilometers and have their walking passport stamped daily. When we reach our final destination the Cathedral of Santiago, we will go to the Pilgrims' Office in Santiago with our walking passport/credentials and obtain our Compostela Certificate. We picked Ponferrada because it has easy train service; it is almost double the requirement for completion, fits the time we have available for walking and allows us a bit of time to see a little more of Spain before we return to Texas.
 
Why?

I know… the first thing you are wondering is why? There is not a single reason. We have cruised,  enjoyed wonderful beach vacations, visited Hawaii, trekked around Utah, Yosemite, Chicago, New York, tasted wine in Napa and visited much Europe, had staycations and more…we loved them all. But for this trip we wanted an adventure. We wanted a challenge. We wanted a goal. We needed to exercise. I have been in a horrible work situation for the past 2 years and I needed a distraction – something to focus my energy on the last few months of work. We wanted to do something that few people have done. I retired from 24 years of public service. We had the time. We are at the average age for a pilgrim. We are transitioning from Austin to Fayetteville, AR. That and more… is the “WHY”.

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