Through the green and pleasant land - New Route

• Thinking of some practice walks before a longer Camino?

• Flying into London on your way to Spain and want to get used to walking a route?

• Wish to explore some of  England's beautiful countryside?

• Want to walk a route full of history and places to visit?

These are just some of the reasons why you might walk the new route from Reading to Southampton. You may remember I wrote about this wonderful new path here.  I am delighted to tell you that the guide has now been published and is available from the Confraternity of St James  for £6.50. More than 70 copies were purchased on the day the guide was launched and I am sure the route will prove popular.

This video will let you see more:

 Enjoy!

And in other news:

I'm sorry postings have been so infrequent recently. I've been preoccupied with a number of projects:

Pilgrims' Office website -  The Pilgrims' Office has a relatively new website which you can access here:

http://www.peregrinossantiago.es/  The site has a really good statistics function and you can search the database which is automatically updated every day. We have also been writing entirely new content for the the website. This is now ready and should be approved by the Cathedral and up-loaded in the next week or so. Watch this space!

Santiago Welcome Service - I told you about this recently. This is a collaborative project between the Confraternity of St James and the Irish Society of the Friends of St. James. Volunteers will come to Santiago and will welcome every single pilgrim who arrives. They will also provide an information service for pilgrims who speak English. The project is coming together. 50 people have applied which is about double the number needed. So now we begin talking to them, sorting out availability, finding and opening the new house in which they will live and so on. Exciting stuff. I'll keep you posted.

New route in Santiago - one of the things I've been thinking about is what pilgrims do when they only have a couple of days here in Santiago at the end of their camino. Is there a way of helping pilgrims see parts of the city which they might not normally explore as well as giving them opportunities to reflect on the wonderful experience they have had on the Way? I've also been thinking about what tourists make of it all when they see jubilant pilgrims throwing off their rucksacks on arrival in the Plaza Obradoiro? Do they wonder what it would be like to walk a route? Is there a way of letting them try it out?

The upshot of all of this is I have designed a new one day walking route here in Santiago. The guide is now written and I'm talking to the authorities here about publishing it. I promise in the very next posting I will reveal all.

See you soon.

John