what grated me about Coelho's book is that he put in all these meditations to do for seven days, but then at the start of the next chapter, he'd be on the 7th day of a meditation, only to have his guide stop him & get all pissed off because he was doing something wrong. That just seemed irresponsible, to me. And I did try one of those meditations & liked it.
I was attracted to the Camino for the same reason, to walk the same path as people from ancient times (although the bridge at Cirauqui is a bit more "authenticly" Roman than necessary lol). Here's the funny part: one of my ancestors had a scallop shell (sign of St. James) on his coat of arms. You could only put that on your coat of arms if you had walked the Camino (!!!) so it was really amazing for me to walk through some of these ancient villages knowing that he saw the same things that I did almost 500 years later. More recently, iow, last week, I discovered that another ancestor's death was recorded in the parish of St. James Garlicheathe (sp?) in London, which for English pilgrims, was the traditional starting point for those heading off to the Camino in medieval times.
I would encourage you to consider walking at least part of the Camino. If you want the "compostela," you have to walk the last 100 kms, starting at Sarria. It's interesting that they give out the compostela for those saying they have "spiritual" or "religious" reasons for walking the camino, but they don't ask what religion or faith you follow. If you don't want the compostela, but want to get the feeling of walking where ancients have walked, through cities, towns, & villages still on their medieval footprint, I can help you there too. :) There's no requirement that you do the whole thing in one fell swoop, or that you have to start at one particular point (St. Jean being the traditional modern starting point for many pilgrims). There's not even a firm definition of the "whole thing" because more & more countries east of France are uncovering their own trails that linked up to the Camino. It's no longer rare to hear of someone walking from their homes in Germany, Denmark, or Croatia.
Fun fact: the traditional start for Irish pilgrims is St. James Gate in Dublin. Right across the street from the Guinness brewery. Check out the Guiness label. :)
forgot to add my first blog on this subject, on my walks in 2007:
http://kellyonthecaminofrances.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=34dg
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