It seemed like a good idea at the time

The power of the Venn diagram to warp history around itself is very rarely acknowledged.  When Christian Weise made an early attempt at such a chart and put steam, coal and iron together the result, as every school person of all persuasion knows, was the Industrial Revolution. John Venn put Half Day holidays, railways and needless partisanship into the mix in 1881 and only seven years later the football league was founded. Researchers are still hunting the Forbidden Vaults of the National Archive, hidden amongst WO330, for the rumoured conjunction of a radish, Covent Garden and an unused Parachute Army which led to the attempt to seize a bridge at Arnhem.  Mine was a Spanish Father-in-law, a general interest in walking and Eamon Duffy’s ‘The Stripping of the Altars.’

Duffy’s work was an entry level study to Christopher Frayling’s ‘Strange Landscapes’ and Andrew Graham-Dixon’s History of British Art and epoch loads of supernatural understanding of a many dimensional world…. And the whole nature of pilgrimage and the road to Santiago.

Fast forward to August 2022. Life generally gets in the way of making the camino - that and having not walked more than a few miles in decades. The Lockdown had, however, got me doing a little more than shuffle to the car. At the time apps were offering to tell you how far you had got to Mordor, having pottered down to the shops for a paper .  Why not do the walk to Compostela and while we are at it, why not use streetview to map it out and share the journey.

I love the idea of setting out from your front door; it feels a little subversive. I have mapped it out here https://www.facebook.com/groups/365848245706835 This Blog is what I should have done but never got round to.  Never mind, we are in Spain now and getting there is only half the journey.

In the last year I have wandered down to Portsmouth.  Among the things encountered was the High Cross, just off the A5 in Leicestershire. It is a 1712 ‘yah boo! We beat the French! Column which was hit by lightning in 1791. It is meant to mark the centre of Roman Britain. It is utterly missable unless you virtually walk pass it.  We visited it. Parking is problematic.

Normandy was fun. I know where Pegasus Bridge fits in the D-Day story and can report the local wine and calvados we ordered to celebrate helped last December fly by.

Most of this year has been spent ‘liking’ French restaurants and sharing their weekly menu to the confusion and edification of all.  Google Reviews have been a constant companion - who knew people could be so pleased or so angry.  I hope this has amused.  At this point I think I need to shut up and get on with the blogs.

This is where we are at the moment.

The walk is usually achieved by doing a 3.2km walk.  This is usually achieved by a walk out of the village and along to the church.  A longer route takes in the old path from a deserted Medieval Village along their way to the nearest church and highest point around. This is pleasing as once through the church you are reentering the village.; seems a slightly transformational moment. I change the tempo of the music - unless I’m listening to Football Weekly.   Mind you, on busy days it is done by walking at work a lot.