This, for some reason, stirred something in me. I became even more fascinated with the whole phenomenon when visiting the Museo das Peregrinacións, a museum in Santiago that tells the story of pilgrimage routes all over the world in general and pilgrimage on the route of Santiago de Compostela in particular. Ever since then I’ve often wondered what it would be like to go on a pilgrimage, not so much for religious reasons, but more because of the whole experience.

Recently I’ve taken to walking for an hour and a half on the days that I that I don’t work out. It helps me to relax and take my mind of things. While walking I started thinking again about that holiday and the pilgrims we saw walking on the route of Santiago to Compostela and decided that I should put thought into action. Which means that next year, 2010 (which happens to be a holy year), I’ll be walking from Leiden, The Netherlands to Santiago de Compostela. I haven’t decided when I’ll go exactly or whether I’ll do the whole journey in one go or in a couple of stretches (this would probably be more practical in terms of my job and the number of holiday days I get every year), but the decision has been made.

I still have lots of preparations to make. Becoming a member of the Dutch Confraternity of Saint James would probably be a good idea. Along with extra training. Getting a sponsor wouldn’t be such a bad idea (in case you know someone let me know ). I’ll keep you posted.

Apart from going to Moro we managed to squeeze in a reservation at Tom Aikens. We’d contemplated going to the Fat Duck, but they were temporarily closed at at that time. Should be a nice experience, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Apart from that I haven’t made any plans yet. Perhaps we’ll go see a show, do some shopping, visit a museum, hopefully go to some other great restaurants and of course drink a couple of pints (possibly with some old friends).

Listening to it makes me want to go back to Spain: drink unas cañas con los amigos and eat some tapitas. Aaah, the good life.

The audio file present in this post can be listened to by viewing the original post on my blog.

I’m sure he’s having a good time (they went there last year as well and had a blast). I’ve always wanted to go to Japan, I find it such a fascinating country. Even their manhole covers are much funkier than anywhere else I’ve seen. My friend Martijn once took a bunch of photos of different manhole covers in NYC (but I cannot seem to find his blog post) and they were not even half as funky. Nor are they here in Leiden I might add (via).