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Prelude to a book (Peragro Press, Dec 2004) by Rene B. Schmidt All too often we hurry to a destination not really paying much attention to the actual journey. Each one of us begins and ends such a journey in a similar way. We differ only in the choices we make along the way. These are some of my experiences, images, thoughts and stories of people, times and places. R.B.S.
We're not sure how we found the Camino de Santiago. In some ways we think it found us. By midsummer 2002, Johanna and I had decided to walk the 760 km trail from St. Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostella. Over 1000 years old, the trail was recently declared a world heritage site by UNESCO. We realized that a walk along the Camino de Santiago would be an opportunity to compare our complex lives to the simple rhythms of walking, talking, eating and sleeping. The juxtaposition of a high tech world, where concepts are out of date in as little as 6 months, with a 1000 year old trail was interesting to say the least. We knew that the experience would expose us to the culinary, architectural and historic aspects of Northern Spain and we were particularly looking forward to hiking through the Rioja vineyards and sipping the local wines. I was looking forward to some interesting photos for a possible photo exhibit and we were both keen on meeting new people with the hopes of sharing stories, lifestyles and aspirations. We knew that everyone has a story to tell and that had us discussing the idea of a travelogue to share the experience with others. The Photo Sets 1-4 represent
a small percentage of the photos we have for this journey. Several of the other photographs have been incorporated into the
book.
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The book is now
available and can be purchased through the publisher, Peragro Press at www.peragropress.com
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