Via Francigena: Rome’s seven pilgrim churches

St. Paul’s Outside the Walls

Via Francigena: Rome, Italy. The Seven Pilgrim Churches
San Pietro, Santa Maria Maggiore, San Giovanni in Laterano, Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, San Sebastiano fuora la Mura, San Paolo fuora la Mura, Santa Maria Trastevere.
Pilgrims throughout the ages have walked to or visited the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome as have popes, several [...]

Via Francigena: St Croix in Switzerland

Baud Brothers Mechanical Museum

Via Francigena: We arrived in St. Croix which was situated on a terrace sheltered by the slopes of Mont Chasseron. It was an attractive centre for skiers in the winter and hikers in the summer.
While Canterbury and Kent had been shielded from the most uncomfortable weather of this hottest of summers, the [...]

Cotswold Way: Hills, cheese rolling and monks

The unusual Prinknash Abbey, hidden in the Cotswolds

We had overnighted at Painswick on the Cotswold Way. Being a Sunday morning, we breakfasted and then were off to experience a local church service. A pleasant service at St. Mary’s with the minister giving a sermon about the evils of transnational companies such as Nike. After the [...]

John O’Groats: top of Scotland

At John O’Groats Scotland

From the Diary – May 31 – Saturday: Inverness – Thurso – John O’Groats
I was staying overnight at the Inverness Youth Hostel. Phew! What a pong in the room. All these walkers, baked bean eaters, snorers, and no windows to let the air in. I found it difficult to sleep after 3.00 [...]

Coast to Coast – Kirkby Stephen

On the Coast to Coast Path:  We followed the track that led along a back lane and out onto the long main road of Kirkby Stephen. There was our accommodation, perched right on the main street. The “Jolly Farmer” was a comfortably renovated inn. The assortment of boots and walking staves in the corridor suggested [...]

West Highland Way: the Devil’s Staircase

Near Glencoe Valley

Oct 6 – Monday: King’s House – Kinlochleven (14.5 km)
It was raining and a heavy wind blew throughout the night. We had breakfast in the hotel’s quaint dining room. The lady of the house takes our order and even suggests conspiratorially to Carol that she tries the blood sausage. Mrs. –‘s Newfoundland dog [...]

Foulksrath Castle – Ireland’s oldest hostel

Foulksrath Castle, near Kilkenny, Ireland

From the travel diary:
Dec 16 (some years ago) – Monday: Kilkenny, Ireland
After a big breakfast I walk down to the railway station and take the train to Thomastown, named centuries ago after Anthony Fitz Thomas. I grew up in Thomastown, Victoria, Australia so I was interested to compare the two places. [...]

Via Francigena – Canterbury Cathedral

Pilgrims outside Canterbury Cathedral

Beginning the Via Francigena: Although still 1900 kilometers from Rome, the legacy of the ancient Romans was not hard to find in Canterbury especially if you visited the Roman Museum in Butchery Lane which encourages visitors to explore the subterranean remains of Roman Canterbury. The Romans had built 6000 miles of roads [...]

Coast to Coast Walk – Nine Standards

We were on the Coast to Coast Walk and had just left Kirkby Stephen.
Occasionally, we glimpsed a group of tall cairns known as the Nine Standards. No-one really knows who built them or for what reason, but one story is that they were placed on this Pennine ridge to give the marauding Scots the impression [...]

Le Puy to Conques

We were walking from Le Puy to Conques.
Winter was coming. Every morning was discernibly colder than the previous one. Breakfast at the Hotel de la Vallee was the most meager of meals yet. It didn’t take us long to walk to Senergues where we bought some apples and peanuts, and continued along the GR65. Over [...]

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