Today, my daughter Eva and I participated in an activity organised by the Spanish Language and Culture classes (ALCE) in Ireland: we walked a section of the Camino de Santiago (St. James´s Way).

(Photo of the St. James´s Way milestone located in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland.)

Camino de Santiago? In Ireland? Yes! It turns out that one of the many "Camino ways" scattered around Europe (and the world, for today we learned even Brazil has one) is here in Ireland; it´s called the Celtic Camino, and today we walked the portion that stretches between Bray and Dún Laoghaire, along the coast. So beautiful!

We were a good few Spanish families, taking our chances with the rain, which, thankfully, never showed up, and we had a really nice time: walking, chatting and sharing. Reliving the spirit of the Camino, including several stops to stamp our passports and some well-deserved rest with light refreshments at the end. I´ll most probably be sore tomorrow morning (I´m no longer used to these long walks), but today, my day has been filled with great memories, conversations, encounters, re-encounters, pride at our achievement, and spectacular views despite an overcast sky:

(Photo of the beach and the DART tracks from a viewpoint near Killiney.)

Thanks a million to Ester and Beatriz, teachers in ALCE Dublin and organisers of this event, to the Camino Society volunteers who accompanied us today, and to all the families who made the effort to come along. It´s been amazing.

By the way, if you´ve never done the Camino de Santiago (I mean, properly making it to Santiago de Compostela), I strongly recommend it; it´s a wonderful experience. The minimum distance is 100 km, which is not so difficult to achieve, and I can´t describe the immense satisfaction you get when you arrive at the impressive Santiago Cathedral on foot. I did it twice, many years ago; the first time along the French way, and the second time, along the Portuguese way, and I´m looking forward to doing it again (my dream is to do it with my girls, Irene, Alicia and Eva, if I ever get to convince them).

Lastly, I´d like to share here a very well-known Spanish poem by Antonio Machado, referring to the great metaphor of life that is the "camino": the path, the road.

Traveler, your footprints
are the only road, nothing else.
Traveler, there is no road;
you make your own path as you walk.
As you walk, you make your own road,
and when you look back
you see the path
you will never travel again.
Traveler, there is no road;
only a ship’s wake on the sea.