Why do so many people in this day and age walk the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela? Does the endeavor entail a learning experience? And if so, what kind of learning? Having made the ‘sacred’ journey to the pilgrimage centre on foot myself, I want to answer these questions on the basis of my own experiences and those of fellow pilgrims, whom I encountered during the course of my hiking tour.

The age-old pilgrimage road to Santiago de Compostela is commonly known as the camino (‘road’ or ‘way’ in Spanish). In recent years, walking the camino has regained a great deal of its past luster and popularity. Nowadays, the pilgrimage route that ends in the northwest of Spain attracts people – young and old, male and female, religious and non-religious – from around the world. Rather than its destination, Santiago's Cathedral with the relics of the apostle Saint James, it is the long and winding camino itself that inspires them to make the pilgrimage. This route, more than any other contemporary pilgrimage track in Europe, is characterized by long-distance walking (Peelen and Jansen f.c.). In images of olden times, the pilgrims on their way to Santiago use to be depicted in a romantic fashion with a wide mantle, a large hat decorated with a cockleshell, a calabash for drinking water, and a long staff (referring to Saint James). Surprisingly, the modern-day pilgrims’ attire has not changed as much as one would expect. The latter closely resemble their forebearers in outlook with their backpacks decorated with a cockleshell, the hats protecting them against the sun, sports coats, water bottles, and walking sticks.

What motivates so many to embark on the approximately 750 kilometres hike to Santiago is first and foremost the camino's healing power. These pilgrims seek an all-embracing or holistic sort of healing. Their ailments are not of a physical nature, but concern other types of suffering, so to speak, in the emotional, social and/or spiritual realm. In order to grasp the nature of the healing process involved, it is necessary to consider the impact that walking the long distance has on the pilgrims. Furthermore, the camino can be identified as a ritualized space on which numerous previous pilgrims as well as co-pilgrims during the same time span have left their mark.