Walk a Mile (or 500) in My Shoes!

Yey! Guess what, I finished my 800k virtual pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela on Thursday this week and believe me when I started from the Jakobskirche (St James) in Bamberg all those months ago, I never thought I would complete all those 32 stages. I wrote them down in the back of this sketchbook and the first 10 seemed to take an eternity but suddenly with a half down things seemed to speed up.

Believe me you wouldn’t want to walk one mile in my trainers which smell appalling even though they’ve been washed and I can’t believe how many pairs of socks I've got through.

This is the magnificent cathedral that would have been the goal of my journey, with one of the largest censers in the world! To be honest I'm not to sorry about missing seeing the censer, I don’t like the smell of Frankincense. 

I decided to finish my pilgrimage at my local church which is dedicated to St Andrew, an appropriate place for a Scotswoman. 

Here we are in St Andreas, a church was first recorded here in the mid 14th century but the building in its present form dates from 1655. On the right of the photo you can see an altar dedicated to the 14 Holy Helpers. The Vierzehn Nothelfer, as they are known here include St Georg, Eustace, Barbara, Katharine and Blasius and each of the 14 saints are attributed to help in difficult situations in life both medical (Blasius heals sore throats) and spiritual, St Eustace is responsible for marital (family) problems. The cult of honouring this team of saints seems to have sprung up around the 11th and 12th century and became very much rooted around Würzburg, Bamberg and Nuremberg. I've already posted sketches and photos from one of the most famous churches dedicated to the 14 Holy Helpers ‘’Vierzehn Heiligen'' in Bad Staffelstein. 

And where does it go from here? Well here’s a photo as a hint! Looks like I'm going to need a lot more socks for the 2050k so that I can say I've done the complete journey from Germany!