Crossing Spain on an ancient pilgrimage route

Pilgrims walk on the Way of Saint James near the village of Santa Catalina de Somoza, close to Astorga. [Provided To China Daily]

French Way takes you across country to Apostle's burial site.

About three hours into the day's hike, having just cleared the highest mountain point of the Camino de Santiago, I looked down into the valleys pockmarked with yellow and purple spring blossoms, and froze.

Surely that faraway black office tower, seemingly no bigger than the trail stones making my scarred feet scream, could not be where I was planning to arrive that same night. Guidebook check: It was.

Dejected, I struggled downhill into the next hamlet, El Acebo. I was barely past the first of its slate-roofed stone houses when my name - Giovanna! - rang out in the lilting Rio de Janeiro accent of a fellow pilgrim.

And that was my camino experience: 31 days of physical endurance through awe-inspiring landscapes, of contemplation punctuated by deep connections. It was a combination that reset my Type-A internal clock so that stopping to pick a poppy or a bunch of grapes, or to compare blisters with hikers from Seoul or Hawaii or Naples, became not only permissible but also imperative.

The "camino frances", or French way, is an 800-kilometer medieval pilgrimage route that crosses Spain from the Pyrenees at the French border to the purported burial site of the Apostle James in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Of several historical routes to Santiago, this is the most popular.

It's no wilderness hike: The longest stretch without crossing a village is 10 miles (17 kilometers) through farmland. How much solitude you get depends on when and where you start.