July 6, 2011 Strasbourg

July 6, 2011 -- I spent most of today in the Rhine Park on both sides of the river. I didn't go into Strasbourg proper, although I have been there several times on previous trips to France.

There was an interesting collection of people in my dorm room last night: a Pole, a Brazilian, a Czech, a Frenchman, and I. The Frenchman and I spent an hour or so chatting. He was kind enough to forgive my primitive French, which he was kind enough to claim was better than his school English.

I did check out the way marker on the German side of the river, and there it was, a small statute of Saint James marking this section of the Way of Saint James, as we call it in English, or the Camino de Santiago, as it is called in Spanish. I learned from the marker that the German name is Jakobusweg. Saint Jake, as I'll call him, even bears the trademark of the pilgrimage, the image of a seashell.

Marker of the Way of Saint James (Jakobusweg in German) in Kehl, Germany across the Rhine from Strasbourg, France

Jack with Saint Jackobus (Saint James or Santiago)

There are traditional pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela from many places in Europe. I suppose if I were a real adventurer, I would start following the trail here instead of taking the train almost all the way to the Spanish border before starting my hike. I plan to spend five weeks on this adventure, but traditional pilgrims in the past spent months or even years walking to Santiago de Compostela and back.

Tomorrow, it's off to three nights in Paris. Then  I will head south to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to finally start my pilgrimage.