A true adventure in Spain enriched with flavors of contemporary culture and spiced with legends from ancient times.

In September 2001, the author and her husband Ralph set out to walk across Northern Spain on an ancient trail called the Camino de Santiago. In so doing, they followed in the footsteps of such historic figures as Charlemagne, St. Francis of Assisi, Dante, Chaucer, and King Fernando and Queen Isabel as well as millions of lesser-known pilgrims.

Five hundred miles stretches before them as they set from Roncesvalles, a small village in the Pyrenees; travel through the rolling hills of Navarre and Rioja, covered with sweet grapes; hike across the flat, stark, and hot meseta, described as "nine months of winter, and three months of Hell;" travel over two more mountain ranges of the Cantabrian; and enter the verdant, oft-rainy ridges and valleys of Galicia.  There they reach their final destination, the holy city of Compostela de Santiago where the remains of the disciple St. James are believed to be buried.