"R-E-T-Z-N." "And the next set?" "Z-H-O-T-N-X." "X-O-T," "F-D-E." "And the next set?" "R-E-D," "O-Z-F." "Okay." "Uh, Eunice." "How many of those letters can you actually see and how many have you memorised?" "I can see all of them, Dr Avery." "Eunice..." "Okay." "I memorised the last two, Tom." "Only the last two." "If I can't get my licence renewed..." "Eunice, you need to wear the lenses I prescribed." "Contact lenses don't work for me and glasses give me headaches." "Then we'll change the prescription, but you know the DMV's gonna test you again anyway." "I've memorised those charts, too." "Mrs Conrad called and cancelled her appointment for tomorrow." "Bill Warren wants to know if he can see you before he goes in for work, which means you have to be here at 8:00 a.m." " Okay." " Okay for 8:00?" " Yeah." " Oh." "Roger called while you were in with a patient." "He said if you miss the 2:00 tee time, you pay for the beer." "I pay for the beer anyway." "And Daniel called and left a message here on the voicemail last night." " What'd he say?" " He said he'll call back." "He said he's somewhere in France and he sounded good." "I mean, how do you not sound good if you're in France, right?" "Did he leave a number this time?" "No." "Everyone on the planet has a mobile phone except my son." "What the hell's the matter with that kid?" "The world on Daniel's terms." "See you." "Oh, no!" "Let me show you how a real doctor does it." "Since when is Tom not a real doctor, Rog?" "The eyes are the most important organ in the body, Roger." " Maybe at your age, Tom." " They're the windows to the soul." "Yeah?" "How the hell would Roger know?" "He doesn't have one." "Oh..." "Looks like malpractice to me, boys." " Don't use your foot wedge, Phil!" " I got your foot wedge, Roger." "All right, what do we got, about 70?" "Yeah, plus 10 to the flag." "That's what I'm talking about." "You like that?" " It'll play." " That's good stuff." "I'm over there." "Yeah, I see." "It's about three feet away." "You want a ride or what?" "I'm old and tired." " You're old and lazy." " I don't see you walking this course." "It's mine and it can wait." "Get..." "Nice chip." "Not bad." "Go ahead and putt out." "I'll catch up with you." "Hello?" "Yes, hello?" "I'm sorry." "I don't speak French." "I am Captain Henri Sebastian of the National Gendarmerie in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France." " Is something wrong?" " Are you the father of Daniel Avery?" "Yes, I am." "I'm sorry to inform you that your son has been killed, sir." "What?" "What do you mean?" "Daniel?" "Something happened to Daniel?" "He was caught in a storm on the Camino de Santiago, monsieur." "I don't even know where that is." "It's in the French Pyrenees." "He was on pilgrimage." "Tom?" "Tommy?" "Where you going?" "Tommy?" "I'm sorry for your loss, Tom." "Thanks, Father." "I'm going overseas to bring Daniel home." "Would you like to pray with me, Tom?" "What for?" "All the information for your itinerary is in here." "I cancelled all your appointments for next week, so..." "He wanted to see the world." "And he did." "You should fly with me." "What?" " You should fly with me." " Yeah, right." "Turn the car around." "Pack a bag." "Grab your passport." "Forget your golf clubs." "Come on, a father-son trip." "It'll be fun." "When you coming back?" "I don't know." "So you don't have a plan." "We agreed that if I let you take me to the airport, you wouldn't lecture me about how I'm ruining my life." "I lied." "You know, most people don't have the luxury of just picking up and leaving it all behind, Daniel." "Well, I'm not most people." "If I don't have your blessing, that's fine." "But don't judge this." "Don't judge me." "My life here might not seem like much to you, but it's the life I choose." "You don't choose a life, Dad." "You live one." " Mr Avery?" " Yes." "We spoke on the phone." " Captain Henri Sebastian." " Of course." "I don't know why, I know it's odd, but I thought it would say something else." "It's the same word back home." "I guess I thought it would be different." "Mr Avery, if you are not ready to do this," " it can wait." " No." "It's fine." "I mean, it's not fine." "I mean, I'm okay." "Let's get it over with." "Let's just get it over with." "These are Daniel's belongings." "This is everything he had when we found him." " What happened?" " It was an accident." "The weather in the Pyrenees is famous for being unpredictable and I'm sure Daniel would have been warned by the locals." "You were not close with him?" "Not since his mother died, I'm sorry to say." "What was he doing out there?" "He was on pilgrimage on the Camino." "Walking the road to Santiago de Compostela." "People from very different backgrounds, faiths and generations have walked the path from here in the French Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela," "800 kilometres on the north-western coast of Spain, for over a thousand years." "We believers are told that the remains of St James, the apostle of Jesus, are interred there." "And so we make pilgrimage." "This is what your son Daniel was doing." "Why he was alone?" "Many people choose to make the trek alone." "The Way is a very personal journey, Mr Avery." "This is the shell." "The symbol of the pilgrim making the journey." "And this..." "This is Daniel's passport for the Camino." "It is to be officially stamped at every important stop along the route through Spain." "And the first stamp is here, in Saint-Jean." "Buen Camino." "When you arrive at the end, the passport should look like this." "I have walked the Camino to the Atlantic Ocean three times." "There and back." "I will do it once more, on my 70th birthday." "God willing, of course." "Daniel was my only child." "We can also offer cremation if that is a more suitable way for you to transport the remains back home." " I'm sorry, I don't speak French." " Oh, do you mind if I sit here?" "Because there's no other seats available." "Hi." "I'm Joost." "I'm from Amsterdam." " Tom." " Hey, Tom." "I saw you on the train this morning." "We came from Paris." "We were on the same train." "You're not a pilgrim, are you?" "A pilgrim?" "A trekker?" "A peregrino?" "Huh?" "You're not here to walk the Santiago de Compostela." "No, I'm here on family business." "Well, it's not for everyone, you know." "In fact, somebody died on the Camino this week, only one day into the trek." "Yeah, such a tragedy." "Yes." "But it's no mystery why I'm doing this trek." "You see this gut?" "My older brother is getting married in Rotterdam in December and I want to fit into my old suit." "You could just buy a new suit." "No, but it's the third time that he's getting married." "But wedding or not, I mean..." "A bit leaner, a bit lighter." "It would make my doctor and my wife a bit happier." "No?" "Ah!" "Oh!" "It's for energy." "Listen." "My doctorate..." "I'm not gonna finish it." "You mean this year?" "I mean ever." "I can't learn about the world in school." "You're not just in school." "You're at Berkeley." "Take a semester off, sure, but don't throw away the last 10 years of your life." "When was the last time you travelled abroad?" "And I'm not talking about for business." "Nepal." "Morocco." "India." "Papua New Guinea." "Europe." "I gotta go to these places." "I gotta go." "I gotta go." " Captain." " Mr Avery." "I want to cremate the body." "I'm gonna walk the Camino to Santiago." "Mr Avery, if you pardon me, please, you are not prepared to go on this trek." " You have no equipment or..." " I've got Danny's backpack" " and all his stuff." " But you haven't trained for this walk." "And no disrespect, you are more than 60 years old." "So it'll take me a bit longer than most." "You will be lucky if you finish in two months." "Then I'd better get started." "We're leaving in the morning." ""We"?" "Both of us." "Okay." "Here we go." "Came to give me another pep talk, Captain?" "I came to wish you buen Camino, Mr Avery." "And to give you this." " Is this a good-luck charm?" " Something like that." "You'll know what to do with it when you get there." " Get where?" " Cruz de Ferro." "It's on the Camino." "You'll be there a month from now." "You can read about it in the guide." "It's a place of much significance." "Mr Avery, do you know why you are walking the Way?" "I suppose I'm doing it for Daniel." "You walk the Way for yourself." "Only for yourself." "Well, then, I guess I don't have a clue, Captain." "Mr Avery," "I have also lost a child." "I wish you a buen Camino." "Enjoy your pilgrimage." "Both of you." "Thank you." "Tom." "This is the way." "¡Peregrino!" "Shh!" "Sorry." " Are you American?" " Yes." "Americans are always late." "Well." "You speak English." "So do you." "It's my first time in Spain." "You are not only in Spain." "You are in the Basque Country." "We are in Navarra." "Well, is there a room in the Basque Country in Navarra?" "A room?" "You mean a bed?" "A bed, a room, it's all the same." "I'm very tired." "15 euros for a bed and food." "But it's late, so no food." "No more cooking." "No food, but still 15 euros?" " Yes." " Okay." "Shoes here." "Bathroom there." "You're here." "Welcome to Roncesvalles." "Buenas noches." "Pardon me, sir." "Do you have any Grey Poupon?" "I followed the same route as you to a point, but then I detoured at Valcarlos." "And that's why I got here a couple of hours before you." "My guidebook didn't say anything about any detours." "Yeah, but that's because you haven't got the Dutch guidebook." " The Dutch guidebook?" " Yep." "Because we Dutch, we're always trying to find the quickest way to get to the next party." "Because you know what they say, "If it ain't Dutch, it ain't much."" " Did the old woman feed you?" " No." "Well, you're lucky." "The meal was as grim as the beds." "Here." "Have this." " No, I can't take your food." " Yeah, you can." " Thanks." " You're welcome." "Pamplona in a couple of days." "Hemingway, running of the bulls, all that." " I think I might stay there for..." " ¡Peregrinos!" "No drugs here!" "I know what I smell!" "I will call the Guardia Civil!" " Yeah." " I will call the police!" " Yeah." " Yeah!" " Yeah, yeah." " Yeah!" "What did she mean, drugs?" "Oh, nothing." "Well, nothing by Dutch standards." "Just a little tobacco booster." "To help with sleep." " You want some, Tom?" " No." "Thank you." "Sure?" "I'm sure." "Here." "I also have these options." "Ambien, earplugs." "I know you've got a thing for Dutch men, señora." "Have you ever walked the Camino, señora?" "No, never." "When I was young, I was too busy." "And now that I am older," "I'm too tired." "Buen Camino." "Hey, Tom, we should get a coffee here before we go." "Just to get our motor running, no?" "Yeah, we'll have a quick coffee." "Oh, look!" "A cheese maker, Tom!" "Fresh goat cheese, my man!" "Come on, Tom!" "You haven't lived until you have goat cheese from these mountains." "Are you gonna make it, fat man?" "Don't you worry about me, old man." "Hey, Tom." "When we met in Saint-Jean, you said nothing about going on pilgrimage." "I wasn't going on pilgrimage." "But here we are." "Yeah." "You said you were on family business?" "I am." "But you have all the equipment for the walk to Santiago." "Yeah." "Tom, that box with the ashes..." "My son." "I'm done for the day, Joost." "I'm staying here tonight." " Here?" "In this village?" " Yeah." "But Pamplona's a stone's throw away." "My feet are killing me." "I gotta get out of these shoes." "I'm sorry, but not me, man." " Pamplona beckons!" " Okay." "It's been a pleasure, Tom." "Hey, uh, buen Camino." "Ah!" " I don't speak Spanish." " We were expecting you." "Expecting me?" " You are a pilgrim, sí?" " Yes." "We are always expecting pilgrims." "Come, we have plenty of beds and your food is still warm." "Hey, the Americans are here!" "¡Bueno, bueno, bueno!" "Come." "Vamos." "Come on." "The truth of the matter is confused." "No, Charlemagne had other ideas." "To extend his empire." "He crossed the Pyrenees, but nothing worked out as he intended." "This is Spain!" "This is Basque Spain!" "He tortured the Basques of Pamplona and allowed his men to have a little too much rest and relaxation with our women." "When the Basque shepherds, who lived around here, heard what happened in Pamplona, they slipped into the woods, and we, we Basques, killed them." "Sorry, monsieur, but based on what I have read here, that is complete crap." "D'accord?" "You won't find much truth in this book." "Charlemagne." "Roland." "Not "Rolan", Roland." "This is part of French history, okay?" "No, not Basque!" "The French don't want to admit that the death of Roland was because of Charlemagne's un-Christian intentions." "Come on!" "Allez!" "Wait a minute, wait a minute." " Night." " Wait a minute." "Señor, señor." "I thought it was the Arabs that killed Roland." "One of the guys said you're Canadian." "Don't spread it around, eh?" "So how's it going for you out there on the road, Boomer?" "I'm Tom." "You know, as in "baby boomer"." "You got all those horrible signs of that desperate generation taking its final breath, trying to screw the rest of us over one last time." "Only thing missing from you, Boomer, is one of those stupid-looking ponytails and a collection of James Taylor songs on your iPod." "I like James Taylor, but I don't have an iPod." "Well, that's pretty amazing." "What?" "No iPod, no cell phone or computer to keep you connected?" "Isn't it written somewhere in the Baby Boomer Code Book that you must own a certain percentage of anything Steve Jobs makes?" "So what is it?" "On pilgrimage to change your life?" " Something like that." " Wait." "Don't tell me." "Just getting over a nasty divorce and she took it all?" "Or maybe you're out to meet some young chicks and relive your college glory days." "Believe me, I've seen plenty of that nonsense." "Oh, I got it." "You're seeking penance for screwing over your company retirees in some stock market scandal." "You sound really angry." "Yeah." "Sure." "I'm angry." "I gotta quit these and I'm really, really angry about that." "And when we get to Santiago de Compostela, it's all over for you, my little friend." "You're a goner." "The end of the Camino is the end of my addiction." "Spoken like a true addict." "Spoken like someone who took 10 days to get this far." "Well, at that pace you should get to Santiago by the end of the year." "He's onto our plan." "But, you know..." "I wanted to be a bullfighter." "My father wanted me to be a lawyer." "I became neither." "Coffee is in the common area." "Bonjour, Americano!" "I thought you might be staying at least a few more days here, eh?" "Funny." "These European guys are starting to get a little familiar." "I want to get out of here while they're still sleeping off their hangover." "Besides, I got all the friends I need." "Don't want any tagalongs, so..." "Well, be safe out there." "You too, Boomer." " Good luck with the quitting." " Yeah." "Good luck with whatever it is you're doing out here." "We're all just taking a really long walk, I suppose." "That's one way to look at it." "Oh!" "I do have a cell phone." "Yeah, well, me, too." "And an iPod." "Sorry for being such an ass last night." "I'm out here to get away from everything and you just..." "Reminded you of it." "Yeah, I get it." "Well..." "You're all right, Boomer." "Even if you do like James Taylor." "I'm gonna need you to cancel all my appointments for the rest of the month, Doreen." "Oh, no!" "Buen Camino." "Tom!" "Tom, it's me!" "Tom, it's Joost!" "From Amsterdam!" "It's cordero." "Spain is famous for its roast lamb." "Mmm!" " Here." "You should try some." " No." "Thank you." "Much to my dismay," "Pamplona is just an ordinary Spanish city when the bulls are not running." "So much for being a party town." "But I've made reservations to return here in July during the week of fiestas." "The Sanfermines!" "I would like to propose a toast." "'Cause we Dutch love to propose toasts." "That we agree to meet here in July and run with the bulls, like real men." "Like real crazy men." "Well, I'm gonna come back." " Wine shots, huh?" " Yeah." "What are your plans?" "To move through Pamplona quickly, and as long as I'm sitting here," "I might just order some tapas." " ¡Señor!" " They're called pintxos." "I beg your pardon, Joost." "In Pamplona they're called tapas." "Here in Pamplona, it's "tapas"." "I just read that." "You see, unlike the Dutch guidebook, which may be directing you to the nearest party, the American guidebook is designed so that you don't look like a clown if you order "pintxos" when you really mean "tapas."" " Señor?" " Tom." "¿Señor?" "¿Algo más?" "Tapas, por favor." "¿Tapas?" "Aquíno hay "tapas"." " ¿No hay tapas?" " No, no, no." ""Tapas" es más de Madrid, del Sur." "Aquíestamos en Navarra, en Navarra, son los pintxos." "¿Quiere pintxos?" "Oh, look!" "It's Tom Quixote and Sancho Panza." "And that would make you Dulcinea." "Buen Camino, fellow pilgrim." "Buen Camino." "My name is Joost." "I'm from Amsterdam." "Dutch, huh?" "Got any drugs?" " Oh, I love this girl!" " It wears off quick, I promise." " You know each other?" " Sort of." " What are you looking to score?" " Something for sleep." "I've had trouble sleeping for the past, I don't know, couple of years." "Do you folks mind doing this drug deal while we walk?" "I've got some Ambien." "Or something stronger if that's your pleasure." "I love this guy!" "It wears off quick, I promise." "Come." "Come with us." "Tom, wait." "I tried to quit once." "But then I thought, "why?"" "My grandmother, she drank and she smoked her entire life and she lived to be 103 years old." "Now what does that tell you?" "It tells me that everyone who is trying to quit something always has an ancient relative they use as an example of why not to quit." " I suppose that makes me a cliché, then." " You said it." "But I'm not the one trying to quit anything." "Yeah, well..." "We keep walking at this pace, quitting isn't gonna be the problem." "Surviving will be." "Doesn't this guy ever stop to smell the flowers?" " This isn't a race." " No, it isn't." "Then why does it piss me off so much that I haven't seen him stop to take a break?" "Why does something that should be inspirational make me so angry?" "Totally irrational." "The same could be said for this entire journey." " Wonder how old he is." " Older than us." "Hey, Tom!" "You think I'll look like this by the time I get to Santiago?" "Yeah, sure, Joost." "Just keep eating that cordero." "Nothing like a few pounds of lamb to help shed the excess weight." "But it's part of the Camino experience, no?" "I mean, you can't come to Spain without having their roast lamb." ""Where the path of the wind crosses that of the stars."" "What do you think the waist is on this guy?" "32?" "More like a 25 or 26." "Well, a man can dream." "What?" "You can do this on a bike?" "Why the hell are we walking?" "Oh, that's ridiculous, man." "Try that." "It's super strong." "I brought it from Amsterdam." "It's really good." "You do smoke up?" "Hey, I'm Frank." "New York." "Tom, California." "Nice to meet you, Rabbi." "Oh, actually I'm a priest." "You can understand my confusion." "Yeah, a lot of people make that mistake." "Brain cancer." "The surgery left me with a terrible scar." "I wear this yarmulke to cover it up." "They didn't get it all, you know?" "The cancer." "Said it'll probably come back." "Who knows about these kinds of things?" "Only God." "Anyway, they say that miracles happen out here on the Camino de Santiago." "Do you believe in miracles, Father?" "I'm a priest." "It's kind of my job." " You a Catholic?" " I don't practise any more." "You know, Mass at Christmas, Easter." "That's about it." "Here." "Take this." " No, I can't take your rosary, Father." " No, please, take it." "A lot of lapsed Catholics out here on the Camino, kid." "Besides..." "Thank you." "Fore!" "Oh, my goodness!" "Oh, my goodness!" "I'm sorry!" "Sorry!" "I didn't mean to do that!" "Oh, my God!" "Oh, my God!" "I thought I was out here all alone." " You thought wrong." " Oh, yes." "Hello!" "I'm Jack from Ireland." "I'm Jack from Ireland." "How long you been out here, Jack from Ireland?" "On the Camino or in this particular spot?" " You pick." " On the Camino, well, jeez..." "It's hard to say." "This spot, well..." "It's hard to say that, too." "But I think this place means something." ""This place means something"?" "This place is brimming with significance!" "That's the problem with this whole damn road." " Problem?" " Metaphor, man!" "You're out walking all alone and suddenly in the middle of nowhere you see a dogfight near a cheese farm." "What does that dogfight mean?" "And despite its literalness, the idea of a pilgrim's journey on this road is a metaphor bonanza!" "Friends, the road itself is amongst our oldest tropes." "The high road and the low." "The long and winding." "The lonesome." "The royal." "The open road and the private." "You have the road to hell." "The tobacco road." "The crooked, the straight and the narrow." "There's the road stretching into infinity, bordered with lacy mists, favoured by sentimental poets." "There's the more dignified road of Mr Frost." "And for Yanks, every four years, there is the road to the White House." "There is the right road." "Then you have the road which most concerns me today." "The wrong road." "Which I fear I must surely have taken." "Well, Jack, maybe a dogfight near a cheese farm is simply a dogfight near a cheese farm." "Ah!" "Okay!" "That's good." "That is very good." "Dog fight near a cheese farm..." "Maybe there's no such thing as metaphors." "Maybe I should adopt a more conservative attitude instead of trying to trickle meaning out of every curve in the road." "Christ, I haven't had an original thought in months." "Writer's block." "You know what that is?" "Any of you?" "Writer's block?" "And I..." " I'm a writer." " Okay, so..." "The reason I'm out here walking the Camino." "Writer's block." "I figure the sooner we get the small talk out of the way, the better." "Now you know why I'm on pilgrimage." "Great." "Hmm..." "Mailbox full." "You have 35 unheard messages." "All from my editors, who probably think I'm drinking again." "Which isn't a bad idea." "Well, they'll get their book." "Maybe not when they want it, but they'll get it, by God!" "Ooh!" "Can I bum one of those, please?" "Oh." "Uh, yes, sure." "Sure." "Thank you." "So, uh, what's your book about, Jack?" " The Camino, of course." " Of course." " What about all of you?" " What about all of us what?" "Why you're doing the Camino." "Most of the pilgrims I've polled say their walk to Santiago is for religious, cultural or historical reasons." " You're taking a poll?" " Aye, informally, though I have been keeping track of most of the pilgrims I've met along the way." "So far, less than 15 percent said they were doing it for health." "Fewer than five percent said they were out here looking for a miracle." "Miracles are in short supply these days, Jack." "Well, if you don't mind, I'd like to include you in my poll." "I do mind." "Very much so." "Oh, uh..." "Would it be all right if I walk with you for a bit?" "Well, I don't know about them." "Oh, okay." "But it's okay." "It's cool with me, man." " Really?" " Yeah, sure." "I'm Joost." "I'm from Amsterdam." "Joost?" "Right." "Hey." "I mean, I'm not here for God or miracles or any of that stuff." "I'm just a fat Dutchman trying to lose a few pounds." "So you're doing it for health reasons?" "Yeah, you could more or less say that." "Yeah." "Yeah, well, would it be all right if I put you under the category "doing it for health" for my poll?" " Yeah, man, sure." "Whatever." "Yeah." " Really?" "Joost." "Dutch." "Health." "Ah." "Thanks." "Would you like to try some of this?" "It's Turkish." "I hear it's good for writer's block." "You may be right, Joost." "Yeah, man." "Tom!" "Hey, Tom!" "Everything all right?" "Yeah, sure." "So what's her story?" "Tom met her in a refugio." "Walking the Camino to quit smoking." "That's all I know about her." "She's sexy but complicated." "He seems like quite a stiff." "I met him in Saint-Jean." "He's an ophth..." "Um..." "An eye doctor from California." "An ophthalmologist." "He didn't come here on pilgrimage." "Seems like it was more like an accident." "I started my pilgrimage in Paris, Joost." "Three months ago." "And if I know one certainty about the Way of St James, it is that no one walks this Camino by accident." "No one." "He carries the cremated remains of his son." "He got caught in a bad storm over the Pyrenees, first day out." " Oh, you're kidding me." " No." "He carries that box in his backpack." "He leaves little piles of ash all along the Camino." "That's brilliant!" "I mean, tragic, of course." "But brilliant." "Um..." "Do you think he'd want to talk to me about it?" "I think he'd sooner shove that walking stick down your throat." " You're sick." " What?" "The reason you're out here." " You're ill and dying." " Not even close." "That's good." "But I will get it." "No, you probably won't." "Next town is Torres Del Río." ""Towers on the river."" "Your Spanish is pretty good." "Yeah, well, the guidebooks stress learn as much of the language as possible before you start the walk, so..." "I thought you said something about not wanting any tagalongs." "I did." "And if the last 15 kilometres are any indication, walking the Camino with you is kind of like being alone, so..." "But hey, you want me to buzz off, that's cool." "The next town, I'll go my separate way." "But it's not like there's a thousand routes to get to Santiago, so you might have to suffer bumping into one of us from time to time." "I'll take my chances." "Torres del Río, then." "He's in a bad mood." "He's been in a bad mood ever since I met him." "Well, death has a way of doing that to you." "What do you mean, death?" "She doesn't know?" "She doesn't know what?" "She doesn't know what?" "What doesn't she know?" "This town is so short of water that the locals store it up in winter for use in summer." "I don't see anything about bars." "There's an albergue called the Casa Santa Barbara." "Oh, yeah." "It's the only one, but it has five stars." "I don't care how many stars it has as long as it's got a toilet." " ¿Sí?" " Hola." " ¿Peregrinos?" " Sí." "Hi, welcome." " Bienvenidos." " Hola." " Hola." " I am el Ramón." "I'm Joost." "I'm from Amsterdam." "Nice." "Good, good." "Come, come." "Come with me." "Come along." "Come along, please." "Passports?" "Please, passports." " Now?" " I need passports." "Passports, everyone." "Yes, thank you." "Passports." " Passports, please." "I need passports." " Is there a..." "This is my very own and very special el Ramón stamp." "You won't find a stamp like this anywhere else on the Camino." "Could I use your..." "This is the Ramón stamp." "I will stamp your passports with the Ramón stamp." "The Ramón stamp." "The Ramón stamp." "Perfect!" "This is the proof you have been with el Ramón." "Yes, as I was saying, could..." " You must be hungry, yes?" " Yes." "Yes, you are tired, of course." "Oh, but you have come to the best refugio in all of Spain!" "Is there a baño I could use, please?" "Oh, yes, yes, of course." "It's there." "Uh..." "It's a bit more serious, let's say." "One moment." "Good?" "Good?" " Yeah, good." " Good." "I think we're the only pilgrims here." " The only ones alive." " Tom." "Should we stay?" "It's a bed, a meal, a few hours' sleep." "Obviously, we've interrupted something." "Well, that was, uh, interesting." "A bit cold out there." "Who's next?" "Maybe we should stay." "Did anyone ask how much he's charging for the night?" "Because if it's more than a couple of euros, it's too much." " Yeah, I second that." " Aye." "All right." "When he comes back down, I'll ask him about the fee." "But I don't think we're gonna get a straight answer from el Ramón." "Well, it could be a while." "Okay." "I'll go up and ask him." "Them." "I'll go with you." " Yeah, me too." " Let's all go." "What are you all, five?" "No, just scared." "Ay, Ramón!" "Whoo!" "Ramón, Ramón!" "Oh, man." "It's four and a half hours to the next albergue." "Really?" "Well, we gotta think about setting up camp for the night." " No way." " It's getting dark." "Hey, Boomer." "Tom?" "We're gonna camp out." "Now this, this is a true pilgrim experience." "Cheers to that." "Even though I hated camping as a boy." ""A true pilgrim experience"?" "What do you mean by that?" "Well, I'm talking about tradition in the purest sense." "A true pilgrim walks the Camino with nothing." "He has to live off the land." "He has to accept the kindness presented to him, and he has to carry his goods on his back." "A pilgrim is poor, and must suffer." "It strikes me as extreme to say the only way to be a true pilgrim is to imitate what we like to think a true pilgrim is." "Should a pilgrim dress himself as a beggar even if he isn't?" "Do we honour the poor by imitating them?" "I don't think that pilgrims 500 years ago ignored the creature comforts of the road any more than we should now." "Yeah, and what about pilgrims on bikes, or pilgrims that do the Camino on horseback?" "Now, tradition would dismiss bikers, at least." "Biking or riding requires less suffering and less work." "The difficulty of the walk is inherent in walking." "But I don't think we have to artificially add more hardship than is already there." "That, in my opinion, is being a false pilgrim, not a true one." "If you were a man," "I would challenge you to pistols at dawn." "What do you think, Boomer?" "Finally!" "An American without an opinion." "Take a picture." "Morning, sunshine." "Hey." "Where are the guys?" "Out gathering some provisions from the local farms." " Like true pilgrims?" " Yeah." "So you weren't even gonna say goodbye, Boomer?" "Yeah, well..." "What are you doing out here, Tom?" "Besides taking a really long walk." "Why do you care?" "Joost told me you're a doctor?" " Yeah." " What do you practise?" "I'm an ophthalmologist." " An eye doctor." " Yeah." "Oh!" "So, you help people see the world a little better, huh?" "Yeah, that's one way to put it." " I got it." " No, no." "I..." "Sorry." "Three cheers for the true pilgrims!" "Hot bread and coffee for everyone!" "Oranges, apples, see?" "We're living off the land." "This is the way it's supposed to be." " Hey, Tom." " Hey." "How about one?" " Sleep well?" " Yeah." " No, gracias." " Do we have knives?" "We don't need knives." "Just rip it apart." "Orange, Tom?" "Hey?" "Orange?" "No, thank you." "We'll have this coffee on the go." "You okay, Tom?" "Yeah, I'm fine." "Tom." "I'm sure the last thing in the world you want to do is have a conversation with me." "You'd be right about that." "Tom, your son..." "Joost told me." "I'm so sorry." "I had no idea." "Joost told you, huh?" "That figures." "I don't know what to say, but..." "The way you touched me, grabbed my arm, just..." "I mean, in my other life, my life before the Camino," "I was married." "I was married and I was pregnant." "My first, my only." "But my husband was not a kind man, so I terminated." "I got rid of my baby girl, Tom." "I didn't want the son of a bitch to have two of us to beat up on." "Sometimes I hear her voice." "My baby." "I know it sounds crazy because she never got to take her first breath, but I imagine what she would have sounded like." "And sometimes I hear her, Tom." "Sometimes I swear I can hear her." "I'm sorry about your baby." "I'm sorry about yours." "My son was almost 40." "Yeah, but he'll always be your baby." "Well." "Pilgrims, we have arrived." "I'm gonna get us a bottle." "Or three." "Oh, here." "You'll need an extra hand for that." "Look, Tom, I want to apologise again." "I'm really sorry..." "Can we talk about something else?" "Please?" "But I hit you with everything I had and you took it." "My mother taught me that only a coward hits a woman." "How'd she do that?" "She whipped the hell out of me every time I hit my little sister till I finally got the message." "My ex could have learned something from your mother." "Smoke 'em if you got 'em, eh?" "I'm gonna smoke across this whole damn country, Boomer." "So you said." "There's a whole world out there to beat you up plenty." "You don't need to go looking for people to pile on." "Glad you became an eye doc instead of a head shrinker." "First consultation is free." "Let there be wine!" "Let the drinking commence!" "...whereas Paolo Coelho examined the spiritual on the Camino, was inspired to write his first book afterwards." "So, I said to them," ""The last thing in the world you need to publish," ""and the last thing I am willing to write," ""is another bloody guidebook on the Camino."" "I mean, how does one follow the Codex Calixtinus anyway?" "The what?" "Codex Calixtinus." "Liber Sancti Jacobi." "Devotees of the Way regard it as the first tourist guide." "That's right." "It is the source attributed to the writings of Pope Calixtus II in the 12th century." "It is a work of wonder divided into five folios." "Book 1, "Anthologia liturgica"." "Book 2, "De miraculis sancti Jacobi"." "Book 3 translates the writings of St James." "Book 4, the lesser known, banned by the church in Rome, detailed Charlemagne's vision of St James instructing him to destroy the Moors." "But it is Book 5, Folio 5, which most concerns us." "Historians believe it is the first book ever written on the pilgrimage." "So, the dilemma for me is to come up with something that feels contemporary yet pays homage, or hommage, to the ancient traditions of the Way and what it means to be a true pilgrim in the modern age." "Christ, you're a bore!" "I beg your pardon?" "An arrogant bore." "Well, there you have it." "Proof once again that Americans can't hold their liquor." "Says the man with the Aston Villa patch on his bag." "Oh, dear." "I think this pack's getting ready to eat one of its own." "That's just it, Jack from Ireland." "You're not one of us." "You think you're better than us because you're writing a book." " "True pilgrim." "True pilgrim."" " All right, all right, okay..." "Like you would know?" "What did you use to pay for this wine here, huh?" "How many credit cards do you have in your wallet, Jack from Ireland?" "How many true pilgrims used their credit cards to get out of a true jam along the Camino back in the Middle Ages?" "You jackass from Ireland." "You are a true fraud." "That's what I think you are." "Fraud!" "Over here, everybody!" "This man is a fraud!" "Police!" "Hey!" "Over here, gentlemen!" "Arrest this man for being a fraud!" "Tom, we're just talking, man." "Yeah, we're only talking." "You're good at that, Dutchman." "Let me ask you something." "Is there anything in that Dutch guidebook about having some common courtesy?" "Keeping your mouth shut about other people's private matters?" "What the hell are you talking about?" "You know what the hell I'm talking about, Joost from Amsterdam." "Or maybe you've smoked so much hash and popped so many pills you can't remember anything you say or do any more." "Hey, what do you think of the Boomer now, eh, Sarah?" "Whoever the hell you are." "So, friends, the question is, what does it take for someone to become a true pilgrim on the Camino?" "Is that right, Jack?" "How about death?" "How about dying on the Camino?" "Would that rate?" "Would that make someone a true pilgrim?" "Would that qualify for your damn book?" "Hey, Tom, that's my pack." "That's mine." "Tom..." "Tom, come on, man." " Get off of me!" " Tom, that's my pack." "It's my pack." "For Christ's sake!" "Get away from me!" "Get your hands off me!" "Get away from me!" "You know I don't speak Spanish!" "I'm an American!" "I speak American!" "God bless America!" "Joost, call the American embassy!" "Tell them I've been kidnapped on the Camino de Compostela!" "My pilgrimage has been compromised!" "God bless America!" "Everyone!" "¶ God bless America" "¶ Land that I love" "¶ Stand beside her, and guide her" "How do you say "I'm sorry" in Spanish?" "Lo siento." " Lo siento, señor." " Buen Camino." "Gracias." "Adiós." "I don't really remember very much." "That might be a good thing." "Thank you for bailing me out." "You can thank my credit card." "I intend to reimburse you." "You agree to let me use the story in my book," " we can call it even." " Not a chance." "Well, I could still include it anyway." "Change the names." " You wouldn't." " I would." "As far as anecdotes go, it's one of the best from my journey so far." "My friends, you know, my patients, they're gonna read your book, get the wrong impression of me." "Do you honestly believe that your mates from the country club would waste their time reading my book?" "Good point." "What was your son like?" "Daniel's story has got nothing to do with any deal." "I have to explain why you're out on the Camino, Tom." "I can't just introduce some crazy, drunk American into the narrative" " without giving him purpose." " "Crazy, drunk American." Thanks." "I can read his obituary at any Internet café along the way." "But I can't imagine it would shed any light on who he was or what he meant to you." "He was my son." "What do you think he meant to me?" "Daniel was a lot like you." "Smart." "Confident." "Stubborn." "Pissed me off a lot." "May I?" "Thank you." "Sarah!" "Hey!" "Ça va?" "Hey!" "Carlo!" "Hey!" "Ciao, bella." " Hello." " I'm Jack." " Jack." "How are you?" "Good to see you." " Carlo." "¡Hola!" " Tom!" " Father Frank." " Are you just getting to Burgos?" " This very moment." "Hey, listen, you've gotta stay at least a day." "Tour the cathedral." "El Cid is buried there." "The Chuck Heston film." "Let me buy a weary traveller a drink." " They've come in handy." " They usually do." "Maybe a couple tapas, too, here, sir." "I don't have to tell you, but this Spanish coffee is really strong." " Yeah, I know." " I can't drink it in the afternoon." "Otherwise, I don't sleep a wink, no matter how far I've walked." "Isn't this weather beautiful?" "He plays the banjo." "Hey, that kid took my bag!" "That kid stole my bag!" "Hey!" "Hey!" "Come here, you little bollocks!" " I'll go door to door if I have to." " No, no, Tom." "Not here." " Why not?" " It's Gypsies, Tom." " So what?" " It's all Gypsy housing." " So what!" " Listen, you start knocking on the doors here, you might not be happy with what you find behind it." "Having your backpack stolen will be the least of your worries." "Then we have to file a police report or something." "No, cops hate Gypsies." "They don't want anything to do with it." "Not in Amsterdam, not here, not anywhere in Europe." "Sorry, Boomer." "Can you hear me, son?" "I know you're here!" " Just give me the box!" " Tom." "Just give me the little box!" "You can keep the pack!" "Just give me the box!" "What are you doing?" "Oh, this is great stuff, Tom." "What you're saying, I gotta get it down." "You can't give up now, Tom." "It's a big city." "We can..." "We can get you new gear." "I'll take a bus to Madrid and fly home tomorrow." "Come on, Tom." "This whole thing was stupid." "Bloody thieving Gypsies!" "I understand your anger, señor." "My name is Ishmael Villalobos." "My son stole your property." "He wishes to return it and apologise." "It is as you left it." "Everything is there." "Everything." "My son has dishonoured himself, his family," "and yours as well." "This is the problem with how Europeans see the Gypsy people." "As thieves and beggars!" "Not a proud community." "Well, your son is not helping your cause." "A very dark day for me." "I wish to extend an invitation to you and your friends to be my guests at my home this evening." "I insist." "It will be an intimate gathering." "You will not be disappointed by the food or the company." "This is what you call an intimate gathering?" "By Gitano standards." "A Gypsy wedding will sometimes have 2,000 guests." "All close personal friends?" "Actually, yes." "Of course, you are taking your son's remains to Muxia." "No." "To Santiago de Compostela." "You go to the Cathedral in Santiago for the pilgrim's Mass and the blessing." "You must continue across Galicia to the sea." "There is a shrine in Muxia." "La Virgen de la Barca." "Go there." "Place the remains of your son in the water." "It is for him and for you." "Ishmael, I'm not a very religious man." "Religion has nothing to do with this." "Nothing at all." "Ishmael, please." "I can take it from him now." "He will carry it to the very edge of town." "Not one step less." "That is his punishment." "For now." "But he couldn't have known what was in the bag." "Don't you think you should cut him some slack?" "And what if it were your son?" "Stealing is bad enough, and wrong." "But what my son did could have brought more than shame to our community." "Oh, yes." "You mean like a curse?" "Please." "The simple mention of it." "Give me that." "Our children, they are the very best and the very worst of us." "Ishmael." "Adiós." "Ygracias." "Buen Camino." "No, no self-respecting pilgrim on the Camino would ever stay in a parador." "The decadence of it is absolutely appalling." "My treat." "Really?" "For all of us?" " Hola." "If you could just put it here." " Hola." "Uh, yes, um," "I need to have some laundry picked up." "Some clothing needs to be washed." "Such a crisp morning air, which just heightens my sense of acute loneliness." "There is traffic on the Camino today, pilgrims queuing up to bear witness to the anxious state of a writer who's forgotten how to..." "A writer who has lost his way." "The child, a youth, not yet a man, no longer a child, could not have known that of all the bags at his disposal, the one he artfully made his own contained the most precious cargo of all:" "the remains of Tom's only son, Daniel." "We all have a quest." "Sarah's is clear." "Tom's is becoming clear, but Joost, for whom kindness is an instinct, is further away than ever." "Joost..." "Armies march to war." "Pilgrims march towards a new kind of peace." "Is that its purpose?" "Hi." "Hi." "You gonna invite me in?" "Sure." "I couldn't sleep." "Me neither." "Where's Joost when you need him, eh?" "Make yourself comfortable." "Didn't know you were expecting company." "I'm not." "Hi." "Could you direct me to the nearest albergue?" "Oh." "I seem to have interrupted something." "Please, come in." "Speak of the devil." "Et voilà!" "I've brought some liqueur de Orujo." "It's from Galicia, and it's made of 18 different herbs." "And they're so secret that they have to be squeezed by blind monks." "Thank you." "God save the Queen and her fascist regime." "Is there any room at the inn?" "You're kidding me." "Oh, hello." "Oh, lovely." "This is so similar to my room." "Hmm!" " Voilà." " Thank you." "You're welcome." "¡Buen Camino!" ""Dear Lord," ""may this stone," ""a symbol of my efforts on the pilgrimage..." ""A symbol of my efforts..."" ""Dear Lord," ""may this stone, a symbol of my efforts on the pilgrimage," ""that I lay at the feet of the cross of the Saviour," ""weigh the balance in favour of my good deeds that day" ""when the deeds of all my life are judged." ""Let it be so." ""Amen."" "It's a beautiful church, Jack." "Have a look." "Where I come from, the church has a lot to answer for." "Temples of tears, Tom." "I don't go in them any more." "You've been taking an awful lot of notes." "That's right." "End of your writer's block?" "Thank you." "Glad to be of service." "I trust you will treat us all kindly when the book goes to the publisher." "Oh, you know, the darker it is, the bigger the sales." "That's what my editors will surely be asking for." "I understand." "You know, when I was an undergraduate at Trinity College, Dublin," "I wanted to be W.B. Yeats." "Or James Joyce." "But good writers usually die broke, so after I left college, I wrote for travel mags." "Thought I'd do that for a while, put some money away and then get down to the novel." "Twenty years later, here I am still writing for travel magazines." "I'm not feeling sorry for myself." "It's the life I chose." "Jack, you write whatever you want about all this." "What you saw, how you felt." "You write it like it happened." "You write the truth." "I'll do my best." "And after Santiago?" "Home?" " Back to the real world?" " If you wanna call it that." "You know, Ishmael said that after Santiago," "I should take Daniel's ashes to Muxia." "What do you think about that, Boomer?" "I don't know." "He seemed to think it was very important that I go." "Oh, it's all Gypsy hocus-pocus, man." "Well, you're on your own, Tom." "Santiago is as far as this Dutchman is going." "Me too, mate." "I've been away for three months." "I gotta get back." "Santiago de Compostela for me, Tom." "It's the end of the Camino for me, too." "And at the foot of St James, I shall put these down, once and for all." "Uh, I'm sorry?" " I swear!" " Well, good luck with that." "Yeah, yeah." "¶ It's a long way to Santiago" "¶ It's a long way to go" "¶ It's a long way to Santiago" "¶ To the sweetest saint I know" "Oh, well, I'm here now." "It's the Portico of Glory." "Ah!" "It's him." "St James." ""Tradition commands that pilgrims approach the statue on their knees." ""El Cid, St Francis, van Eyck," ""kings, queens and millions of pilgrims," ""they all collapsed to their knees out of gratitude."" " Hola." " ¿Habla español?" "Ah, no." "English." " Can I have your passport, please?" " Yeah, sure, sure." "Here you go." "Your name is Joost DeWitt?" " Joost Michael DeWitt." " Joost." "Okay." "Sarah Marie Sinclair." " Jack Emerson Stanton." " Thomas Avery." " Where did you start the Camino?" " In Saint-Jean." " In Saint-Jean-Pied..." " Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, okay." " In Paris, at Notre Dame." " Really?" "Canada." " Have you walked the whole way?" " Yes, we did." "I did." "Unfortunately, yes." "Unfortunately?" "You didn't enjoy it?" "Oh, no, no!" "It was fantastic!" "So what is your reason for walking the Way?" "What are your reasons for having done this pilgrimage?" "I mean, do you have some kind of religious or spiritual motivation, or..." "Religious, yes." "I mean..." "Leprechauns." "I was looking for leprechauns at the end of the road." "I needed to lose weight." "Um, well..." "It's also because my..." "My wife didn't want to sleep with me any more but it's because I'm too fat." "I thought that I..." "I should probably travel more." "I was a writer." "I stopped writing." "And now I'm writing again." "Your passport, with the official stamp of the cathedral." "And this is your compostela." "It's in Latin." "It's written in Latin because this document dates from the Middle Ages." "Uh..." "I'm terribly sorry." "Uh..." "I gave you the wrong name." "Yeah, but I've already entered it." "I see that, but, um..." "Could you please change it?" "Okay." "As you wish." "Name, please?" "Daniel Avery." "Okay." "Here you are." "Okay." "Thank you very much." "Writers." "They always want the last word." "But this?" "This was never about quitting these things." "But you knew that." "I needed a new suit anyway." "You made it." "Yeah." "I came here to bring you home." "I don't have anything to take back." "Yeah, you do."