Munich – Santiago de Compostela >>
Starting from Bavaria to Black Forest, Burgundy, Central France and Pyrenees and continuing on the Way of St. James
Starting in Munich we cross the hills of the Schwäbische Alb and Black Forest and arrive at Freiburg. The city is one of the famous German university towns. On the other side of the river Rhine we enter the mountains of Alsace and the Vosges. Other destinations in France will be Burgundy, Central France with the volcanic re-gion around Puy de Dome and the Lot De-partement. Here we pass numerous gorges and visit the famous cave of Pech Merle, one of the few places with prehistoric cave paintings in France. Bovids, reindeers, horses and handprints testify of more than 20.000 years of human settlement. On the fifth day we reach the Pyrenees, this range is stretching over 400 km from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic. In the south of the Pyrenees we make our first steps on two wheels on the Way of St. James. In the 11th and 12 th century the pilgrimage had become a highly organized affair under protec-tion of kings and popes. Pamplona, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, Burgos and Leon will be further destinations for the next days on the Camino. Near Ponferrada we will see the earth-pyramids of the Medulas, a former roman goldmine. The spectacular landscape here results from the unique technique which in-volved undermining the mountains with large water quantities. At the end of our tour we ar-rive at Galicia, the celtic-influenced region in Spains northwest. During our stay in Santiago de Compostela a visit of the impressive and mighty cathedral is a must. Under its roof is the reputed burial-place of St. James. On our last evening on tour we can try the famous Galician cuisine: shellfish, empanadas, polbo a feira and cheese queixo will make sure that we will not forget our stay in Galicia.