1951 Camino Frances Diary

[sillydoll]

Grant Spangler posted this on another forum. Copied here with his blessing:

In my wanderings, I happened upon a really interesting trip log. In the summer of 1951, Leon Degrelle made a solo passage from the Col de Ibañeta (just above Roncesvalles) to Santiago. You’ll see things through the eyes of a Spaniard walking the path we’ve walked, but without the modern accoutrements, camaraderie and crowds. Albergues? Quizás no. The Spanish Civil War was just a dozen years past; the country was very different politically, economically and culturally. The architecture was all the same but the Way had fallen asleep, to be rudely awakened in en el siglo XXI.

http://elcaminosantiago.com/PDF/Leon_De ... ntiago.pdf (Spanish)

 

[viajero]

This is great! Thanks for posting the link.

 

[Deirdre]

This is a really interesting read! Thanks, Sil!
Buen Camino,

 

[sillydoll]

Mmmmm..... not all is as it first appears!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Léon_Degrelle
He wasn't Spanish but from Belgium, he was a Nazi (WaffenSS), escaped to fascist Spain after the war.

Youtube video of Degrelle being decorated by Hitler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOcrOqJgF50

and in 1977

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHAkqddwZAY&NR=1

 

[Deirdre]

Hmmm... one of many interesting figures wandering around Europe after the war. Well, his bio explains why he wrote so well in Spanish...Jesuit educated, huh? I think I'll take a pass on that! :roll: His "interesting" array of friends and associates probably enabled him to make his pilgrimage at a time when as Grant no aptly puts it, "the Camino was asleep". His politics notwithstanding, it is still an interesting account of the Camino...