1951 Camino Frances Diary

sillydoll

Veteran Member

Time of past OR future Camino

2002 CF: 2004 from Paris: 2006 VF: 2007 CF: 2009 Aragones, Ingles, Finisterre: 2011 X 2 on CF: 2013 'Caracoles': 2014 CF and Ingles 'Caracoles":2015 Logrono-Burgos (Hospitalero San Anton): 2016 La Douay to Aosta/San Gimignano to Rome:

• Nov 10, 2008

• #1

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.

Click to expand...

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

 

viajero

Active Member

Time of past OR future Camino

2008

• Nov 10, 2008

• #2

This is great! Thanks for posting the link.

 

Deirdre

Active Member

Time of past OR future Camino

Camino Francés (2007), Camino Francés (2008), Camino Portugués (2010), Camino Aragonés - from Lourdes (2012)

• Nov 11, 2008

• #3

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

 

sillydoll

Veteran Member

Time of past OR future Camino

2002 CF: 2004 from Paris: 2006 VF: 2007 CF: 2009 Aragones, Ingles, Finisterre: 2011 X 2 on CF: 2013 'Caracoles': 2014 CF and Ingles 'Caracoles":2015 Logrono-Burgos (Hospitalero San Anton): 2016 La Douay to Aosta/San Gimignano to Rome:

• Nov 11, 2008

• #4

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

Active Member

Time of past OR future Camino

Camino Francés (2007), Camino Francés (2008), Camino Portugués (2010), Camino Aragonés - from Lourdes (2012)

• Nov 11, 2008

• #5

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...