Inspired by the walking histories of two people I’ve long admired … Dickens and Arnold Toynbee … I recently decided to rediscover my favourite countries by walking across them. I did a few hundred km across the north coast of Spain last September and the same along the west coast of Portugal this Spring. Come September, starting on the day I turn 75, I’ll begin walking a 500 km stretch across Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio all the way to Rome. I’ve discovered belatedly but mercifully that walking is far more fun than working out in a gym. And given how many there are out there doing it now, it also makes great people watching!
You've reminded me of Rachel Joyce's lovely Harold Fry, whose unlikely pilgrimage takes him 600 miles by foot from Kingsbridge to Berwick-Upon-Tweed, determined that his old friend Queen Hennessy will not die as long as he keeps walking. Walking has magical powers.
Inspired by the walking histories of two people I’ve long admired … Dickens and Arnold Toynbee … I recently decided to rediscover my favourite countries by walking across them. I did a few hundred km across the north coast of Spain last September and the same along the west coast of Portugal this Spring. Come September, starting on the day I turn 75, I’ll begin walking a 500 km stretch across Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio all the way to Rome. I’ve discovered belatedly but mercifully that walking is far more fun than working out in a gym. And given how many there are out there doing it now, it also makes great people watching!
The concept of you being a flaneur is a bit much.
It carries an early Parisienne touch of a rogue slouching into a mistress’s lair..
It doesn’t work,your hair isn’t sufficiently quoffed
We no longer have a car and walking is our hobby. We love it!
I walk at a fairly quick pace I find that if I try to walk slowly I'm at a real risk of falling over this is a problem when I walk with older people.
You've reminded me of Rachel Joyce's lovely Harold Fry, whose unlikely pilgrimage takes him 600 miles by foot from Kingsbridge to Berwick-Upon-Tweed, determined that his old friend Queen Hennessy will not die as long as he keeps walking. Walking has magical powers.