Going on a pilgrimage

Hi all,
This will be the last post until May, as I'm going to be away from internet and nearly all worldly possessions during the month of April.
I'm going to be hiking through the north of Spain, from the French Spanish border down of Roncesvalles all the way to Santiago de Compostela, a city almost all the way across the country on Spain's Atlantic coast.
It's a pilgrimage, although I'm not doing it for the religious reasons. I'm doing it perhaps for the spiritual power of a walk like this one, for the draw of the history, to meet people on the way, for the fun of hiking, and above all to explore Spain.
The story that began the pilgrimage is hilariously extravagant in the way of most religious myths. Saint James (Santiago) had supposedly once preached in Spain. When he died, back in the middle east, two of his followers took a stone boat through the Mediterranean, through Gibraltar, out into the Atlantic (!), up Spain's Atlantic Coast, and onto modern day Galicia in Spain. They converted a pagan queen there, but not many others, buried the body, and peaced. A few centuries later, a hermit living in the area found Santiago's "bones." The burial spot was conveniently located in the tiny Northern strip of Iberia not under Muslim rule.
We laugh at the story today, but pilgrims flocked to the site -- and they played an important role in Spain's history. The pilgrims reinvigorated the Christian part of Spain, giving force that would be key for the Christian reconquest of Iberia. Some played an even more direct role, becoming soldiers who fought the Muslims; around this time, Santiago got the epithet "Matamoros" (Moor-killer), explicitly linking the pilgrimage and the fight against the Moors. And beyond the pilgrimage's significance to Spain, many say that the walk played a key role in developing the idea of a Europe above the bickering states within it.
All of the Camino's historical significance is especially zany considering that it turns out Santiago never actually preached in Spain. A monk mis-copied Jerusalem (something like "Herusaliem") as Spain (something like "Hispania"). A fateful little mix-up.
So, hasta mayo -- wish me luck -- I'm off to visit an apostle's bones.