A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino Portugues: The Portuguese Way of St. James Porto to Santiago de Compostela [Paperback]

John Brierley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2005

Including practical advice and a list of accommodations for each day’s stage, this guide covers the increasingly popular Portugese Route.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Brierley was born in Aries on 2nd April 1948. Educated and qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in Dublin where he commenced practice under his own name in 1971. An existential crisis took him to Findhorn in Scotland in 1987 as part of a mid-career break. This was to prove a pivotal time in his life with a reordering of priorities towards a spiritual perspective. In 1996 he convened the international conference Business for Life where the core issue was identified as the crisis of the human spirit. The idea of Business sabbaticals as an antidote to burn out and pilgrimage as a way to reappraise life's purpose became his abiding passion. He is the author of A Pilgrim's Guide to Camino Fisterra and A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino Frances.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Findhorn Press (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844090558
• ISBN-13: 978-1844090556
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 4.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,709,979 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent guide, colored maps, trail profiles, photos, accomodation guide, February 7, 2006

By 

Timecheck "backpack45.com - Camino Chronicle... (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino Portugues: The Portuguese Way of St. James Porto to Santiago de Compostela (Paperback)

This guide follows the format of Brierley's Camino Frances guide: very pleasing to look at: glossy paper, colored photos almost every page, multicolor maps and trail profiles, parts of text set off by shading. It has the information the walker needs, where the alburgues are, how many beds, alternate choices. There is an introductory section with introduction, overview, followed by planning and preparation information. The main body of the guide follows, organized in 11 stages where each stage corresponds to a typical day's travel. Each stage has a map and a trail profile.

The planning section is very useful - detailed equipment list, travel info, essential phrases in Spanish and Portuguese and a short history of the Camino
.
This guide also makes a serious effort to address the spiritual or inner path side of the journey. In addition to the map and profile, each stage begins with three paragraphs - the Physical Path - a narrative overview of the day's walk, the Mystic Path - to awaken you to the spiritual potential of the day's walk, and Personal Reflections - a quotation from the author's reflections. In each stage there is a page with blank lines for the walker to write in their own reflections. The mystic path, and blank reflections page didn't work for me, but that is personal preference.

For me, the colored maps, elevation profiles and photos are the strong points of the book.

The Camino facilities change from year to year, and inevitably publications will have typos and errors of fact. Do future pilgrims a favor by emailing the publication's website if you find errors in the text.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a faithful walking companion., July 10, 2005

By 

A. W. Van Soestbergen (Gainesville, Fl) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino Portugues: The Portuguese Way of St. James Porto to Santiago de Compostela (Paperback)

As a frequent Camino walker, I have used many guide books. This book on the Portuguese Way from Porto to Santiago is a total "must" for a succesful pilgrimage.
The maps for each stage are clear, possible detours are included.
Also for each stage, contour outlines are given and the distances are adjusted for height.
Accomodations and restaurants are listed with phone numbers .
Description of each stage is broken down to "The Pratical Path, "The Mystical Path" and "Personal Reflections" Some might be skeptical about the last two but it adds an emotional factor to the walk, something I have not yet seen in any other guide.
Photo's are plenty. over 200 photos. The author suggest not to bring a camera because the photo's you need are already in the book. It saves weight......
With all the suggestions for planning of your trip, this guide will keep you on the right track.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best guide I've seen, June 28, 2005

By 

J. Paterson "John P." (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino Portugues: The Portuguese Way of St. James Porto to Santiago de Compostela (Paperback)

The "Camino Portugues" has managed to provide the most integrated and concise travel guide that I've ever come across (and I've used plenty). It manages to provide a complete picture of this lesser known pilgrimage route with an easy to follow step by step process complete with pictures and colorful maps. It loads up on all of this practical information and somehow doesn't become sterile. It's a great read as part of your pre-travel preperation. There are even places that I'm using for additional notes (reserved as "reflections" for those that want to use it as a summary journal).

There are no other updated English guides for this Camino, and as it turns out, with this book, you don't need any. It's the complete package.