This gets 2 stars instead of 1 because the author had a soft spot for animals and was kind to many dogs along his route. From many of his interactions, I think he might like dogs more than people. I decided about halfway through the book that I didn’t really like this guy, who picked and chose who he’d be civil to along the Camino. Once he made some real friends that he hiked the route with, his attitude picked up a little, but he still thought himself perfectly justified to just not respond to people who were trying to connect with him.

I walked the Camino with my husband in 1996. Of course the experience would be different for a newly married couple who had recently celebrated their first anniversary. Kerkeling was on his own, and so our approaches to the route and the people on it, and their approaches and reactions to us would be different. But still, we met people we didn’t like and kept running into them too, but we didn’t just refuse to talk to them when we saw them. Kerkeling does this on many occasions in the book, and his detailed critique of a German couple after eavesdropping on them in a hotel was where I first started really disliking this guy. He only speaks to the people he deems worthy of his time.

Besides that, the book just wasn’t consistently enjoyable to read, with his kooky philosophical ramblings and judgments of his fellow hikers. He did have a couple of religious metaphors that I thought were quite good, but overall, the spiritual commentary seemed kind of fluffy to me.

Reading this did inspire me to get out my old journal to consult my own attitudes and memories, so I am glad that I read it. Walking the Camino de Santiago is one of the great memories of my life, so a refresher about the places and challenges of the pilgrimage was welcome.
( )

I love this book so much!!!!!! "Drop the thought". ( )

Hape Kerkeling, Deutschlands vielseitigster TV-Entertainer, lief zu Fuß zum Grab des heiligen Jakob – über 600 Kilometer durch Spanien bis nach Santiago de Compostela – und erlebte die reinigende Kraft der Pilgerreise. Ein außergewöhnliches Buch voller Witz, Weisheit und Wärme, ein ehrlicher Bericht über die Suche nach Gott und sich selbst und den unschätzbaren Wert des Wanderns.

I love this book so much!!!!!! "Drop the thought". ( )

Difficile dare una valutazione. Alcune pagine fanno letteralmente imbufalire, altre sono stupende. A volte sembra solo un'operazione commerciale, altre invece sembrano estremamente sincere.
Un libro che spiazza, ma in fondo rimane anche un po' nel cuore e nella mente. ( )