This story appears in the May 2015 issue of National Geographic magazine. During the summers of 2012 and 2013, I walked more than a thousand miles on the Camino de Santiago. Also called the Way of ...

These offer manna from heaven as you approach Santiago de Compostela ... The scallop seashell is the symbol of the Camino and pole markers (some as old as Methuselah) illustrated with shells ...

The shrine of Thomas Becket is your goal on the Pilgrims' Way. Becket was martyred more than 1100 years after St James, and is a Tommy-come-lately, saint-wise. And the Pilgrims' Way signs say ...