Interesting article on the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. It's an interesting comparison to the AT.
Furthermore, many believe there is a "correct" way to make the pilgrimage and an "incorrect" one. Those who do things correctly begin north of the Pyrenees, travel exclusively by foot and make the entire journey at once, rather than breaking it up into stages that are then completed successively over several years. Real pilgrims walk through northern Spain for four weeks and spend less than €1,000.The Internet has changed the character of the pilgrimages more than any souvenir shop. Leaving the real world behind takes considerable courage, turning one's back on the virtual world is more than many can handle. Some don't even notice how much of their time on Way of St. James is spent writing emails to people back home.It's just after 11 p.m. and Müller is exhausted. It's the longest he's been awake on any day for the past three weeks. He wears a blue fleece jacket, but he's still feeling chilly because he doesn't have a single gram of body fat left. He says the trip has changed him and, if he could, he'd keep walking. People who have undergone a similar experience call it the pilgrim's death. It comes at the end of the trip and the recognition that the journey was far more important than the person initially thought it would be.