Ploddy

To my great surprise, then and now, I walked 700km [aged 35], then 800km [aged 50], then 160 km [aged 70] through Europe. The last walk, with The Boy, was crammed into a few Blobs. That middle walk to & from Santiago was transformative: I even wrote a book(let) about the transformation. I never imagined that my detail-filled journal-of-journey would be of the slightest interest to anyone, even me, except as une aide mémoire. Sean Rothery (1928 - 2014) was an academic architect from Dublin, who retired from UCD in 1994 and took himself off for a long walk in Europe to clear some cobwebs and stretch his legs while he still had the use of his knees. More ambitious than me, he started like Patrick Leigh Fermor from Hoek van Holland and walked to the Mediterranean along the GR5. He was already a published author, having written books on vernacular architecture Everyday Buildings of Ireland (1976), The Shops of Ireland (1978) [looks interesting, I've reserved a copy in the library]. He was…