Now I want to go to Spain and look at paintings again. Mannnnnnn. ( )

Prepared to be swept away by Nooteboom's luxurious descriptions of Spain. Everything seen through his lens is treated with lavish prose. I could see the styles of Roman and Gothic architecture as if I were standing in front of each structure. Renaissance and Baroque art come to life with vivid reality. I now want to visit the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela with its pillars marked with fingerprints. While Nooteboom subtitles his book "a modern-day pilgrimage" we look in on the 8th century in a time of Beatus, King Silo, and the Carolingian Empire. Nooteboom draws parallels between Antigone of Sophocles and the Spanish state after Euzkadi ta Askatsuna targeted violence. We dance between historical and modern Spain with personal anecdotes thrown in for good measure. Aside from the beautiful writing, Nooteboom included stunning black and white photographs. Too bad they are not in color. ( )

The sole deficit, is its detail, some citations ran along and blurred Nooteboom's intent. otherwise, it was superb in long form as Nomad Hotel was in miniature. ( )

An unusual viewpointin tat the author deeply loves Spain and Santiago but is not a Catholic or even a Chrsitian, yet he feels a strong spiritual power n Santiago and feels a need to travel there and elsewhere in Spain; the material is at least as much on traveling in modern Spain as on Santiago itself. ( )

An OK read, but I do like Cees Nooteboom's novels better. Visited too many church's for my tastes. Would have liked more story in the present rather than historical references. ( )