A Long Walk South: From the North Sea to the Mediterranean - Hardcover

Rothery, Sean

3.39

23 ratings by Goodreads

9781903464106: A Long Walk South: From the North Sea to the Mediterranean

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1903464102 ISBN 13: 9781903464106

Publisher: Collins Pr, 2002

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

When Sean Rothery was a young Irish architecture student in 1950, he set out from Dieppe to cycle to Rome and back. In 1994, now retired, a 66-year old Sean Rothery decides to make another journey-to traverse Europe from north to south, a 2,000 mile walk, from the Hook of Holland on the North Sea to Nice on the Mediterranean. His route follows the Grand Randonne Cinq, or the GR5, a long-distance trail first devised by the French. The odyssey becomes a journey through space and time as Rothery, sketchbook in hand a la Le Corbusier, savors landscape, history and culture, religion, and architecture. By day seventy-four, walking has become a way of life as heat and cold, storms and flooded rivers interweave with dreamy meanderings in woodlands and meadows. The ghosts of the past are revisited not only at battle sites but also by rediscovering scents from the past such as new-mown hay and, most poignantly, the grandeur of the High Alps, where Rothery recalls friends who died in climbing accidents, and his own car accident that ended his Alpine climbing career. This is a fine piece of travel writing, illustrated with the author's own pencil sketches.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Sean Rothery is an architect and architectural historian. Now retired he is still active as a lecturer in Ireland and abroad. The author of many books and numerous articles, he is a lifelong lover of walking and mountaineering.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.