Pilgrim Snail

After the girl he loved was killed by armed robbers in Belize, Ben Nimmo decided to walk from one of the greatest European medieval pilgrim sites to another - Canterbury to Santiago de Compostela in Spain - in her memory, taking with him his trombone and busking for charity. This is his story.

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After the girl he loved was killed by armed robbers in Belize, Ben Nimmo decided to walk from one of the greatest European medieval pilgrim sites to another - Canterbury to Santiago de Compostela in Spain - in her memory, taking with him his trombone and busking for charity. His journey was packed with bizarre encounters and amusing incidents, unusual characters and touching moments. From pulling a corpse from a Belgian canal to teaching the five-year-old daughter of a Burgundian farmer to play the trombone in return for tractor driving lessons; from being invited to stay with a neo-Nazi anti-bloodsports activist to the European championship of boules - with square balls; from discussing life, religion and Dixieland jazz with a lay brother in a Luxembourg monastery to chicken worship in a provincial Spanish cathedral. Nimmo explores the historical wealth of Europe - the wool farms of Flanders, the Cather castles of Languedoc, the twentieth century battlefields and pre-historic caves - considers Santiago pilgrims past, present and future, and makes new friends everywhere with the help of his trusty trombone.