[martian]

This reminds me: One of the best books about a long walk is Patrick Leigh Fermor's "Time of Gifts" (and the subsequent books). Memoirs of his time before WW2 literally walking from one side of Europe to the other.

His cultural insights, historical perspective, and witty language are all exquisite.

[pjc50]

This is an amazing book and I can't recommend it enough.

[coyotespike]

Completely agree. Paddy Fermor wrote beautifully, and with a vocabulary informed by his polyglot abilities (he knew, at least, Greek, Latin, several dialects of German, and French, with smatterings of a few more).

Because he took Greek at school (high school), he was sent to a Greek isle during WW2 where he wound up kidnapping a German general and spiriting him across the mountains to Allied control. He is perhaps best known for this exploit.