Madam, - I'm amused by the diary of your two middle-aged bikers in balloon suits en route to Santiago de Compostela, who are fortified one evening with Burgundian red wine, prawns, ham, duck, kidneys, and cheese. They are (self-confessed) impostor pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago or "Way of St James", which was officially recognised some years ago by the EU as a "Great Trans-European Walk".
Are they not embarrassed to be mingling on wheels with the ghosts of those hardy souls, heady souls, and perhaps lost souls plodding along that pilgrimage trail since the 9th century? Those walkers embarked on that daunting journey firstly to find themselves and secondly to reach the great cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, where the bones of St James the Apostle, brother of St John, were reputedly interred.
Christian legend has it that angels carried the saint's remains from what is now Lebanon to the distant spot in the north-west of Spain. So Mr Murtagh and his companion are not the only unorthodox travellers! - Yours, etc,
OLIVER McGRANE, Marley Avenue, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.
Madam, - I read with interest about the meal the two bikers ate in Vézelay. It sounded delicious, but I'm sure Tony's cardiologist will not be pleased. Neither am I. I am Tony's wife! - Yours, etc,
ELIZABETH SULLIVAN, Ballydonagh Lodge, Delgany, Co Wicklow.