"The Canterbury Tales" -- the collection of poems that every English major has to read -- is the ultimate travel story. Winter's over, spring has sprung, "thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages" -- as Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in Middle English in the 14th century.

Today, the Pilgrims' Way is a series of public footpaths, bridle ways and paved lanes that parallels and sometimes coincides with a national trail, the North Downs Way, created in a post-World War II effort to get urban people into the countryside.

The precise route of the medieval Catholic pilgrims is not certain, but human feet have walked the same route along a chalk escarpment that runs between the English Channel and the British heartland for millenniums, since long before Christianity. Druidic standing stones along the way attest to lost traditions and meaning that even prehistoric peoples attached to the route.

Today, guides lead pilgrimages on secular and spiritual walks that last a full week and include a variety of lodging from inns to sleeping on church floors. Or you can grab a guidebook, download an app and meander on foot, car or bike on self-guided treks, taking the route in a week or in separate segments over weeks or months.

REad the rest here.