Ferry v. Yacht

Ferries are cheaper, Yachts are more flexible.  I might actually (I am almost ashamed to say it) feel slightly odd in period dress on a Ferry, while a Yacht would be quite private, and we could dress however we wanted.   Getting to Tel Aviv (which is the city Jaffa has been subsumed by since 1950) would be a little more difficult by Ferry, but if we take a Yacht (and have lots of money) we could surely dock at one of the luxury marinas, like this one:

(Image taken from the LUXURY YACHT CHARTER & SUPERYACHT NEWS website)

OOOOO, pretty, isn't it?

well, if some millionaire decides to help finance this crazy plan, we could do that.  As it is, I think the Ferry might be the best bet.  *sigh*
(And I WILL wear period clothing and COMPLETELY fascinate the other passengers.  so there.)

I just found the website of a man who has researched and compared pilgrimage itineraries and provided latitude and longitude coordinates for each point!!  woah.  it will take me some time to process all this information!

Thanks, Peter Robins!!

http://pilgrim.peterrobins.co.uk/

GIVE me my scallop-shell of quiet,
      My staff of faith to walk upon,
My scrip of joy, immortal diet,
      My bottle of salvation,
My gown of glory, hope's true gage;
And thus I'll take my pilgrimage.

from The Passionate Man's Pilgrimage
by Sir Walter Ralegh, written c. 1603

Questions, Questions

I have thought of two variants on my pilgrimage. 

A.  Instead of doing a medieval pilgrimage (I was thinking of the heyday of pilgrimage tourism, around 1350-1450), I could do a 17th century pilgrimage.  At this point, there were very few pilgrimages going on.  The Reformation had wreaked havoc on the idea of earning spiritual "points" by works, and the Catholic Church had started encouraging people to take shorter pilgrimages to local shrines (with the Council of Trent, see James Hall's introduction to A Journey to the West by Domenico Laffi, a seventeenth century pilgrim).  Those pilgrims who continued to take pilgrimages seemed to do so mainly from a desire to see the world.  And they were also generally from the southern European states, those that had remained largely Catholic.
Why am I thinking of switching my timing by a few centuries?  My first thought was because I know more about the clothing, and I kind of like the more structured look of early modern dress rather than medieval.  But also because the motivations and circumstances more closely mirror mine--I'm not pilgrimage-ing out of devotional piety, and there are fewer (read: none at all) pilgrims traveling nowadays.  Anyway, it is just a thought.

B.  My other thought is also very tentative.  Instead of pilgrimage-ing to Jerusalem, I could go to Santiago de Compostela.  This was a VERY popular pilgrimage destination throughout the centuries of pilgrimages.  It is the place where, rumor has it, James the son of Zebedee is buried.  This would be a much easier pilgrimage to plan.  There would be no sea to cross, I wouldn't even have to leave the EU!  There are pilgrimage diaries outlining exactly which towns pilgrims stopped in each night and the rivers they crossed to get there.  On the other hand, I'm probably only going to make one real pilgrimage in my lifetime.  Why sell myself short?  Jerusalem is the coolest, biggest, most important pilgrimage destination in history!  I shouldn't hold back.  Apparently Domenico Laffi (that seventeenth century pilgrim from Bologna) made a trip to Jerusalem as well as Compostela, but I don't know if he documented it.  If he did, a translation hasn't been published yet.

Those are my thoughts.  We shall see.