Travel

Think especially about the importance of physical space--what does it mean to a woman like Kempe to be in a place where something sacred happened long ago? Think also about the travel itself--a pilgrimage like Kempe's would have taken many months; what does she emphasize about her journey? Is it just about getting to her destination or are there valuable spiritual and cultural experiences along the way?

Because Kempe was such a stung believe, the feeling of being in such significant places much have been and extraordinary slew of emotions. We can see this by how much the woman cries. These places are like destinations on a map of both travel and experience. One can change completely as a person on such a long journey. Because she was having visions about the places she visited, it became personal. For a woman to travel so much, so long ago, often unaccompanied, must have given her such a great sense of freedom. A kind of journey where one finds them selves. She seems to emphasis the main places she visited that had a great spiritual significance to her, the parts of the journey where she changed as a person. She essentially walks though steps of Jesus' life. Religious or not, visions or not, this could impact anyone's view on life, especially if you are visiting sites of the last supper or where the crucifixion took place and so on. Although her main points seem to be about these specific spots that were significant to Jesus' life the experiences she had to actually travel along the whole way. The expectations, excitement and troubles of traveling obviously had a large emotional affect on her. She was literally traveling through teethe life and culture of Jesus. As I mentioned before, this had a lot of spiritual value.

When you read Mandeville's account, think especially about how he describes foreign cultures (especially non-Christian ones), and about the kinds of details he thinks are worth sharing about foreign lands. In his stories, what is the appeal of the world beyond Western Europe for readers who would never see it?

In some ways, the author was very open minded about other cultures and lands. He often pointed out the accomplishments of civilizations and the fascinations with these new cultures. He also often pointed out how intelligent the people were (like the Muslims). The appeal to these lands is that they were so mysterious to the common non traveled person. As we see with the author there were many cultural fascinating differences. Just as if one were to travel today. Spreading ways of thought and advancements from one place to another is always an important thing for the world as a whole.