Camino de Santiago de Compostela

[duds]

Hi all,anybody tell me what are the chances of me getting overthe "Guadarrama" in mid April,or will snow be a problem,would not like to miss this stage if pos.

[peregrina2000]

Hi, duds,
I have been in the Guadarrama mountains in snow in April. Having said that, it was a long time ago (1970s). The Fuenfria pass, which is the pass you will walk through, is 1800 m high, in comparison to other points of the mountain range, which reach about 2400. So it seems logical to expect that the odds of snow are less the lower you go. And since it's on the Roman Road, I'm assuming that those smart Romans chose the pass for the best possible weather conditions.

I walked the Camino de Madrid just last summer, leaving from Madrid in mid-May (as did several others on this forum, whose posts you have probably already seen) and it is a very beautiful walk. Except for the last shade-less flat 8 km slog into Segovia. At that time, there were a few tiny spots of snow visible in the distant peaks, but no evidence of anything anywhere near where we were walking. I'd say the odds are good that you'll have smooth sailing, but the weather is crazy, as we all know! Buen camino, Laurie

[duds]

Hi Peregrina,and thanks for your promt and informative reply,i was in Madrid some 6 months ago and went out to fuencarral to check out the first arrow,got a small thrill when i found it.
The "CM" will be my first camino and iam neither fit nor unfit just a 76 year old optimistic man.
I live on the Shetland isles got 9 month winter and 3 months bad weather so won,t find the"CM"weather too daunting.
Thanks again

[peregrina2000]

Hi, duds,

Ah yes, optimism -- what an important ingredient for any Camino!

You won't have any trouble finding arrows, this is one Camino where the angels who paint arrows are ruthlessly efficient. I hope you have seen Johnnie Walker's online guide, if not here's the link: http://www.csj.org.uk/guides-online.htm It's short and chock full of tons of good information. I also have some notes of my own, which are based on that guide, that I can send you, I'll send you a PM about that.

Here's hoping for lovely weather.

Buen camino, Laurie

[duds]

Hi Laurie, thanks for the fantastic info, i have Johnie Walkers guide to the CM and thar combined with the info you have sent makes me feel well armed.
will let you know how i get on ......thanks once again.

PS my goodness 1970 you have been a peregrina for a long time,i just stumbled on it last year wish i had found it sooner
cheers Duds

[peregrina2000]

Glad the info I sent looks useful, duds. I just wanted to correct your misimpression -- though I was in the Guadarrama in the 1970s, I wan't walking the Camino. I took a little walk around the Roman road but I was with friends who were driving. At the time I was a junior in college, spending a year studying in Madrid. It wasn't till 2000 that I walked, though the seeds were planted way back in the 1970s in an art history course that introduced me to romanesque painting and architecture and the then pretty dormant Camino de Santiago. Oh, how things change! Buen camino, Laurie

[Torrent1964]

Hi, duds,

Ah yes, optimism -- what an important ingredient for any Camino!

You won't have any trouble finding arrows, this is one Camino where the angels who paint arrows are ruthlessly efficient. I hope you have seen Johnnie Walker's online guide, if not here's the link: http://www.csj.org.uk/guides-online.htm It's short and chock full of tons of good information. I also have some notes of my own, which are based on that guide, that I can send you, I'll send you a PM about that.

Here's hoping for lovely weather.

Buen camino, Laurie

Hi Laurie,

Could yo send me your guide notes? I would appreciate it.

Torrent

[peregrina2000]

Hi, torrent, I have to adjust the formatting of those notes in order to post them, but I'll get to it today.

Just wanted to add that I was in Madrid for four days in late Feb./early March, and took advantage of a free Saturday to walk the stage from Cercedilla to Segovia. I took a Cercanias train from Madrid on late Friday afternoon, spent the night in the Hostal Longinos (right near the train station), and walked the next morning. There was some snow, but the Puerto de Fonfria was entirely passable. I don't know if that's typical late winter weather, or if this was an unusual winter as it was in the US. Most of the snow was on the Segovia side of the mountain. Crocuses were poking up through the snow, it was really a winter wonderland. I got to Segovia, spent a few hours enjoying the city, and then hopped on a train that took an incredible 28 minutes to get me back to Chamartin.
Buen camino, Laurie

[peregrina2000]

Ok, torrent, here are my notes from last spring. The page references are to Johnnie Walker's online guide at the CSJ, written in 2010.

Leaving Madrid -- Turn off the Castellana at the McDonalds up at the big towers north of the starting place at the Rodilla restaurant. Go around the McDonalds and you may or may not see arrows. Going straight will bring you into the campus of a medical school. Don't go that way. Instead, turn R and walk along a fairly busy road, asking for Hospital Ramon y Cajal if you are not sure. After the hospital, arrows pick up in earnest. For much of the way to Tres Cantos you will be on or near a dedicated bike path on the side of the highway.

p.5 -- leaving Tres Cantos, immediately after the second overpass that goes into town, be careful. There is a faded arrow that takes you off the bigger and more heavily used dirt path. Follow that arrow down and to the R and you begin a very nice walk that crosses streams, passes through fields, etc.

Manzanares -- The Refugio de Ermita de Pena Sacra is about 1 1/2 - 2 km out of town (and UP) but well worth a stay. You have to get the key from the priest, in the Casa del Cura very close to the tourist office, any time after 1:30 supposedly, but we didn't find him till well after 3:00. So a good idea is to eat lunch in town, maybe visit the castle, and buy food before you get the key from the priest. The key must also be returned to the priest's house, which means another extra walk for one member of your group. But the setting is pretty incredible -- it's a small ermita just perched on the very top of a big rock, with great views of the Guadarrama range all around. Nice kitchen, two rooms and two separate bathrooms with several showers and toilets each.


p.10 -- Cercedilla -- good restaurant on way out of town near train station, Restaurante Gomez.

Albergue is 12E, which includes breakfast. Even though this is a large albergue used a lot by school groups, there is a separate wing with two-bed rooms and private baths, and the people in charge always keep several rooms there for pilgrims only.

p.16 -- Valseca's albergue was said to be very bad; as was Ane's, but I didn't stay in either.

p.17 -- albergue in Santa Maria la Real de Nieva is run by a retired truck driver, who keeps a 6 bed donativo albergue. Small kitchen and separate bathroom. The story behind the albergue is nice -- the house belonged to the owner's family, and when he was a kid, he remembered it always being filled up at harvest time with migrant workers, who were crammed in there, maybe 30 or 40 in the place that now sleeps 6. It always made him sad as a kid, he said, and he thought that turning the house into an albergue for pilgrims to sleep was in some way a tribute and a remembrance of those who had slept there in such bad conditions years before. The owner has never walked on the Camino and never intends to, but he keeps the place to a high standard and is welcoming to pilgrims.

p.18 -- Coca -- albergue is in the old teacher's house. 3 or 4 rooms, plenty of beds and kitchen.

p.20 -- Alcazaren -- the newly built municipal albergue (opened in 2009) is on the fast track to total filth. Obviously not maintained or cleaned, and there are no mops or buckets for the inspired energetic pilgrim who wishes to take on the task.

p.21 -- Puente Duero -- Excellent albergue, communal dinner. Highly recommended, nice outdoor space.

On the recommendation of people in charge of some of the earlier albergues, I planned my stages based on accommodations. This means I had a couple of really short days. For instance, I slept in Puente Duero, walked to Simancas the next day (6 km), then took the bus to Valladolid where I spent a night in a hotel there. The next day, I took the bus back to Simancas in the mid afternoon and walked a mere 6 kms to Cigunuela, where there is another very nice albergue in the old teacher's house. Nice kitchen, very clean and well maintained. That gave me the better part of two days in Valladolid, which I really enjoyed. The museo nacional San Gregorio (formerly known as the Museo de Escultura) was especially worth a long visit.

p.14 -- Castromonte, numbers for albergue have changed.

M-F, call Alfredo, 675-946-882; on weekends, call the Mayor, David Martin, 635-440-521. This is another incredible albergue, about 30 beds, new fully equipped kitchen (including free washing machine), very clean and done to high standards.

p. 14 -- Valverde. There is both a bar and a tienda (both run by the same woman). Tienda is off camino but opens 7 days a week, I was told).

p.25 -- Coming into Medina de Rioseco,the arrows now take you across the bridge and into town at a different point, so you do not pass the monastery on your way into town. Immediately after crossing bridge, turn R and walk through lovely park to the next bridge, cross over it leaving town and the monastery is right there.

p.27 -- some comments on the canal alternative. The canal route is lovely for the first 8 kms or so, into the town of Tamariz. At that point, you begin a long slog on asphalt into Villalon de Campos. (very untraveled road, but asphalt with no soft shoulder). Be careful as you leave Tamariz and begin to walk on the road. At one junction, a red Chemin de St. Jacques sign points to the left. If you take this alternative, you will walk (all on the road) to Moral de la Reina and from there on to Villalon. This involves a lot of backtracking, because Moral de la Reina is on the alternative on the camino that goes through Berrueces. It will add at least 3 or 4 kms to the route. If you take the canal alternative, be careful that when you leave Tamariz, you get on the VA-4008, which takes you straight to Villalon without taking you first to Moral de la Reina.


p.29 -- Leaving Santervas de Campos, there is a fork and two options. Option 1 is off the road to the left, on a dirt track camino to Melgar de Arriba, very nice, no traffic, pleasant walk. You have to pay attention at intersections, but there are arrows at places where you should turn, otherwise, KSO.

In Melgar de Arriba, leave town, cross the bridge out of town, the church will be in front of you, turn R and go past a few houses. Take a left and go past the cemetery, and then KSO when the road ends and turns into a nice dirt track. This path takes you straight to Arenillas. Right before the town of Arenillas, there's an unmarked fork. Go to the right, it will take you into town. A left turn (which I stupidly did) takes you up to the modern square building connected with the concrete canal you will then have to figure out how to cross.

From Arenillas to Grajal de Campos is all along a canal, very pleasant, no possibility of getting lost.

In Grajal de Campos, camino turns left and over river BEFORE entering town (going into town means leaving the camino, but there is a bar or two and a shop, plus a little plaza and a castle and a palace). In June 2011, there were AVE works here and the signage was bad. After you cross the river, do NOT take the first right along the river, continue on a little further and you will see a mojon taking you to the right and from there straight into Sahagun.


Option 2 from Santervas is to stay on the highway, and that option itself has several options, because you could join up with the camino again at any one of the towns along the highway. You could just stay straight on the highway and go into Sahagun, 14 km on the side of a fairly busy road, or take the highway to Melgar de Arriba and get on the camino there, or stay on the highway a bit further and take it to Arenillas (in other words there is a road option here that you can take to different points on the camino -- to Melgar, to Arenillas, or to Sahagun. I would highly recommend the off-road Camino, that is option 1, it is very pretty and soft surface and no cars).



[Torrent1964]

Ok, torrent, here are my notes from last spring. The page references are to Johnnie Walker's online guide at the CSJ, written in 2010.

... I would highly recommend the off-road Camino, that is option 1, it is very pretty and soft surface and no cars).



Thank you very much.

Regards

Torrent

[Torrent1964]

[ t is very pretty and soft surface and no cars).

[/quote]
Hi,

I was wondering in my planning the stages of the Madrid, just how long it took to walk from Cercedilla over to Segovia? We are trying to sort our stages out at the moment e.g. do we ride Madrid to Cercedilla (1st day) or Madrid - Segovia? Knowing the walk time will help us a lot.

regards

Torrent

[peregrina2000]

Hi, Torrent,

I have walked this stage twice, most recently in early February. I think it took me about 6 1/2 hours. I can't remember my start time, but I distinctly remember arriving at a bar on the outskirts of Segovia before 1 pm, just as my caffeine headache was starting to kick in. And I am pretty sure I didn't start before 6:30. But I had just a day pack and only made short stops to admire the view or take a picture. It was snowy and cold, so I just kept moving.

Buen camino, Laurie

[Torrent1964]

Hi, Torrent,

I have walked this stage twice, most recently in early February. I think it took me about 6 1/2 hours. I can't remember my start time, but I distinctly remember arriving at a bar on the outskirts of Segovia before 1 pm, just as my caffeine headache was starting to kick in. And I am pretty sure I didn't start before 6:30. But I had just a day pack and only made short stops to admire the view or take a picture. It was snowy and cold, so I just kept moving.

Buen camino, Laurie

greatful for the data that gives me significant perspective for the bikes then.

Torrent