2014 planning

[hbhaynie]

My friend and I want to fly into Barcelona, stick a foot in the ocean and mostly walk maybe bike some to Santiago then on to the Atlantic. We're in our 60s, both in very good hiking and decent biking shape. Our first consideration is to pick a start date and then begin with airline ticket (PDX, USA) and planning. We're thinking early May. Any feedback? We like to hike light and want to be informed on alburgues from Barcelona until we get to the main camino. We hike long dirt trails and actually consider biking as better for us on paved only stretches.

 

[k-fun]

This year my husband and I road our touring bikes from Barcelona to Leon, where I fell and had to be off my bike for at least a month, so I walked. The ride from Barcelona is very difficult, because of the constant headwinds (we had to pedal downhill!), on narrow, truck-trafficked roads. At one point, we had to ride our touring bikes on the Camino, which was hard on us and the bicycles, because all the roads out of town prohibited bike travel. If you are using a mountain bike, you should be able to follow the Camino more closely. If you get stuck in a town with a train station, you can tale the bikes on the local train to the next town quite inexpensively.

Once you get onto the Camino Frances, the Camino is better indicated and should present fewer problems. Beware of the slick and uneven cobblestones.

If you want to read about our adventure, visit my travel blog, starting from Barcelona on May 5.

 

[hbhaynie]

Hey thanks for info, perusing your journal, very interesting, instead of biking, we're thinking about walking from Barcelona, then deciding whether or not to bike once we connect to the Frances Camino. How much solid pavement hiking did you encounter on the main camino. We hike a lot of dirt mountain trails in the Columbia River Gorge and Mt Hood, but seem to get foot, back, and knee issues when we do urban hikes in Portland, Oregon that are all pavement.

 

[DSouthard]

My friend and I want to fly into Barcelona, stick a foot in the ocean and mostly walk maybe bike some to Santiago then on to the Atlantic. We're in our 60s, both in very good hiking and decent biking shape. Our first consideration is to pick a start date and then begin with airline ticket (PDX, USA) and planning. We're thinking early May. Any feedback? We like to hike light and want to be informed on alburgues from Barcelona until we get to the main camino. We hike long dirt trails and actually consider biking as better for us on paved only stretches.

I walked the Camino from Montserrat last year, starting May 21, 2012. Don't expect many albergues until you reach Logrono. There are a few, but most nights you'll be staying in pensions and hostels. Once you get to Logrono, where you join the French route, there are plenty of albergues. The Camino through Catalunya and Aragon is lonely and there are a few long days on foot (biking would be pretty easy though), but I enjoyed the solitude. I wrote a memoir of my experience, Sauntering to Santiago, available as an e-book at Barnes and Noble, Sony, Smashwords, and (hopefully soon) at Amazon.com. I found a guide in Lerida that was helpful through Catalunya and Aragon. I don't know if it's available in English. If you can read Spanish (Castilian) it's El Camino Catalan de Santiago Desde Montserrat by Joan Fiol Boada. Published by Traza.

I noticed your post because I'm looking for information on a route to take from Barcelona to Montserrat. I'm going to walk from Barcelona to Rome in 2015, and I want to go through Montserrat for old times sake. Do you know of a good route, avoiding major highways, from Barcelona to Montserrat?

 

[hbhaynie]

I walked the Camino from Montserrat last year, starting May 21, 2012. Don't expect many albergues until you reach Logrono. There are a few, but most nights you'll be staying in pensions and hostels. Once you get to Logrono, where you join the French route, there are plenty of albergues. The Camino through Catalunya and Aragon is lonely and there are a few long days on foot (biking would be pretty easy though), but I enjoyed the solitude. I wrote a memoir of my experience, Sauntering to Santiago, available as an e-book at Barnes and Noble, Sony, Smashwords, and (hopefully soon) at Amazon.com. I found a guide in Lerida that was helpful through Catalunya and Aragon. I don't know if it's available in English. If you can read Spanish (Castilian) it's El Camino Catalan de Santiago Desde Montserrat by Joan Fiol Boada. Published by Traza.

I noticed your post because I'm looking for information on a route to take from Barcelona to Montserrat. I'm going to walk from Barcelona to Rome in 2015, and I want to go through Montserrat for old times sake. Do you know of a good route, avoiding major highways, from Barcelona to Montserrat?

 

[hbhaynie]

April or May 2014 will be my 1st time, I'll document my experience with walking Barcelona to Montserrat then.

 

[DSouthard]

April or May 2014 will be my 1st time, I'll document my experience with walking Barcelona to Montserrat then.

Thank you. I'll look forward to reading about your trip. It would seem that a walking route would not be hard to find, but I've searched the web with no success. Buen camino!

 

[camino-david]

I suggest that you bus or train to Jaca, and the Tourist Office there is very helpful in supplying you with information on walking/cycling the Camino Arragones, which runs from Somport to Puenta la Reina. I walked this in 2011, and it is beautiful,quieter than the Frances with albergues at roughly 15 kms apart, lovely villages, well graded paths and quiet roads suitable for cycling as well as walking, and enough pilgrims for plenty of social contact but not overcrowded.

 

[hbhaynie]

From Montserrat maps appear to show two routes: Leida Zaragosa, Tudela, Logrono and Huesca, Jaca, Logrono. Any comments on which way to go?

 

[LEWe]

I, too, am planning to walk the Cami de Sant Jaume, at the end of April 2014. I was planning on going the northern route out of Montserrat, through Artes and Vic. Is there a reason you chose the southern route instead? I am a single woman in my 50s (also from Oregon), probably traveling alone, and trying to figure out the best alternative. I have heard the route is not much frequented; is the southern route more popular, or perhaps albergues more available?

 

[peregrina2000]

I, too, am planning to walk the Cami de Sant Jaume, at the end of April 2014. I was planning on going the northern route out of Montserrat, through Artes and Vic. Is there a reason you chose the southern route instead? I am a single woman in my 50s (also from Oregon), probably traveling alone, and trying to figure out the best alternative. I have heard the route is not much frequented; is the southern route more popular, or perhaps albergues more available?

Hi, LEWe, welcome to the forum! How great to hear from someone else planning to walk in Catalunya. I'm heading there on June 2 this year. I've decided to start about ten days before Montserrat, north on the coast near Port de la Selva, so that I can visit the monastery of San Pere de Rodes. Sulu from the forum convinced me that was the best place to start, so I have her to blame.

But when you say the northen route through Vic, that is actually the route I am walking INTO Montserrat on. There are several branches of that route, and it comes from France. Is that where you want to go?

From Montserrat, there are two options toward Santiago, they separate after a few days. One goes more to the south through Zaragoza and winds up in Logrono. It leaves the Camino Catalan and takes the Ruta del Ebro to Logrono: http://mundicamino.com/rutas.cfm?id=21

I'm going on the second option -- it goes back up into the mountains after Huesca and joins with the Camino Aragones in Santa Cilia de Jaca, and then you hit the Frances in Puente la Reina. Information on that second route here: http://caminodesantiago.consumer.es/los-caminos-de-santiago/catalan-por-san-juan-de-la-pena/ This route has a lot of albergues, looks like from Montserrat to Puente la Reina there would be at most one or two nights in a pension.

Would love to hear more about your Camino, buen camino, Laurie

 

[Patch]

Hi, maybe consider walking the GR10, its a long distance foot path and belive me its superb. You can shorten the distance by using the little yellow narrow gauge train.

 

[LEWe]

Thanks, Laurie. I actually only have 4-5 days between a stop in Granada and meeting up with my sister in Barcelona on 30 April or 1 May. From what I saw, the walk from Montserrat to Vic was doable in that time, with relatively short legs (20-25km) so lots of time for "touristing". I think it may be steep, though, so those short legs might take longer than I think. I am wanting to get my stays set up beforehand so I don't have to worry about that as language skills are a barrier for me; I'm only starting to learn Spanish. And, this walk is only a few days out of a full month in Spain, so I'm also interested in either finding a place to leave most of my luggage, or a company that will move it for me (not planning to travel it a backpack this trip).

So you can see I have a few hurtles to get over in the next couple of months to be ready. Best for me would be a group, but I understand there are only self-guided tours on this part of the Camino, so maybe looking for another lone walker. You seem to have walked several of these by yourself. Any security issues?

Thanks for the GR10 suggestion, Patch, but I don't think my time allows that. I am planning a weekend trip to the Pyrenees from Barcelona, but via auto.

Anyhow, that's where my trip stands right now. Pretty loose. Apologies for taking over your post, hbhaynie. Hope you have a great trip.
Thanks.
[another] Laurie

 

[peregrina2000]

Thanks, Laurie. I actually only have 4-5 days between a stop in Granada and meeting up with my sister in Barcelona on 30 April or 1 May. From what I saw, the walk from Montserrat to Vic was doable in that time, with relatively short legs (20-25km) so lots of time for "touristing". I think it may be steep, though, so those short legs might take longer than I think. I am wanting to get my stays set up beforehand so I don't have to worry about that as language skills are a barrier for me; I'm only starting to learn Spanish. And, this walk is only a few days out of a full month in Spain, so I'm also interested in either finding a place to leave most of my luggage, or a company that will move it for me (not planning to travel it a backpack this trip).

So you can see I have a few hurtles to get over in the next couple of months to be ready. Best for me would be a group, but I understand there are only self-guided tours on this part of the Camino, so maybe looking for another lone walker. You seem to have walked several of these by yourself. Any security issues?

Thanks for the GR10 suggestion, Patch, but I don't think my time allows that. I am planning a weekend trip to the Pyrenees from Barcelona, but via auto.

Anyhow, that's where my trip stands right now. Pretty loose. Apologies for taking over your post, hbhaynie. Hope you have a great trip.
Thanks.
[another] Laurie

Hi, Laurie,
Hope you'll let us know how those stages go. My unsolicited suggestion would be to walk from Vic to Montserrat rather than the reverse. I've never found it easy to walk "backwards" on a Camino, and this is especially true on one like this one that is really not travelled at all. Buen camino, Laurie