- Time of past OR future Camino
- First one in 1977 by train. Many since then by foot. Next one ASAP.
Just completed my short October 2023 Camino Frances experience. Spectacular experience, as usual, but unlike any of my previous walks.... Because a twice-broken back since my Spring 2022 walk meant that I traveled mostly by bus. My cross-country days are behind me.
Now, bus travel in Spain is really quite wonderful. The buses that track the CF are clean, cheap, almost always available and almost always on time! That said, let me unburden myself on some of the bus stations I passed through in October 2023.
The comfy old bus stop/station at Madrid Barajas Airport Terminal 4 has --- well, ---- vanished! Replaced by a brand new one! I found the new one hard to reach, and a long way from my Terminal 4 arrival point. Sterile, modern, forgettable, no convenient coffee cafe --- I was very disappointed. Ditto the cozy old bus station in Logrono. Vanished! As in Madrid, its replacement is sterile, modern, forgettable. Much farther away from the casco viejo. I'm sure that the good folks of Logrono appreciate it, but it's a setback for transiting peregrinos. for sure.
The quiet, cozy old Leon bus station was completely shut down when I arrived, and fenced off, undergoing some sort of total renovation. Couldn't even enter the building! Heaven knows where one might buy tickets from a ticket counter.... I'm sure that when it reopens it will also be all modern steel-and-glass, and quite soulless. What a shame! And I could say exactly the same about the bus station at Ponferrada. Totally shut down, being rebuilt. The station I remember so well from trips past is simply gone.
If all that seems petty, well, so be it. I'm an aging old-fashioned clergyman. My motto is "Change is bad!"
Pax
Now, bus travel in Spain is really quite wonderful. The buses that track the CF are clean, cheap, almost always available and almost always on time! That said, let me unburden myself on some of the bus stations I passed through in October 2023.
The comfy old bus stop/station at Madrid Barajas Airport Terminal 4 has --- well, ---- vanished! Replaced by a brand new one! I found the new one hard to reach, and a long way from my Terminal 4 arrival point. Sterile, modern, forgettable, no convenient coffee cafe --- I was very disappointed. Ditto the cozy old bus station in Logrono. Vanished! As in Madrid, its replacement is sterile, modern, forgettable. Much farther away from the casco viejo. I'm sure that the good folks of Logrono appreciate it, but it's a setback for transiting peregrinos. for sure.
The quiet, cozy old Leon bus station was completely shut down when I arrived, and fenced off, undergoing some sort of total renovation. Couldn't even enter the building! Heaven knows where one might buy tickets from a ticket counter.... I'm sure that when it reopens it will also be all modern steel-and-glass, and quite soulless. What a shame! And I could say exactly the same about the bus station at Ponferrada. Totally shut down, being rebuilt. The station I remember so well from trips past is simply gone.
If all that seems petty, well, so be it. I'm an aging old-fashioned clergyman. My motto is "Change is bad!"
Pax
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