starting sevilla camino mid-august/september 2011

[pandas]

hello everyone,

nice to join this forum.
i want to start the camino from sevilla - in mid-august or september, 2011.

can anyone advise:
- a good book on the sevilla camino - is it best to buy one in sevilla? i can read spanish, although i prefer english.
- i have heard the route is not clearly marked - is that a big problem?
- i will arrive by plane in sevilla - where can i find the albergue in sevilla?
- will there be albergues all along the route from sevilla to santiago?
- i might want to start in september (i guess the camino will take about 5 weeks) - is september too cold? is august too hot?

thank you!!
any advice would be great!!!

 

[grilly]

Hi, hi, Pandas,

I hope LT who just did the Via de la Plata can answer many of your questions. Other pilgrims have done it as well and their posts are of great help

I'm preparing this Camino as well and here are some information I have:

camino-mozarabe-and-via-de-la-plata/topic8961.html
http://caminodesantiago.consumer.es/los ... -la-plata/
http://www.mundicamino.com/
http://www.godesalco.com/plan

I have a French guide book. I'm going to get a Spanish one: La Via de la Plata a pie y en bicicleta. I had the same for the Camino Frances and it was just great
http://www.casadellibro.com/libro-la-vi ... 2684/en_gb

Hoping this is of help to you,
¡Buen Camino!

 

[pandas]

this is great information!

thanks a lot,

pandas

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, pandas,
I think that the English guides are a bit out of date. Since you can read Spanish, I'd suggest printing out the Eroski guides (Grilly gave you the link below) double sided and then discarding them as you go along. It has fairly detailed walking directions. On the Eroski website, there is a link that takes you to a pdf for easy printing, otherwise it would be unwieldy to print out all the pages. That''s the only guide I used last year, and I was fine. You'll see that accommodation is not a problem, lots of albergues and inexpensive alternatives.

The route is very clearly marked. If you look through the other Vdlp postings on this forum you'll get lots of information about little snags here and there along the way, the most recent one involving some arrow problems near Grimaldo or Galisteao, I believe. But the markings are generally excellent.

I walked in May, so I can't tell you about the weather, but there are several long threads here about weather in August and September. I don't think there's any chance that starting in September will bring cold weather in Andalucia, in fact, you'll see some descriptions of very very hot Septembers. As you get further north, that could change, but there's not likely to be any serious cold weather to deal with in October even in the north on the Vdlp.

Buen camino to you. Laurie

 

[pandas]

so kind, thanks so much for answering all my questions!!

pandas

 

[mmm042]

Hi.

If you've got an iPhone or iPad, I've got an English guide app out on iTunes that's very current, although right now it only covers Sevilla to Salamanca. I walked Sevilla to Merida last November and then Merida to Salamanca this March, so all of the trail info (including where the tricky sections are) is up to date, and described via both text and photos. It's got maps you can use offline, too. I'm heading back in September to walk Salamanca to Santiago; once I'm finished, that new content will upload (free) to the app. Check it out at:

Vía de la Plata, a travel app through Sutro Media
http://sutromedia.com/apps/Via_de_la_Plata

Re: the markings, I agree with Laurie that it's well marked, yet I disagree a little, too. If you can speak Spanish and easily ask for directions if/when you're lost or unsure, you'll be fine. And for the most part, yes, things are well marked. However, nearly every day I faced a few spots where I wasn't certain which way to go. Either there had been an abundance of arrows which suddenly stopped for several miles (leading me to think I'd missed one), or an arrow had faded and wasn't easy to see, or a tree/bush/scrub had leafed out and obscured an arrow, or a town decided not to mark the path, so the arrows ended at the start of the town and resumed as you were leaving it -- that kind of thing. So just know that you can't totally zone out while walking or you might miss something at some point.

And yes, definitely beware before Galisteo. You need to go left through an unmarked green gate that has a no trespassing sign on it. There's currently a dispute between the landowner and pilgrim groups about access.

Yes, albergues are everywhere.

September might be a little hot. Finishing in Santiago in October should be O.K., although the early mornings can be a little chilly. And it can be rainy in Galicia then.

Buen Camino!

 

[LTfit]

I walked from Sevilla to Montamarte in July but had to stop due to 2 fractures. Am currently in the hospital in The Hague, The Netherlands awaiting surgery on Tuesday. I have been a bit preoccupated as you can imagine but will try to answer your e-mail shortly.

Cheer,
LT

 

[grilly]

I walked from Sevilla to Montamarte in July but had to stop due to 2 fractures. Am currently in the hospital in The Hague, The Netherlands awaiting surgery on Tuesday. I have been a bit preoccupated as you can imagine but will try to answer your e-mail shortly.

Cheer,
LT

We are the ones who should cheer you up, LT. I hope things are going as well as possible for you right now.
Take care, claire

 

[+@^^]

hi Pandas
i will have a go at your weather question
the vets can have a go at the rest
.
i walked the vdlp from Sevilla to S'tiago
from 14 sept to 28 Oct 2010
temps were just below 40 deg C at start in Sevilla
and dropped to about freezing at the highest point near Lubian on 5 Oct
heavy rain on only 2 of the 40+ days
so that time of the year is v pleasant
.
one of the main attractions of doing it then was that it was coming off high summer
and going into mild winter
also it was harvest season, there was fruit and nuts and berries in abundance

 

[pandas]

thanks so much to everyone for all your answers!

sorry to hear about your fracture!
i was just in the hague for holiday - drove 16 hours today from the hague to florence.

so, i will be booking my flight from florence to sevilla.
i might have to start around 23 august, though...because later, i will have other things to do. 40 C in september sounds VERY hot....that means i'll be melting in august.

- oh, i don't have an iphone or ipad, but i would love all that information about the tricky arrows!! is there another way of getting it from you? this will be my 2nd camino (i walked 900 km in 2007 june/july camino frances). so i know how tricky it can be when the arrows are not clear.

- do you know where the albergue is in sevilla? i will be arriving at the airport. what's the best way to get to the albergue from the airport?

- where can i get a pilgrim stamp book (the one where you get stamped along the way). can i get it at the albergue in Sevilla?

- oh, also, do i need a sleeping bag in the albergues? i remember they always had blankets, but i can't remember if you need your own sleeping bag.

thanks!

pandas

 

[pandas]

hi everyone,

sorry i keep referring to "you" - i realize there are different people who have written to me.

pandas

 

[mmm042]

Hi.

From the Sevilla airport, take the EA busline (about 2,30 euros) into the city center. The closest stop is Avenida del Cid, I believe, but ask. Buses run from about 5:30 a.m. until midnight and come every 30 minutes.

Re: the albergue, lots of people like Triana Backpackers: Dirección: C/ Rodrigo de Triana, 69. Código postal 41010, Teléfono de contacto: 954 45 99 60, Email: sevillatriana@gmail.com, http://www.trianabackpackers.com. They can tell you exactly how to get there from the bus stop.

I've heard you can get a credencial at the cathedral in Sevilla and at the Taberna Miami in Triana (a district of Sevilla). I got mine stamped at some tourist or pilgrim office (can't remember which) that was just a block or two or three down from the cathedral on Avenida de la Constitucion.

I'll try and go through my notes and see which spots are trickiest, but I don't know if I can do it before your departure. Just remember the green gate outside Galisteo. That's the worst spot for sure. And when you cross the river in Sevilla, the first arrow is at the bottom of a post (easy to miss) and you need to turn right. Do NOT follow the scallop tile on the wall of a building at that intersection that points you left. And BTW, NO ONE in Sevilla knows where the Camino goes.

Melanie

 

[pandas]

you made me laugh.

thanks a lot for all this precise information!!
still haven't booked my ryanair flight yet....still thinking about the dates a bit.

pandas

 

[pandas]

i mean, your comment about that fact that no one in sevilla knows where the camino goes, made me laugh!

 

[pandas]

hi!

i have booked my flight, arriving in sevilla 23 august.

do you think there will be a lot of people? i like meeting people along the way.
when i did the camino frances in june/july, there were many, many people, which made the whole experience very friendly.

pandas

 

[grilly]

hi!

i have booked my flight, arriving in sevilla 23 august.

do you think there will be a lot of people? i like meeting people along the way.
when i did the camino frances in june/july, there were many, many people, which made the whole experience very friendly.

pandas

Congratulations, pandas. This is truly exciting. I have a hunch you'll be meeting fabulous people, as I am sure you draw them to you.

¡Buen Camino!

 

[mmm042]

Yeah, it's funny in retrospect, but not when you're trying to get help! The man who finally helped us in Sevilla said that as recently as 10 years ago, truly no one at all in Sevilla had heard of the Camino to Santiago. The pilgrims who came to do it navigated it solely on their own -- no arrows, no markers, no paths.

Since then it's been slowly becoming more popular. I assumed that as the starting point, the city would be filled with shops selling pilgrim-related merchandise, as you see in Santiago, and that it would be very well marked. And certainly that people would know about it! But it was as if it didn't exist.

Maybe we'll meet up this fall. I'm starting from Salamanca Sept. 20.

Melanie

 

[+@^^]

@ mmm042
thanks for the Sevilla reminder
before first light i grandly commenced my camino at the cathedral, and the proceeded to walk in circles for 3 hours before hailing a taxi to take me to Santiponce
and youre right - nobody could direct me - only the taxi dude
.
i didnt realise that "north" in the northern hemisphere, changes to "south" where i come from
or thats how it felt
.
anyway
i expanded my horizons in Sevilla by visiting 2 parks, the university?, some olympic/ sporting type complex, the river, the side of a highway that said "Rome this way", the cathedral, my hostal, the river again, did i mention the cathedral, that new bridge....
.
my favourite word in Spanish = taxi

 

[pandas]

hi everyone,

although i bought my ryanair ticket to sevilla...i will have to postpone...
so i will leave in 1 september.

pandas

 

[pandas]

hi everyone,

i hope you are all well.
i have had to postpone my camino...

not too sure when i will leave, but probably not september now...

thank you for your help!

pandas

 

[pandas]

hi everyone,

ok, looks like i can go now.
can you please tell me where i can get maps of the via de la plata? one of you was saying i might be able to download it somehow?

thanks,

pandas