That red German guide?

[kaylfrazer]

Hi everyone
On Saturday night, close to 60 of us gathered in Hamilton NZ to celebrate St James' day. We had a wonderful evening and several people talked about a wonderful red guide that Germans that they had met had but no one was quite sure what it was called. After doing a bit of digging I think that it might be
Camino de Santiago - Way of St James from the Pyrenees to Santiago. Rother Walking Guide, 2013 edition

but just wanted to make sure before I emailed it out to all our participants. Does anyone know of anything it might have been? Apparently the maps were very accurate and showed local roads as well. Thanks for any help you can give.
Kay

 

[cinimod]

Hi Kayl,

I have it on my desk next to me - so I have taken a few pictures so you can see what it looks like...

 

[Angelo]

You are right Kay. That's the book you're referring to. I bought it from Amazon UK and I like the way the author presented the information. It's handy, lightweight and very concise. It will be very useful for me when I start in 3 weeks time.

 

[scruffy1]

Two quick notes one positive the other less. Send a personal conversation to Jochen-Schmidtke a member of this forum who resides at Casa Paderborn in Pamplona . He is the man for all things German. Secondly the book you mention was published in 2013 meaning at best the information dates from 2012 and considering translation time probably the year before. The maps will be perfect, the topography excellent and not overwhelming as the Germans usually prefer, however, lodging info food etc, will be much less up to date. Jochen-Schmidte can be reached here or the Casa Paderhorn website here:


http://www.jakobusfreunde-paderborn.eu.

 

[cinimod]

I think I am going to go with eCamino app, which is a full guide book and offline maps and poi's.
Fully up to date and updated and can carry it on the phone, tablet so no additional weight.

 

[Jochen_Schmidtke]

Two quick notes one positive the other less. Send a personal conversation to Jochen-Schmidtke a member of this forum who resides at Casa Paderborn in Pamplona . He is the man for all things German. Secondly the book you mention was published in 2013 meaning at best the information dates from 2012 and considering translation time probably the year before. The maps will be perfect, the topography excellent and not overwhelming as the Germans usually prefer, however, lodging info food etc, will be much less up to date. Jochen-Schmidte can be reached here or the Casa Paderhorn website here: http://www.jakobusfreunde-paderborn.eu.

Hello friends.
I do not reside in the pilgrims refuge Casa Paderborn in Pamplona.
I am just sitting comfortable in my Computer room at my home.
Paderborn is a mostly quiet town in the middle of nowhere in Westfalia Germany. Mostly we have quite drab weather but just these days our weather is subtropical.
Buen Camino
Jochen

 

[gittiharre]

Hi everyone
On Saturday night, close to 60 of us gathered in Hamilton NZ to celebrate St James' day. We had a wonderful evening and several people talked about a wonderful red guide that Germans that they had met had but no one was quite sure what it was called. After doing a bit of digging I think that it might be
Camino de Santiago - Way of St James from the Pyrenees to Santiago. Rother Walking Guide, 2013 edition

but just wanted to make sure before I emailed it out to all our participants. Does anyone know of anything it might have been? Apparently the maps were very accurate and showed local roads as well. Thanks for any help you can give.
Kay

Yes it would be the Rother Guide. If you don't speak german, the text is wasted. I loved my Brierley. The route is so well marked you don't even need a map, but I like to see where I am going and I love the foldout overview map in the Brierley and photos of a lot of the albergues.

 

[kaylfrazer]

Thanks everyone.. that is what I needed. Thanks especially for the photos Cinimod.. I'll email those to our group.
Kay

 

[nidarosa]

As the pics above show, they do sell the Rother guide in English. I used it in 2012 and I much preferred it to the Brierley because of its elevation maps, informative and not eh ... 'spiritual' stuff, and also because of the size and weight. A brilliant choice. Any guidebook (even the Brierley) will be outdated by the time it is printed anyway, and as long as the maps, distances and info is about right, you should be fine. Yes it is well marked but sometimes it's good to know that the next village is just 2 km away and not 8 or 9!

PS: I am a translator and I can assure you it doesn't take a year to translate a guide book ...

 

[Carol06]

I used the Rother guide - in English - in 2012 and loved it. I will buy the latest version for my 2015 camino. It had all the information I needed or wanted.

 

[wayfarer]

I bought the Rother Guide after reading some of these posts and here is my opinion:
Great information on accommodation even if dated, The maps are shown "North Up" which I always find hard as you are looking at the direction of travel towards you rather than away from you, the elevation maps are good but the distances between towns/villages is a bit mixed up and hard to figure out at times.
Conclusion: I will stick to the little Michelin Guide and take the list of albergues from this forum. This is what suits me best.