VDLP Sept 2014

[remotefishingvillage]

i'll be leaving merida sept 3 for santiago. if anyone is the same region around the same time, i'd love to connect. i plan to walk fairly far distances each day and since this is my first Camino, would be interested to hear from any others doing this route around the same time.

 

[tastrom]

I plan to start sept 1. You can reach me on tom.astrom@gmail.com.
Tom Astrom

 

[gracethepilgrim]

Well boys - you are way ahead of me. I’m leaving from Sevilla around the 7th so you will be blazing the trail before me. I hope you’ll be posting along the way.
Cheers and Buen Camino, Grace

 

[jtigina]

Hi, I am arriving to Seville on September 4 and start Camino VdlP on September 6. In Seville I am staying in Trotamundos Youth Hostel.
Buen Camino!
Julia Tigina

 

[ConnachtRambler]

It was in May that we finally decided to attempt the Via de la Plata, with a start date in September. I was reluctant to announce it too publicly as there are too many imponderables when you get to my age. Now that we have 14 days walking behind us I feel more comfortable in announcing our ambitions.
Family commitments suggested August 26 as the best day to fly out of Ireland and we arrived in Seville that day. I had been watching the temperatures and we decided that our respective doctors would have thought us mad if we attempted the 29km stage three, ending uphill, in 36C. We opted to start our Camino in Almaden de la Plata. We were able to catch the 18:30 bus from Seville to Almaden on August 27 and started walking the following morning. Bus times vary at weekends and are an hour earlier after September 1.
In Seville we stayed in Hotel Simon (highly recommended) and were able to pick up a copy of the local amigos guide to the VdlP. This is proving invaluable although it was published in 2010 and things are changing.
We stopped a day in Merida to celebrate a significant anniversary and have now reached Caceres.
Those of you have walked the VdlP will know that at this rate it will be well into October before we reach Santiago - October 20 is our target date.
I am surprised at the number of peregrinos on the VdlP - numbers are low but not as low as I had expected. There are many cyclists but on our first day we were passed by seven walkers, including Kevin from Melbourne who has contributed to this Forum.
From then on the numbers have varied. We were alone in the wonderful Parroquial de Monesterio; 17 tried to check in at Albergue Annalena in Aljucen and beds were found for 15; all 12 beds were taken in the monastery in Alcuescar; we were on our own again in Aldea del Cano; nine of the 14 beds were taken in Valdesalor, and tonight it is hard to say as there are so many different rooms in Albergue Las Veletas where we are staying. There does seem to be a fair number of Peregrinos in Caceres at present, judging by the number of people with that "my legs have had enough for today" look about them.
We enjoyed the company of the two Canadians, Matthew and Vanessa, staying in the albergue last night. Matthew is carrying his guitar and this morning at about 8:00 we were beautifully entertained by http://www.matthewmutch.com singing his own composition, a love song of the Camino.

Anyone starting from Seville before mid-September will almost certainly pass us, so watch out for the "elderly Irish couple" - I am sure that is how others refer to us ☺.

 

[Steeltown Pilgrim]

It was in May that we finally decided to attempt the Via de la Plata, with a start date in September. I was reluctant to announce it too publicly as there are too many imponderables when you get to my age. Now that we have 14 days walking behind us I feel more comfortable in announcing our ambitions.
Family commitments suggested August 26 as the best day to fly out of Ireland and we arrived in Seville that day. I had been watching the temperatures and we decided that our respective doctors would have thought us mad if we attempted the 29km stage three, ending uphill, in 36C. We opted to start our Camino in Almaden de la Plata. We were able to catch the 18:30 bus from Seville to Almaden on August 27 and started walking the following morning. Bus times vary at weekends and are an hour earlier after September 1.
In Seville we stayed in Hotel Simon (highly recommended) and were able to pick up a copy of the local amigos guide to the VdlP. This is proving invaluable although it was published in 2010 and things are changing.
We stopped a day in Merida to celebrate a significant anniversary and have now reached Caceres.
Those of you have walked the VdlP will know that at this rate it will be well into October before we reach Santiago - October 20 is our target date.
I am surprised at the number of peregrinos on the VdlP - numbers are low but not as low as I had expected. There are many cyclists but on our first day we were passed by seven walkers, including Kevin from Melbourne who has contributed to this Forum.
From then on the numbers have varied. We were alone in the wonderful Parroquial de Monesterio; 17 tried to check in at Albergue Annalena in Aljucen and beds were found for 15; all 12 beds were taken in the monastery in Alcuescar; we were on our own again in Aldea del Cano; nine of the 14 beds were taken in Valdesalor, and tonight it is hard to say as there are so many different rooms in Albergue Las Veletas where we are staying. There does seem to be a fair number of Peregrinos in Caceres at present, judging by the number of people with that "my legs have had enough for today" look about them.
We enjoyed the company of the two Canadians, Matthew and Vanessa, staying in the albergue last night. Matthew is carrying his guitar and this morning at about 8:00 we were beautifully entertained by http://www.matthewmutch.com singing his own composition, a love song of the Camino.

Anyone starting from Seville before mid-September will almost certainly pass us, so watch out for the "elderly Irish couple" - I am sure that is how others refer to us ☺.

Nice meeting you and Pauline and I hope we meet up again. We are presently about 10k south of Galisteo. Here's a pic of the Plaza Mayor from our night:

 

[ConnachtRambler]

Nice meeting you and Pauline and I hope we meet up again. We are presently about 10k south of Galisteo. Here's a pic of the Plaza Mayor from our night:

Thank you - we have reached Alcontara and at the rate we are going the distance between yourself and Vanessa and ourselves is likely to increase, but I do hope our paths cross again. Liam

 

[Steeltown Pilgrim]

Thank you - we have reached Alcontara and at the rate we are going the distance between yourself and Vanessa and ourselves is likely to increase, but I do hope our paths cross again. Liam

You never know---we have lots of time so we'll probably take a few days off. We have no interest in racing through this.

 

[LTfit]

Who knows, maybe some of our paths will cross. I start in Granada (Camino Mozárabe) on September 23rd and it takes 12 day to reach Mérida. After that I am thinking about busing to Salamanca and follow on to Santiago.

I love the Plata and have done Sevilla-Salamanca already twice and Salamanca - Santiago once. Think that it must be lovely to do the Sanabrés in the fall.

Enjoy all en Buen Camino!

 

[ConnachtRambler]

Just reviewing the above posts and realise that we met Tom (above) back in Grimaldo.

We have now reached El Cubo de la Tierra del Vino. Staying at F y M Albergue and would recommend. We reached here from Calzadar de Valdunciel walking along the road as we were informed of problems on the Camino path - I presume from heavy rain of recent days.

About a week ago we were told of an albergue closed for fumigation to get rid of bedbugs. Since then two albergues, which we had planned to use, were closed. Different reasons were given but I was told by a Spanish speaking Peregrino that the problem of bedbugs has been travelling northwards ahead of us.

I remain surprised at the numbers walking the Via de la Plata. We get to meet them all as they eventually pass us out. There are at least ten this albergue tonight. We had more a few nights ago but some of them were cyclists

 

[Steeltown Pilgrim]

Hey Liam, glad you stayed at F y M--great people, the best. We are in Rionegro Del Puente tonight. All the best.