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I’ve already considered that but using Booking plus Wise Pilgrim and a few other sources now I find many towns are, effectively, “off the map”- nothing whatsoever is available. I will be trying again periodically in the coming months but frankly I expect that when I leave next spring there will...
No, please by all means keep reporting as you go on. I am planning an April/May CF for next year and I have already been
finding difficulties in reserving rooms/beds.
I have completed 2 Caminos with a Farpoint 40. This model has straps and belt folding into a zipped panel and top and side panels so it looks like a soft suitcase when not on the trail. It is sized as a Euromax so it should be a carryon pretty much anywhere. At Camino loads (I start at 15...
I had the same experience in 2016- I assumed I could purchase the heavier books once home only to run into problems. Very frustrating and disappointing. If you still haven’t worked this out, I would suggest trying one of the European Amazon sites such as Amazon.de (German, has an English...
Stayed at Hotel des Bains in 2016. A single ground level room looking directly out onto the river across from the old town. A bit of a treat but the town was fairly full for the time of year (early May). Skip the breakfast unless you are deeply into bread.
I walked from Santarem, two or three segments north of Lisbon thus avoiding a lot of urban scenery and zig zagging around enormous corn fields (thanks, Google Earth). For all of the difficulties, and they are listed above, the rest of the trip was highly rewarding, including Santarem, Tomar...
I contacted Orisson a few months ago and they responded that they would start taking reservations on November 15th. So on that date I repeated my reservation request and received a response and invoice 12 days later.
I would suggest taking more than one day of rest in Burgos- it is not that far from the midpoint of the CF and it is a treasure chest. One can see three great monastic sites, Charterhouse Miraflores, Monasterio Santa Maria de Las Huelgas, and a short trip to Santo Domingo de los Silos. The...
Although not a detour, consider the alternate route to the monastery at Samos. A very interesting spot and the trip down the valley is beautiful. However, if you want to fit this into a single day the return to the main route makes it a tiring day, especially if conditions are muddy.
I used the maps only CP Brierly in 2015 from Santarem north and found it largely useless as predictor of what the trail would be like. It is more of a schematic than a set of maps; a relatively straight line would be drawn between two towns showing little if anything, then I would find myself...
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