Throwback to a trip last month with my recently departed rescue in Sussex England he was only interested in rabbit holes and not a view of the Seven Sisters
Added to this I have found the trail runners are not good if you are walking on very hard surfaces / tarmac a lot. The lugs seem to cause discomfort rather than the bounce you get ( and lose as you go ) with normal road runners
Wearing comfortable shoes is of the utmost importance as others have said.
FWIW I have walked the CF in trail runners and normal road running type also. Every step my feet were thanking me for not lugging extra weight per step. That said if you told me you had comfortable boots.. then I...
I've only ever booked ( busy period of September ) St Jean and Roncesvalles, have bought ticket home also in advance. You could get by without a phone if you don't want or need to be able to easily keep in touch with anybody at home ( or people you get to know on the Camino)
Having said all...
Walked twice since '18 all in September.
Busier , but to be expected, there is still pent up demand post covid imo
In '22 I walked straight thru Leon ( previous 2 times have stopped in the city) from Reliegos and while the industrial zone in never bothers me, the walk out in daylight was...
For me, specificaly Ireland from the UK and France from the UK .. clearly marked value , ticked and it makes no difference. Customs charges for nieces altered clothes ( not new ) and books sent to Ireland ... the same... customs ....
Lots of presents and other parcels from my family have been caught up in over zealous bureaucracy, even second hand books. I presume others have had similar issues since Brexit ( from uk to eu )
https://santiago.forwalk.org/en/#guide
not sure how up to date it is and within Spain IIRC but was handy for me when I was starting out planning.
edit to say they seem to have added Italy but no Germans yet :p
Lots of places are introducing or have done a tourist tax. Lets be fair though, there are only a few places on any of the caminos where the locals are complaining and even they realise the number of jobs dependent on those incoming. Tax of some sort is the only way forward imho
What riles me...
O Cebreiro is harder if it's at the end of a day IMHO. The weather can play a part of course
I've gone Trabadelo to Fonfria, Trabadelo to Filoval and last time '22 VDB to Fonfria all in busy Septembers without booking
If you have time constraints or O Cebreiro causes concern, you could always...
politeness and a smile will work wonders, the basic phrases in Spanish ..hello, thankyou ,good day etc will be all you need before the person you talk to replies in English :)
as others have said, chances of feeling lonely are slim unless it's what you want. I have always set off on my own and...
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