I second that itinerary; we did almost the exact same thing last fall. We even added an extra night, stopping 10 km past Padron, so that we would have a short last day into Santiago, which felt very good. We also found the number of pilgrims to be much smaller than the main route (some perigrino...
I stopped there in Aug 2019 (rainy and misty, not the sunshine you had but still beautiful) and loved the very clean Municipal Albergue. A hidden gem, and made for a nice easy day from Neda.
A peregrino in Pamplona today who crossed on the 26th said there was minimal snow but it was muddy. A biker arrived in Pamplona today (28th) from SJPP and had no problems.
Yes, Betania was full with pilgrims in line; we had reduced capacity because the Diocese took some of our space for a cultural program. Usually we have 18.
Zubiri was full early yesterday (by 2:30, according to some pilgrims who came to Pamplona today), but Zubiri opened up a municipal building just past the town for some pilgrims to sleep on the floor! I haven’t seen that done before.
We all know these first few days are a choke point, but I am...
A professional exterminator tried 4 days at -40 degrees, and the bugs revived after they warmed up. Freezing apparently doesn’t work as well as we would like.
Thank you for your trail report. I am hospitalera in Pamplona and one of our pilgrims was deciding whether to travel to SJPP to start or to start from here in Pamplona. You clinched her decision.
BTW, consider stopping here at Betania, a new Donativo in Pamplona. We haven’t been full yet, people...
In Pamplona where I am serving as hospitalera, we have seen the crowd from last weekend that started in SJPP and Roncesvalles work their way through the Zubiri bottleneck, and start to spread out. BTW, there was a dusting of snow in Roncesvalles last night!
I’m back in Pamplona serving at the new donativo Betania. Love the brand new kitchen, it makes cooking a joy! Hasn’t been full yet here. The overseeing priest, Fr. Cuco (as he wants to be called) is super friendly. Stop in if you’re in Pamplona!
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