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You might have to apply in person on the mainland at the Spanish Consulate in San Francisco for a Schengen visa, contact the Honorary Vice Consul in Honolulu. http://www.consularcorpshawaii.org/consuls/spain/
https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/how-to-apply-schengen-visa/
For your return flight, Madrid back to Canada, round trip ticket to Paris can be cheaper, but once you factor in the logistics of getting from Santiago to Paris, not so much.
If your wife doesn't carry a pack, then 24km will be a lot easier. If she is just walking the last 100km, don't bother buying a big backpack, just get a small daypack to carry water, food, socks, and raingear, use a bag transport service for her regular luggage, from Sarria to Santiago is €3 per...
Nobody ever considers adding Pamplona into their plane ticket, do some research and you'll see that it doesn't cost much or will be the same price as flying into Madrid.
Add Pamplona into your plane ticket if you're flying to Madrid, the price difference is not that much, once you land in Pamplona, take a bus, taxi, or have Corazon Puro pick you up.
The same goes for the return leg, fly from Santiago to Madrid.
This is exactly how I would book flights for the Camino Frances, sure a R/T ticket to Paris can be cheaper, once you add up the time and hassle transiting from Paris to SJPDP and from Santiago back to Paris, it costs about the same if you flew to Pamplona via Madrid and flew back from Santiago...
Madrid is the easiest for going to the start and for going home from the Camino.
www.rome2rio.com is a great travel tool, here is an example from LAX to Pamplona leaving LAX on 27APR and returning from Madrid on 1JUN...
I flew on military flights from San Diego to VA and onto Lisbon, I bought a ticket to Bilbao the next morning via Madrid, I took a bus (2hrs) from Bilbao to Pamplona, stayed the night, then the ALSA/CONDA bus (1hr 45min) to SJPDP.
Madrid is the ideal place to get to the start of the Camino and...
Get a multiple destination ticket, fly from the west coast to Pamplona, then take the ALSA bus to SJPDP for €20.
For the return flight, Santiago back to the west coast.
Check out Expedia.com and click on multiple destinations and see what you come up with.
Check this video out.
I'd try to get a flight to NAVSTA Rota or Moron AB if you can, traveling to SJPDP from Germany can be expensive, look at my previous posts.
Use rome2rio.com to figure out transportation from Germany, and from bases in Spain and Italy as well.
Since you haven't bought a new pack, look at something smaller in the 30L-40L size, I know the bigger packs have more padding, as long as you keep the weight down, a smaller pack will be comfortable as well, and you eliminate the carry on size issues with a smaller pack.
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