A second Camino - what's the best route?

[lynnejohn]

Hi all -
We did the Camino Frances from SJPDP last spring. We absolutely knew we would return. Now that it's time to plan our second trek, we are unsure as to which route to take. It seems from what I've read that the Via de la Plata is OK, but a little lonely (compared to Frances) and relatively uninteresting. What about Portugese or del Norte? We have such magical memories of Frances with our dear friends and know we cannot reproduce that, but if the other routes are not great, we would do the Frances again despite the crowds, fighting for beds, etc.....

I would love your opinions on this question, and thanks so much in advance.

lynne

 

[Sinenomene]

how about a trip from Le Puy to Roncevalles? or any of the other "start" points in france? Vezelay, Arles.... here is a link to the routes in france.

http://www.chemins-compostelle.com

this is a french website, if you cant read french goto http://www.google.com then serch for the website then click the translate page next to the link. It will come up in fine english and give you the approximate stages, elevation gains etc..

good luck!
chris

 

[bjorgts]

"great routes"

My thought was: What is a "great route"? Some time ago I read about Via de la Plata here. It was "tedious - miles and miles of vines and olive trees ..." and places where there were "no bars open in the morning". I found this interesting. I had walked this very spring among the same miles and miles of vines and olives trees, and I found it relaxing. I watched the good farmwork that was done there, saw how they were cutting the plants and the trees and wondered how the vine was that were produced along the way. We found out in the evening. And I have pictures of thousands and thousands of flowers. Uninteresting? Somebody will say yes. Others will say no. Somebody will come back. Somebody will say: Never again. When we reached Caseres, my husband said: "After 300 km on Via de la Plata, I know this: The Romans were really building for the future!" We had never seen so many roman bridges in our lives. Via de la Plata is not the french route. Its really different in many ways. So, is it "great"? Who can tell for you?

We walked the Aragonn route two yars ago, because som many people said it was wonderful. It was a nice route, but may be not exactly wonderful - for norwegians.

If you ask somebody about the nothern route, I think one will say: Great route. One will say: To many upps and downs. One will say: The weather can be bad. And so on.

Define what is a "great route" for you. Then I think you can find your next one. Bjørg

 

[lynnejohn]

Choosing a route for 2nd camino

Thanks so much, everyone, for your replies and very useful and interesting information!

We are still so torn - and are now looking at Le Puy, Portugese, and Northern as well as de la Plata.

You are correct, Bjorg - there are many different types of "interesting" when it comes to the Camino. On the Route Frances we really enjoyed all the little villages, meeting the people who lived and worked in them, we liked the "ups" and "downs" (well, to a point), we liked going into the kitchen and finding people to share stories with, but we also liked the long, solitary stretches through the meseta. It was the variety of landscape and interesting historical sites that was so appealing.

We do hear that more alberques are going up on the other routes as well as the Route Frances, so that makes a big difference to us. We like to have options about how far we go on any given day - some days more than 30K, but other days only ~20K.

We have plenty of time to collect more information before we leave this coming April, so we welcome information about other routes from those of you who have travelled them recently. Thanks again.

Peace,

lynne

 

[Paulus]

Lynne,

take a look at this thread
viewtopic.php?t=1121

and some pictures:

album_cat.php?cat_id=6

Paulus