Best use of my days?

[Tom Copeland]

Hi, I just joined the forum, and I'm walking the Camino in May with a few of my college students. We can arrive in Madrid on May 10 and will need to be back in the states by May 31. I want us to get as much of the Camino experience as we can, but I don't want to rush through it either. We're thinking of starting in Pamplona or Roncevalles, having about 16 days that we actually walk, leaving a couple of days for rest and sightseeing. What would be the best use of those 16 days? I know we can't walk the whole way from Roncevalles or Pamplona in 16 days. Ay advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Leon to Santiago takes about 14 days. Leon can be easily reached by train or bus.

 

[Jo Jo]

With badly blistered feet, I was able to walk about 25km per day. That may help you gauge how far you can cover (remember, you cannot walk faster than your slowest member).

No one can walk from Roncevalles or Pamplona to Santiago in 16 days (unless you and all of your students are all superb athletes and no one gets foot or leg problems--supremely unlikely). So you have to either start closer, or take buses through various sections. I've posted elsewhere my itinerary for a shortened Camino that skips the urban areas and a dangerous bit of road walking after Villafrance de Bierzo, but even that is, at best, three weeks, not 16 days.

As Falcon269 said, Leon could work as a starting point if you are going to end in Santiago (I'd still skip the walk into and out of Pomferrada; and I would not want to risk students I'm responsible for on that road between Trabadelo and Los Herrerias) . If you are going to end in Finisterre, you might start closer (say O Cebreiro).

Alternatively, you could just walk the mountain sections (SJPP to Pamplona, then pick up again at Los Herrerias), or sort of put together your own sampler. Say some mountains, Roncevalles to Pamplona, some of the rolling hills of Navarro and Riojas, a few days on the Meseta, and then the last 100km from Sarria.

Better yet--I'd get your students involved in this discussion. What do they want to see? The various geographic areas described above; various UNESCO sites like Yuso and Suso (ancient monestaries where Spanish was first written down) and Atapuerca (earlies humans in Europe); various architectural monuments (the cathedrals in Burgos, Leon, Gaudi's Bishop's Palace in Astorga); various feast days in certain towns and villages (you are too early for San Fermin, but every town and village has their own feast day celebrations and traditions). Also, the student's studies might influence this (are they anthropologists, architects, linguists, etc.).

Bottom line: with 16 days, you are going to have to get selective, which means that you are going to need a serious discussion about what criteria you want to select for. When you have that criteria, write back and tell us, and we'll try to make suggestions helpful based on that criteria.

Welcome to the Camino.

 

[Tom Copeland]

With badly blistered feet, I was able to walk about 25km per day. That may help you gauge how far you can cover (remember, you cannot walk faster than your slowest member).

No one can walk from Roncevalles or Pamplona to Santiago in 16 days (unless you and all of your students are all superb athletes and no one gets foot or leg problems--supremely unlikely). So you have to either start closer, or take buses through various sections. I've posted elsewhere my itinerary for a shortened Camino that skips the urban areas and a dangerous bit of road walking after Villafrance de Bierzo, but even that is, at best, three weeks, not 16 days.

As Falcon269 said, Leon could work as a starting point if you are going to end in Santiago (I'd still skip the walk into and out of Pomferrada; and I would not want to risk students I'm responsible for on that road between Trabadelo and Los Herrerias) . If you are going to end in Finisterre, you might start closer (say O Cebreiro).

Alternatively, you could just walk the mountain sections (SJPP to Pamplona, then pick up again at Los Herrerias), or sort of put together your own sampler. Say some mountains, Roncevalles to Pamplona, some of the rolling hills of Navarro and Riojas, a few days on the Meseta, and then the last 100km from Sarria.

Better yet--I'd get your students involved in this discussion. What do they want to see? The various geographic areas described above; various UNESCO sites like Yuso and Suso (ancient monestaries where Spanish was first written down) and Atapuerca (earlies humans in Europe); various architectural monuments (the cathedrals in Burgos, Leon, Gaudi's Bishop's Palace in Astorga); various feast days in certain towns and villages (you are too early for San Fermin, but every town and village has their own feast day celebrations and traditions). Also, the student's studies might influence this (are they anthropologists, architects, linguists, etc.).

Bottom line: with 16 days, you are going to have to get selective, which means that you are going to need a serious discussion about what criteria you want to select for. When you have that criteria, write back and tell us, and we'll try to make suggestions helpful based on that criteria.

Welcome to the Camino.

Thanks to both of you. I'll consider all those things as we continue planning. I thought about doing St. Jean to Pamplona and then a "sampler" to Santiago. If so, how easy is it to catch a bus between towns along the way?
Also, we'll be flying into Madrid. If we decided to start in Leon, what's the best way to get from Madrid to Leon? I'm looking for ease of navigation and low cost...

Thanks so much for the help.

Tom

 

[Deleted member 3000]

The bus from the airport is pretty easy:

 

[Jo Jo]

Tom,
Buses and trains work amazingly well in Spain and are relatively cheap (and clean). Buses are generally cheaper (and a bit slower) than trains, and the experience is much different than buses in the U.S. I'll forever remember the dainty old lady on the bus from Madrid to Pamplona decked out in a beautiful dress and a strand of enormous pearls (you could just tell they were real too). Compare that with your average Greyhound passenger in the U.S.

I had to catch a bus at one point in my Camino to get to Burgos to buy new shoes (long story--check other posts). Easy to do. We also caught a bus again to avoid the industrial walk into Leon. Again easy to do. I can't speak to what you might experience given the different locations. I know bus service to some of the smaller villages was not everyday.

I cannot help you with transport to Leon--we took the bus to Pamplona, stayed overnight because of the hour we got in, and then took the morning bus to SJPP. But finding schedules is easy. Look at the Renfe and ALSA websites (note: keep checking back too. The morning bus to SJPP does not appear until the summer. It happens every summer, but the website will not announce it in advance--only once it had begun again). We did not attempt to buy tickets in advance through the websites, which I understand can be an annoying experience. Just walked up an bought them at the time.

Buen Camino,
Jo Jo

 

[Tom Copeland]

Tom,
Buses and trains work amazingly well in Spain and are relatively cheap (and clean). Buses are generally cheaper (and a bit slower) than trains, and the experience is much different than buses in the U.S. I'll forever remember the dainty old lady on the bus from Madrid to Pamplona decked out in a beautiful dress and a strand of enormous pearls (you could just tell they were real too). Compare that with your average Greyhound passenger in the U.S.

I had to catch a bus at one point in my Camino to get to Burgos to buy new shoes (long story--check other posts). Easy to do. We also caught a bus again to avoid the industrial walk into Leon. Again easy to do. I can't speak to what you might experience given the different locations. I know bus service to some of the smaller villages was not everyday.

I cannot help you with transport to Leon--we took the bus to Pamplona, stayed overnight because of the hour we got in, and then took the morning bus to SJPP. But finding schedules is easy. Look at the Renfe and ALSA websites (note: keep checking back too. The morning bus to SJPP does not appear until the summer. It happens every summer, but the website will not announce it in advance--only once it had begun again). We did not attempt to buy tickets in advance through the websites, which I understand can be an annoying experience. Just walked up an bought them at the time.

Buen Camino,
Jo Jo

Thanks again JoJo. Great advice.

 

[Tincatinker]

Tom, welcome to the forum. If, given your time constraints, you have the opportunity to walk for 16 days then I would urge you to walk from Leon. Some of the great experiences of my life has been the when I have had the opportunity to walk, day after contiguous day, through an ever changing landscape and environment. On Camino the sense of accomplishment on arriving in Santiago having walked continuously from my chosen point of departure was for me profound. "It is your Camino" is a statement, truism, that you will find often on this forum and I do not seek to denigrate that. Nor do I subscribe to the "real" pilgrim mythologies. In my opinion if you want to give your students as much of the Camino experience as you can then give them Camino, not a tour of the Camino.

Leon is easily accessed by train or bus from Madrid and a beautiful city in its own lights. If the early walk out through urban Leon is far from scenic it only makes much of what is to come even more beautiful.

Buen Camino