Can anyone offer a little help with our planning?

[JamesJenkins]

Hi all,

Father and I are planning to do the Sarria to Santiago section of the Camino Frances route the week before Holy Week this year. We are training down from the UK via Spain on the following route (taken from The Man at Seat 61):

Travel from London to Paris by Eurostar, leaving London St Pancras at 17:55 (17:25 on Saturdays) and arriving at Paris Gare du Nord at 21:17 (20:53 on Saturdays) Cross Paris by metro to the Gare d'Austerlitz.

Travel overnight from Paris to Irun (on the Spanish frontier) leaving Paris Austerlitz at 23:10 and arriving Irun at 07:36 next morning.

Now take a connecting express train right across Spain, departing Irun at 08:45 and arriving Ourense 18:30, Santiago de Compostela at 20:10 and A Coruña at 21:08.

Obviously we need to get to Sarria, and it would be really nice to do it without having to go to Santiago first - is this possible?

Couple of other questions, I noticed with some alarm that last year there was rather a lot of snow in March (I think one of the posts mentioned something about mountain rescue!) - is this normal for the time of year?

Finally, at least for now, we will be arriving in Santiago on the Monday and Leaving on the Tuesday or Wednesday of Holy Week - what is the situation regarding accommodation going to be like? Do we really need to book somewhere - is this even possible?

Many thanks,

James

 

[frescotours]

Hello James,

On your train from Irun to Santiago, get off at Monforte. From there you can catch a train to Sarria. I've attached a schedule according to Renfe, which is for Ponferrada to Sarria - Monforte is after Ponferrada.

From Sarria to Santiago, you may get some snow in March, but it is unlikely you will need to be rescued as you won't be at high elevations at this point.

Expect Santiago to be busy during Semana Santa - if you know your dates, I'd suggest making a reservation before hand.

Good luck - hope this helps!