Do we have to stop at a border crossing to show passport?

[rsloss]

Hello, if we are starting our pilgrimage on the French side, do we have to show our passport at a border crossing when we walk into Spain?

 

[WolverineDG]

No. It was fun to walk by the former border post on the Valcarlos route & not have to get my passport stamped.

Kelly

 

[Anonymous]

If you go over the Napoleon Pass, right at the top - some 5,000 feet, there is a small timber guard post where the customs officials wear traditional Napoleonic era uniforms (some hangover of tradition I suppose), and you have to trade in your French Euros for Spanish Euros ..

the exchange rate is 1:1 :wink:

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Police board buses crossing at Somport (not on the Camino Frances, though).

 

[KiwiNomad06]

When I walked over the Napoleon Pass, I somehow missed realising that I had 'changed over' into Spain, until I saw this sign along the path, and I realised I wasn't in a French-speaking land anymore!

 

[Frogmarch]

and you have to trade in your French Euros for Spanish Euros ..

How strange! I have not seen that at other border crossings between France and Spain. You are joking, aren't you?

 

[Anonymous]

Yes - the Euro is named the Euro as it is European currency and Napoleonic uniforms at a Spanish border the Spanish would not find funny at all! :wink:

 

[Dale]

The day that we crossed the Pyrenees from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port the weather was very poor with freezing rain at the top so we took the van ride with the backpacks that other braver pilgrims didn't want to carry. At the point where we crossed over into Spain the van was stopped by the Guardia Civil,
one of whom was carrying a machine gun. They were very polite and checked everyones passports or European Identity cards, I had a feeling there might be a problem when I gave them my passport because when I flew into Paris from Canada it wasn't stamped at the airport. I was right they gathered into a huddle with my passport some distance from the van and after a few minutes sent one of the younger guards who spoke very good English over to talk to me. After I explained that I entered Europe at Paris and my passport wasn't stamped and that the year before I had flown into Rome and had the same experience there he smiled, returned my passport and waved us on.

 

[WolverineDG]

Might have been around a time that ETA was acting up. The last time I was there (Sept 2007), the authorities had luckily foiled a car bomb plot in Logrono just days before I got there. There was still police tape up the morning I walked out of Logrono & there were wanted posters up in every albergue.

Kelly