Hi everyone, now that I have returned home and am over my jet lag, I thought that I would post an update to all of you who were so helpful. We arrived in León in the midst of the recent heatwave and made an on-the-spot decision to continue on the Frances. As several of you hinted at, by this time it had become "our" Camino and since we were having no trouble with crowds and were perfectly happy with what we are doing, we slowed down our pace, took alternate routes, visited many churches and museums, and arrived in Santiago as planned in time for the festival weekend July 23-25th. Besides a few minor aches and pains the four of us completed the trip happy, in good physical health, and ready for the three days of exuberant celebration in Santiago. Our main challenge upon arrival was switching our body clocks from getting up at 5, walking beginning at 6, and going to bed at 9, to staying up late and partying with what seemed like the entire country in Santiago! Fireworks starting at 11:30 p.m.! Who knew?
We had a marvelous trip and I am very grateful for all the information and insight I gained from the forum. Although we did have a helpful copy of
Brierley's map book, we used the
Wise Pilgrim app as a primary resource and because it does not have "stages" we never felt that we had to walk to a particular place every day, and thus did not experience any trouble with lodging or crowds, even though we were walking in the busy season at the end of June and July. This "day by day" approach was initially hard for me as I am such a planner by nature but by a few days out I had gotten over it and indeed playing each day by ear was one of the highlights of the whole Camino experience. I am an art historian and had downloaded Gitliz and Davidson's
The Pilgrimage Road to Santiago on my phone which was also an incredibly wonderful resource to have along. I loved reading each night about what we were going to see in terms of art and architecture the next day - though sometimes I was too tired to read - but usually would catch up sometimes a day or two later. This book also had quite a bit of natural history so besides art and architecture we also had fun identifying birds, trees, and flowers. I am a gardener so also very much enjoyed all the veggie and flower gardens along the route. One of our group is a musician and music teacher so we found ourselves enjoying all the Spanish pop music we heard from the boom boxes of large groups of teenage pilgrims, the number of which increased exponentially after Sarria. We were prepared for this shift in energy and for the most part were able to cheerfully appreciate it. We never stopped saying Buen Camino and we always heard people reply in kind...
Besides the wonderful landscapes and history, we so appreciated the hospitality of the Spanish people who kindly took care of us with food, lodging, advice, innumerable cups of café con leche and vino tinto along the way. And of course meeting and conversing and walking with people from all over the world, what a treasure.
So again, many thanks to all of you for your advice re: the del Salvador and Primitivo. Perhaps we will do them next!