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Heads up for walking in early October — Día de la Hispanidad

peregrina2000

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I just had an ah-ha moment when I understood why it was that a forum member had real trouble finding a place to stay in Las Médulas on Saturday October 9. This year the Día de la Hispanidad (formerly known as Columbus Day) falls on Tuesday, Oct. 12. That makes for the uniquely Spanish tradition of a “puente” (bridge/long weekend). If Tuesday is a holiday, why work on Monday?!

Anyone looking for a place to stay over that four day period may have difficulties, so it might be a good idea to look for reservations if that is something that works for you.

Buen camino, Laurie
 
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Laurie,
A similar situation will occur here in France on Monday, 1 November.

This is Toussaint, the day after Halloween. It is a catholic holy day and in France a public holiday when families visit cemeteries to honour their deceased relatives. Chrysanthemums are widely sold to decorate the tombs. Much will be closed.
 
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I had a national day experience in IIRC 2013 walking toward Riego de Ambros and ended up with a series of informal accommodation arrangements in (successively) a closed-but-open-that-night casa rural, a comfortable room above a doctor's garage, and a 5th floor walk-up pension which I shared with three very heavy-drinking Japanese pilgrims (one found early in the morning asleep in the bathtub, making cleaning up easier). @peregrina2000's advice to book should be heeded as All of Spain is on the move that weekend.
 
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This holiday is why I have to wait an extra day to start walking the VDLP. I arrive the night of the 11th. Need to go to Decathlon or another store to pick up poles and probably get a small sleeping bag. I would imagine everything is closed on the 12th. So have to run my errands on the 13th and start the 14th.
 
In 2015 in my pre Camino days I took a two week Spanish course in Barcelona. My flight home departed from Madrid, where I planned to spend 2-3 nights. At the time my son worked for Hotel Tonight, a "last minute" hotel booking company, and I planned to use it to book my Madrid hotel. My proposed time in Madrid coincided with the October 12th holiday, and I was shocked at the hotel prices! Hostel beds were going for 100 euros a night. Luckily my home stay host in Barcelona let me spend a couple of additional nights at her place, and I was able to find an inexpensive hostal in Madrid for the night before my flight!
 
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Thanks so much for info. I’m on Camino now and wiil be back on Santiago Oct 9
 
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