I think a bit more information will help narrow down the options. You say you will be in Spain for two weeks, some of which will presumably be taken up with the wedding and visiting people. How much of the two weeks were you thinking of spending walking (and traveling to and from the walking? You also mention "a camino or a few stages of a camino)? Am I to understand that getting to Santiago de Compostela and receiving a Compostela isn't terribly important to you?
I'm going to assume about a week's walk and offer a few possibilities.
If you want to end up Santiago with a Compostela:
- The Camino Portugues from Valença/Tui or Baiona. This probably has the best infrastructure. It is well traveled, but I wouldn't call it
crowded, like the Frances from Sarria.
- The Camino Ingles. This gets you the experience of a "complete" camino.
- The Camino Sanabres from Ourense. This is less travelled, but I've heard good things about it.
If ending up in Santiago with a Compostela this visit is not too important, I would probably go with the
Camino Frances, avoiding the last 120 km from Sarria. It has the best infrastructure, it the archetypical "camino" that you are most likely to recognize from books and videos, nd is chock-a-block with history and culture. There are a few options with this:
- You could start by the beginning in St. Jean Pied-de-Port, Roncesvalles, or Pamplona. If you get the bug and want to come back and walk again, you can just pick up from where you left off and continue walking the Frances.
- You could walk from Logroño to Burgos. Two cities that it should be easy to get to and from, especially from Madrid. You would get to see the landscapes of La Rioja and Castilla, enjoy the tapas in Logroño, see the chickens in the church in Santo Domingo, perhaps stay in the rustic but often recommended albergue in Grañon, and finish in the city of Burgos with its confection of a gothic cathedral.
- Or you could instead head to Leon and either (a) walk from there to Villafranca del Bierzo or to O Cebreiro, depending on how far you are comfortable in walking in a day, or (b) after seeing a bit of Leon, bus to Astorga and walk from there to O Cebreiro. Leon is a beautiful city and its cathedral, with the vast expanses of stained glass, is my favourite on the Camino. eon also has "the Sistine Chapel of Romanesque art". Astorga has the Epsicopal palace designed by Gaudi which now functions as a pilgrimage museum. (There is also a chocolate museum in the town.) Between Leon and Astorga is Hospital d'Orbigo whose long bridge was the site of one of the most famous jousting challenges of the middle ages. Beyond Astorga you leave the meseta for the hills and mountains, experiencing the famous Cruz de Ferro monument, the beautiful little towns of Molinaseca and Villafranca del Biero (and the Bierzo wine region) and, if you go that far, visit the picturesque village of O Cebreiro that can take you back a thousand years.
Those are a few of the many possibilities.