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OBSOLETE COVID THREAD "Permanently Closed"

OBSOLETE COVID THREAD
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Time of past OR future Camino
First one in 1977 by train. Many since then by foot. Next one ASAP.
A first-time major bummer! Idly surfing the internet for the websites of places where I've stayed in the past, or might like to stay in the future, I finally encountered something I'd been expecting and dreading. Using big red letters I was informed that the b&b/restaurante Las Delicias del Camino in Mansilla de las Mulas was now "Permanently Closed."

Makes me wonder what other wonderful but unprofitable places of interest might finally be closed or closing, victims of the disappearance of pilgrims: the Peregrino Pasante's cabin near Logrono?; the food trucks?; the Casa de los Dioses near Astorga?; Tomas's Manjarin? I'd hate to see all the funky Camino novelty places I fell in love with disappear before I can return to them.... For many years my heart has lived on the memory of them....
 
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The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
A first-time major bummer! Idly surfing the internet for the websites of places where I've stayed in the past, or might like to stay in the future, I finally encountered something I'd been expecting and dreading. Using big red letters I was informed that the b&b/restaurante Las Delicias del Camino in Mansilla de las Mulas was now "Permanently Closed."

Makes me wonder what other wonderful but unprofitable places of interest might finally be closed or closing, victims of the disappearance of pilgrims: the Peregrino Pasante's cabin near Logrono?; the food trucks?; the Casa de los Dioses near Astorga?; Tomas's Manjarin? I'd hate to see all the funky Camino novelty places I fell in love with disappear before I can return to them.... For many years my heart has lived on the memory of them....

I understand your sadness, but as we eventually rise from this Covid disaster, let us live, too,in hope of new beginnings, new places and experiences.
 
Sad to hear those stories.
But as life itself, all is in flow and ever changing.

I don't know the exact state of all regions in Spain, but I can imagine that like in Germany many small businesses in Spain try hard to survive the pandemic and all of it's consequences like shutdowns, etc.

But as far as I know, if you'll find the label "permanatly closed" at businesses in google maps that often means only that they aren't knowing the date of reopening.

Maybe there will be most of the places you remember and that are connected with everlasting memories reopened when it is possible to walk again.

BC
Roland
 
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We learn don’t we, sooner or later, and often way too late, that there are absolutely no guarantees in life about anything. Hence the expression, “but for the Grace of God ...” etc. Sorry to hear it Rev. must be countless others we’ll never hear about. My heart aches for them all.

For whatever reason, Nature and Fate have conspired to visit this plague upon us. We are in Dante’s Inferno.

Let the Phoenix rise from the ashes.

May it pass over soon.
 
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It appears that travel restrictions to Europe (including Spain!) will be lifted for those travelers that have documentation of the COVID vaccines. My wife and I have reservations for private rooms each night. The majority were made on Booking.com. I assume if any of these places close that Booking.com will notify me. Several places I made reservations directly, since we've stayed there before. I plan to reach out to these in late May / early June to confirm our reservations are still valid. A positive surprise to us was we had a reservation for an overnight stay at the Parador de Santo Domingo Bernado de Fresneda. They do not have staff to keep this open in the near term. They advised us that our reservation has been switched to the parador which is adjacent to the Cathedral. It is a nicer and more expensive parador and we will receive the same rate! Bob

 
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
It appears that travel restrictions to Europe (including Spain!) will be lifted for those travelers that have documentation of the COVID vaccines. My wife and I have reservations for private rooms each night. The majority were made on Booking.com. I assume if any of these places close that Booking.com will notify me. Several places I made reservations directly, since we've stayed there before. I plan to reach out to these in late May / early June to confirm our reservations are still valid. A positive surprise to us was we had a reservation for an overnight stay at the Parador de Santo Domingo Bernado de Fresneda. They do not have staff to keep this open in the near term. They advised us that our reservation has been switched to the parador which is adjacent to the Cathedral. It is a nicer and more expensive parador and we will receive the same rate! Bob

Brown Country Bob,
What good luck to have that reservation switched! About 25 years ago when my husband and were touring Spain we stayed in a corner suite overlooking the freestanding cathedral tower. All was splendid.
Enjoy your stay and Buen camino to you both.
 
It appears that travel restrictions to Europe (including Spain!) will be lifted for those travelers that have documentation of the COVID vaccines. My wife and I have reservations for private rooms each night. The majority were made on Booking.com. I assume if any of these places close that Booking.com will notify me. Several places I made reservations directly, since we've stayed there before. I plan to reach out to these in late May / early June to confirm our reservations are still valid. A positive surprise to us was we had a reservation for an overnight stay at the Parador de Santo Domingo Bernado de Fresneda. They do not have staff to keep this open in the near term. They advised us that our reservation has been switched to the parador which is adjacent to the Cathedral. It is a nicer and more expensive parador and we will receive the same rate! Bob
When are you planning to go?
 
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you are wise to not assume the blanket statement by one politician applies all the way down to the local albergue. Here on the ground, most of us are still not vaccinated, and haven't even been scheduled for vaccinations yet. Entire provinces are still closed, and camino towns are on level-4 lockdown.
It's great you've been vaccinated. But don't expect a big Welcome Back parade.
I have walked through the plazas and main streets of several usually-buzzing camino towns lately, and there's a huge number of boarded-up storefronts and shuttered windows.
Maybe these businesses will come back, maybe sometime in the next couple of years.
But it's not looking promising for the short term.
Even if you can come safely and legally this year, you're still going to find a very changed Camino.
 
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
you are wise to not assume the blanket statement by one politician applies all the way down to the local albergue. Here on the ground, most of us are still not vaccinated, and haven't even been scheduled for vaccinations yet. Entire provinces are still closed, and camino towns are on level-4 lockdown.
It's great you've been vaccinated. But don't expect a big Welcome Back parade.
I have walked through the plazas and main streets of several usually-buzzing camino towns lately, and there's a huge number of boarded-up storefronts and shuttered windows.
Maybe these businesses will come back, maybe sometime in the next couple of years.
But it's not looking promising for the short term.
Even if you can come safely and legally this year, you're still going to find a very changed Camino.
I second Camino Chrissy's statement:
Thank you, @Rebekah Scott, for this reality check, sad as the news is for the time being. Hopefully it will turn around as soon as possible, but sounds like it will be a slow process.
It is important that we hear from the people who are living in the cities, towns and villages of Spain who know firsthand what is happening. Wishful thinking and hope are great tools to look forward to a better day but knowing reality of today is much more important to help one prepare for an uncertain tomorrow. I hope that you and others living in our beloved Spain give us more reality checks. They are not cruel or mean they are a necessity.
I hope to walk in October. I have made a reservation to fly. But I am prepared to wait if real time events foretell a different reality. I will not force myself on a situation that would only have the potential of making things worse.
 
Thank you, @Rebekah Scott, for this reality check, sad as the news is for the time being. Hopefully it will turn around as soon as possible, but sounds like it will be a slow process.
As others have said on the forum, the Camino may never be quite the same as before.😐
Nothing in life is ever the same as it was before. Change is constant with the variable being place and time. Were it not for "immediate" communication, it's likely we would not know about what happened yesterday even in the towns and cities of our own country, much less than around the world. What we can count on it the hope our personal wants and desires are met sometime in the future. And the future, in reality, is the next Nano second. All else is history.
 
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
IMHO, the Camino as it had become in the last few years was not sustainable. We'll see who and what survives.
Reb, you live on the ground and have a personal and valued perspective on all things Camino. That said, when I was planning to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail, there were many saying the AT was changing too fast to be sustainable. Too many weekenders,too many section hikers, too few shelters, too much storm damage, etc. But, I may be reading you concern wrongly. If I am not, here goes. The AT, to accommodate the increased on all fronts: increased the number and shelters at key high density locations, new victualing stations sprang up, environmental “comfort stations” established to limit “tissue paper” flora and limited, though appropriate security patrols established. Most critical was the foot traffic on the AT itself. Worn and sometimes dangerous paths were better maintained by volunteers, new paths sectioned in to reduce the increased traffic while maintaining the integrity of the “original” 1940’s AT.
I believe the Camino itself is the best gauge as to what is required now, or in the future. Heck, a decade ago there wasn't a Peaceable Kingdom. We all benefit from you and Paddy making the dreaded Meseta a looked for adventure and oasis destination.
God Love you both.
 
A first-time major bummer! Idly surfing the internet for the websites of places where I've stayed in the past, or might like to stay in the future, I finally encountered something I'd been expecting and dreading. Using big red letters I was informed that the b&b/restaurante Las Delicias del Camino in Mansilla de las Mulas was now "Permanently Closed."

Makes me wonder what other wonderful but unprofitable places of interest might finally be closed or closing, victims of the disappearance of pilgrims: the Peregrino Pasante's cabin near Logrono?; the food trucks?; the Casa de los Dioses near Astorga?; Tomas's Manjarin? I'd hate to see all the funky Camino novelty places I fell in love with disappear before I can return to them.... For many years my heart has lived on the memory of them....
Does anyone know the history of the impact that the Spanish Flu had on Camino Life in the early 1900's? I wonder what life was like on the Camino before and then after that pandemic. How long did it take to come back?
 
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
It appears that travel restrictions to Europe (including Spain!) will be lifted for those travelers that have documentation of the COVID vaccines. My wife and I have reservations for private rooms each night. The majority were made on Booking.com. I assume if any of these places close that Booking.com will notify me. Several places I made reservations directly, since we've stayed there before. I plan to reach out to these in late May / early June to confirm our reservations are still valid. A positive surprise to us was we had a reservation for an overnight stay at the Parador de Santo Domingo Bernado de Fresneda. They do not have staff to keep this open in the near term. They advised us that our reservation has been switched to the parador which is adjacent to the Cathedral. It is a nicer and more expensive parador and we will receive the same rate! Bob

I made a reservation through booking.com. they told me my credit card was declined. I submitted another credit card same thing. So I called the hotel and informed them my credit cards are both good. They told me they declined my credit card payment because they were close. Booking ask me why I canceled my reservation on their site. I told them the hotel is close.. So I call the places I wanted to stay at before making reservations through booking.com. maybe and over sight don't know but I never heard anything from booking.com
 
Does anyone know the history of the impact that the Spanish Flu had on Camino Life in the early 1900's? I wonder what life was like on the Camino before and then after that pandemic. How long did it take to come back?
In the early 1900s, walking the Camino was just a memory, something for historians and religious fanatics. Religion was still very important, however, and when the "Spanish flu" first struck, people flocked to church to pray... leading to more infections! Here is a very readable clinical account of that pandemic in Spain: https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/47/5/668/296225
 
Change is part of life. From a "glass half full" point of view think of all the wonderful and interesting new things there will be on the Camino in the future.
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
In the early 1900s, walking the Camino was just a memory, something for historians and religious fanatics. Religion was still very important, however, and when the "Spanish flu" first struck, people flocked to church to pray... leading to more infections! Here is a very readable clinical account of that pandemic in Spain: https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/47/5/668/296225
Thank you so much for this article!
 
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