Gareth Griffith
Active Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- SJPdP to Santiago de Compestela in May(2016)
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Remembering always that Tripadvisor can easily be fooled - viz The Shed restaurant in London and the truth here.I read a few books about the Camino, watched Six Ways to Santiago and The Way, spent hours doing research on this forum and watched endless Youtube videos.
However, I didn't research the places I was walking through. I've previously noted that Logroño is the heart of the Rioja region and I should have spent a day or two exploring some wineries. I've now discovered where I should have been exploring of an evening!
Calle del Laurel get 4.5 blobs on Tripadvisor from over 3,000 reviews so it must be at least OK. In fact it is rated "very good" or "excellent" by 92% of the reviews. I am going to be in Logroño on the 20th to 22nd November and I'm not going to miss it this time!
My recommendation to people planning their first camino is this:
1. Do all your research on what to stuff your back pack with and what to leave behind.
2. Make the effort to get at least a little bit of exercise in preparation.
3. Learn all you can about blister prevention to ensure your feet don't plague you.
4. Research the best Albergues.
5. Learn all you can about the major towns that you are going through so that you know the places to visit on your way through.
6 Make a point of staying in the major towns/cities for a day or two.
It is the journey that is the point of the exercise, not the destination.
Buen Camino a todos.
I met up with a chap in SdC who I'd met up with several times on his camino. He told me that he and his brother had found a decent place to stay in Santiago and took me and my companion to it. He said this place was clean, modern and had welcoming hosts unlike some places he's stayed at en route which he said "Were right dives!".I agree with most your points except the one about researching the best albergues. It’s a matter of personal preferences of course but I really enjoyed staying wherever I felt I couldn’t go any further that day - sometimes a wonderful surprise and sometimes nothing to write home about. But I liked that feeling of going by the grace of God.
Staying a day or two in big cities was not for me either. I enjoyed the journey and I did take time to smell the roses etc. but I loved the feeling of constantly being in movement so I wouldn’t have enjoyed staying anywhere longer than for a short stop. Again, personal preference!
I do love Calle Laurel too...the best. But really for me the highlight of Logroño after a couple of visits is View attachment 48935the Michaelangelo painting in the cathedral. Going to admire it is a pilgrimage in itself.
Once the thing came out into the open the instigator even sent fake versions of himself out to radio and tv interviews.Ha! I’d never seen this about The Shed. Very inventive.But I’d have to say that is a big exception, not the rule.
Although there is something to be said for the spontenaety of discovering places along the way more organically, if I’m going to be spending time in a place, I do still look on Trip Advisor as well as the ratings and comments on Google Maps. For hotels, I add Booking to the mix (although I try to book directly with the hotel directly).
All that being said, Calle Laurel IS indeed THE street you want to visit in Logroño. Enjoy the ambiance, tapas and wine!
My feeling is that it's impossible to see absolutely every spectacular site, eat at all the best restaurants, or stay only at the top rated albergues. Honestly, it would drive me crazy trying to see and do everything that I had read about. Sometimes you just can't be in the "right place at the right time", but I've always found that I'm in the right place at the right time for me. And for me, much of the Camino experience is about the people that I meet along the way. I would happily miss a tour of a fabulous cathedral to spend a day enjoying the camaraderie of my fellow pilgrims. In fact, I remember on my first Camino when I wanted to eat at Como Sapiens, a highly rated restaurant in Atapuerca. I couldn't find anyone else who wanted to go there, so I had a not quite gourmet, but thoroughly enjoyable meal with other pilgrims at the bar attached to the albergue. I'll remember their company much longer than a meal alone.Each to their own. To perpare or not to prepare.
In business and in the forces they have an acronym : PPPPPP.
Proper Planning Prevents P*** Poor Performance.
My point is if you don't do a bit of preparation you may well be walking within a few yards of something spectacular, staying in a hovel when a palace is next door, eating beans when there are gastronomic delights just a short walk away.
Stayed there early May and a few day's in September. No problems what So ever.Once the thing came out into the open the instigator even sent fake versions of himself out to radio and tv interviews.
The trouble with things like Tripadvisor reviews is that they can be skewed so easily. I stayed in the Hostal Fornos in SdC last month - it's clean, convenient (across the Praza de Galicia from the airport bus stop) and has welcoming staff. The kind lady that took my bag in said they were trying to rebuild their score - they'd had a Brazilian couple in who complained about how noisy it was and gave them one star in every category - I wonder how they'd managed in refugios along the Camino?
None of these are really the point of a camino, they are characteristics of tourism.you may well be walking within a few yards of something spectacular, staying in a hovel when a palace is next door, eating beans when there are gastronomic delights just a short walk away.
Your point of the Camino is not the same as everyones’.Finding out some basic information is one thing, living the whole thing vicariously several times over before even setting out seems to me to defeat the object of setting out in the first place. I will not be watching 'The Way' - ever.
None of these are really the point of a camino, they are characteristics of tourism.
Well done David!! My dear departed Dad used to say, “listen to advice but make your own decisions, because only you know your own true position”. For “advice” insert “research” and you have the same scenario.I'm a big believer in plenty of planning but separating the planning from the decision-making. The planning helps to inform the decision-making but it isn't all that goes into the decision-making, which I like to leave as late as possible. What I learn when I plan can help enrich my experience. For someone who doesn't want to learn in advance about what they see, for example, the bridge at Orbigo is just an old and very long bridge. For someone who has read up and knows the story of Suero de Quiñones, it means much more.
Plans are just advice from earlier me.Well done David!! My dear departed Dad used to say, “listen to advice but make your own decisions, because only you know your own true position”. For “advice” insert “research” and you have the same scenario.
Putting a man on the moon was a whim of Kennedy’s but the Americans didnt get there without planning and research.
Finding out some basic information is one thing, living the whole thing vicariously several times over before even setting out seems to me to defeat the object of setting out in the first place. I will not be watching 'The Way' - ever..
Finding out some basic information is one thing, living the whole thing vicariously several times over before even setting out seems to me to defeat the object of setting out in the first place. I will not be watching 'The Way' - ever.
....
None of these are really the point of a camino, they are characteristics of tourism.
I suppose PPPPPP works well if you're on a military campaign.Each to their own. To perpare or not to prepare.
In business and in the forces they have an acronym : PPPPPP.
Proper Planning Prevents P*** Poor Performance.
I have slept in some rather "rustic" places, and had a great time because of the people that I was with. I have also stayed at some of the best places and felt lonely because there weren't any other pilgrims around.Like I said, each to their own. Sleep in a hovel and good luck to you.
??????????????Sleep in a hovel and good luck to you.
I expect so. But I believe that military leaders, like pilgrims, need to avoid analysis paralysis; George Patton is supposed to have said "A good plan implemented today, is better than a perfect plan implemented tomorrow." And, like pilgrims, they need to be ready to adapt to unforeseen events; Helmuth van Moltke observed that “No plan survives first contact with the enemy."I suppose PPPPPP works well if you're on a military campaign.
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