Sevilla or Granada

[izzybella9]

Hola,

I walked the Camino Frances in the spring of 2011 in celebration of my 50th year. I am of the good fortune to be able to retire next year and plan to walk the Camino again in either Fall 2016 or Spring 2017. I have for a long time planned to walk the Via de la Plata, possibly from Cadiz, but am now feeling drawn to start out on the Camino Mozárabe in Granada and join the Via de la Plata. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts, perspectives, opinions on starting in Granadada vs Sevilla/Cadiz and vice versa.

Buen Camino All!

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, izzybella, what a wonderful decision to have!

I have walked from Sevilla, loved it very much, and am hoping to be able to be able to walk it again, this time starting in Granada, or one of the other choices like Jaen, Almeria or Malaga. If you haven't seen it yet, you should check out the Mozarabe forum, because that's where the posts on the four Mozarabe starting points will be found.
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/forums/camino-mozárabe.101/

Maggie (magwood) walked just a few months ago from Malaga and has a wonderful and very detailed blog, so that would be a great start. http://magwood.me/camino-mozarabe/

LTfit has also recently walked from Granada and has several helpful posts in the Mozarabe forum.

Would love to know how it goes for you. Buen camino, Laurie

p.s. I too walked my first camino in celebration of my 50th birthday. 15 years later, I'm still at it with my fingers crossed for many more.

 

[izzybella9]

Hi, izzybella, what a wonderful decision to have!

I have walked from Sevilla, loved it very much, and am hoping to be able to be able to walk it again, this time starting in Granada, or one of the other choices like Jaen, Almeria or Malaga. If you haven't seen it yet, you should check out the Mozarabe forum, because that's where the posts on the four Mozarabe starting points will be found.
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/forums/camino-mozárabe.101/

Maggie (magwood) walked just a few months ago from Malaga and has a wonderful and very detailed blog, so that would be a great start. http://magwood.me/camino-mozarabe/

LTfit has also recently walked from Granada and has several helpful posts in the Mozarabe forum.

Would love to know how it goes for you. Buen camino, Laurie

p.s. I too walked my first camino in celebration of my 50th birthday. 15 years later, I'm still at it with my fingers crossed for many more.

Hey Laurie,

Thanks for the info. I will check it out. Though it's a year or more away I'm really happy to be going back for another Camino. I have seen you on a lot of posts here. I'm curious, what was it that instigated your first Camino? For me it was simply hearing a friend talk about wanting to do the last 100 km of the Camino to celebrate his 50th . . . I had never heard of the Camino before that but it sounded intriguing. This conversation occurred when I was 35 but it obviously stayed with me!!!

Buen Camino Amiga,
Deb

 

[LTfit]

Hi @izzybella9 As Laurie mentioned I did the Mozárabe from Granada last September - October after already walking the Plata 4x (Sevilla-Zamora, Zamora-Muxia both in July and Sevilla-Salamanca Feb and Salamanca - SdC in October after walking Granada to Mérida).
I love the two so it all comes down to this: do you want some company? Pick the Plata. I did not see one pilgrim in my 16 days walking from Granada-Mérida.
The stretch from Cádiz to Sevilla is also very quiet. I have 2 friends who walked from Cádiz and they met very few to none until Sevilla.
Let me know if you have any other questions and be sure to check out the forums on both.
Cheers,
Lee

 

[izzybella9]

Hi @izzybella9 As Laurie mentioned I did the Mozárabe from Granada last September - October after already walking the Plata 4x (Sevilla-Zamora, Zamora-Muxia both in July and Sevilla-Salamanca Feb and Salamanca - SdC in October after walking Granada to Mérida).
I love the two so it all comes down to this: do you want some company? Pick the Plata. I did not see one pilgrim in my 16 days walking from Granada-Mérida.
The stretch from Cádiz to Sevilla is also very quiet. I have 2 friends who walked from Cádiz and they met very few to none until Sevilla.
Let me know if you have any other questions and be sure to check out the forums on both.
Cheers,
Lee

LTfit thanks for the info. I don't mind the solitude and my Spanish is good enough I should be able to chat with the locals . . . though now I'm actually considering a start in Malaga instead of Granada. I haven't looked to deeply into this yet. Were there pilgrim accommodations on the Mozarabe or did you have to use hotels/hostels?

Thanks again. Buen Camino,
Deb

 

[LTfit]

No hotels and if I recall only one private hostel as there was no other option but that means that I stayed in polideportivos on at least 4 occasions (gymnastics mat in a dressing room). There are few true pilgrim albergues. Look at one of my previous threads, I believe that I posted details.

 

[wes]

Hola,

I walked the Camino Frances in the spring of 2011 in celebration of my 50th year. I am of the good fortune to be able to retire next year and plan to walk the Camino again in either Fall 2016 or Spring 2017. I have for a long time planned to walk the Via de la Plata, possibly from Cadiz, but am now feeling drawn to start out on the Camino Mozárabe in Granada and join the Via de la Plata. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts, perspectives, opinions on starting in Granadada vs Sevilla/Cadiz and vice versa.

Buen Camino All!

Hello,
There's a marvellous book about starting from Granada, written by Tony Kevin and titled "Walking the Camino". It's available through Amazon (and other outlets I'm sure) in both paperback and Kindle format. It's not so much a guide as the experiences of one pilgrim, written with insight, compassion, and an appreciation for everything that having the privilege of walking the Way gives us.
I started the VdlP from Seville, and enjoyed it immensely, noting that it's very different from the Frances. Tony Kevin makes the etapa starting from Granada sound more naturally/physically attractive than the equivalent from Seville, but perhaps that's simply the appeal of his writing.
I think anywhere is a good place from which to start a walk to Santiago!
Buen camino,
wes.

 

[george.g]

Hi izzybella9. I hope by now you have looked at Maggies great account of our walk along the Mozarabe from Malaga to Merida.
The route marking was very good throughout, and we found finding accomodation was not too much of a problem.
I personally found the first week pretty tough, lots of up and down, and keeping up with Maggie who is a very strong walker wasn't easy!
You need to do a fair bit of research for telephone no's etc on the amigos sites of Alicante, Granada and Cordoba, not to mention the mainstream sites. You can find maps on the "walking pilgrim" site, but most of all read Maggies blog!
Regards.
George

 

[izzybella9]

Hello,
There's a marvellous book about starting from Granada, written by Tony Kevin and titled "Walking the Camino". It's available through Amazon (and other outlets I'm sure) in both paperback and Kindle format. It's not so much a guide as the experiences of one pilgrim, written with insight, compassion, and an appreciation for everything that having the privilege of walking the Way gives us.
I started the VdlP from Seville, and enjoyed it immensely, noting that it's very different from the Frances. Tony Kevin makes the etapa starting from Granada sound more naturally/physically attractive than the equivalent from Seville, but perhaps that's simply the appeal of his writing.
I think anywhere is a good place from which to start a walk to Santiago!
Buen camino,
wes.

Thank you Wes!

 

[izzybella9]

Hi izzybella9. I hope by now you have looked at Maggies great account of our walk along the Mozarabe from Malaga to Merida.
The route marking was very good throughout, and we found finding accomodation was not too much of a problem.
I personally found the first week pretty tough, lots of up and down, and keeping up with Maggie who is a very strong walker wasn't easy!
You need to do a fair bit of research for telephone no's etc on the amigos sites of Alicante, Granada and Cordoba, not to mention the mainstream sites. You can find maps on the "walking pilgrim" site, but most of all read Maggies blog!
Regards.
George

Thank you George!