swedish couple walking in july!

[frida]

HI everyone!

Im a 24 year old girl, from sweden, and im gonna walk the camino with my 29 years old partner. two days after christmas i suddenly felt a urge to do the walk, and i told my boyfriend what i wanted to do, and he wanted to go with me

So, were not used to plan things ahead, mostly we dont have any plans for the summer until the summer is here, and we had a couple of hillarius vacations. Like paddling kanoo whit no more planning than looking up where the best weather in sweden is that week, then of in the car, rent a kanoo and go (first time sitting in a kanoo...)'

so, one of the things we have to learn is to plan things ahead. I got a backpack from my parents. my partner turned in the vacation request yesterday. looking for shoes...

I've read alot here on the forum and on many other pages. I feel that i know what we should bring. Im so exited!
When i read on the forum i get the feeling that we are quite young, most people seems to be 40+, 50+, or even 70+! Yes, i wrote "24 year old girl", cus i really dont feel like the adult that many think i am. maybe i feel more grown up after the walk. or, atleast, i wont be so afraid of growing up afterwards.

(im sorry for the crappy english! hope you understand what im trying to say.)

Hoping to find new friends of all ages!

 

[frida]

forgot to mention:
we're going the camino frances. We will be traveling by train from stockholm july 19th, when we arrive we start walking. we're gonna buy a interrail-ticket valid for 10 days. does anyone know, approximatley, how long it gonna take travel by train from stockholm to st jean pdp?

does anyone have any advise to a couple who is used to trekking in the winter by skies? im a bit afraid of the heat. we are planning to walk between 8-12, take a rest and start walk again at 15 o'clock 'till we find a nice place to stay for the night.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Good luck with the 8 a.m. start! Most albergues want you to leave by 8, so you will be among the last at that hour. If you can sleep through the pilgrim noise of the 5 a.m. starters, you might succeed. The midday is hot, so taking a break is a good idea. However, when you walk past about 4 p.m., beds begin to fill, and you may spend many evening hours trying to find a place to sleep. Also, if you arrive late, it restricts your time for showering, washing clothes, and cooking dinner, if you do those.

Have fun! You will find that the camino will control you more than you will control the camino. Stay relaxed and adjust your plans as necessary.

 

[frida]

Thanx for the advice! In my everyday life i go upp at 4.45 most of the times, and I start the day with a 5 km walk to the train-station. It sounds horrible for the most of my friends, but i love those early walks in the dark (its pitch-black here in the winter). what we planned was start walking at 8, so we get up at 7... if we can sleep 8) Not so important when we start to walk really. I just want to sleep till i feel rested... when does the sun rise in spain in the summer?

after the walk we're going to portugal to visit a festival, so we have to bring a tent to sleep in at the festival, so we have that as a possibility to sleep in on the camino if theres no beds when we want one

and we got time for our impulsive ideas. we might arrive in sjpdp at june 21st (or earlier, we might be able to leave sthlm at the 17th) and the festival starts 28/7... so we got about 35-36 days to walk. And we are booth in good shape.

I love cooking. Is it common that you can do that in the albergues, and is it okay to share the food whit others? i love big dinners with friends, especially new found ones about when does the food-markets close?

 

[Deleted member 3000]

when does the food-markets close?

They generally are closed from noon until 3 p.m., then open until about 7 p.m. Sundays they may be closed, but many are now open because of the number of pilgrims. It is profitable to be open on Sunday, and small merchants know this. You can find others to join in communal meals; just don't get "stuck with the bill." Be open about others sharing the cost or contributing some food from their backpack. Pilgrims are generous, but you will encounter those who take advantage of the generosity. It is not your role to feed others, or even be their cook. I walked with one American who was a cook. He loved doing the cooking, but expected others to pay for the food and do the cleanup. He would tell others what to buy at the market. It seemed a fair division of the labor and cost to me!!

 

[Tia Valeria]

Hola and welcome.
We have found that much of Spain eats lunch from 13.00 until 15.00, then closes down for meals until about 21.00. Fine if you are cooking for yourself. If you want snacks they are readily available. We found it easiest to walk, have a coffee, walk, have a snack (usually carried with us whether bought or made), walk again and then stop at around 14.00 - find a bed and have lunch, or lunch and find bed. Then we washed our things and had a siesta before went to look around. Supper and then to bed ready to start again next day.
Our usual daily pattern would have been difficult and we adapted very easily to the Spanish hours. We have been on parts of the Norte, Primitivo and Inglés but expect it is the similar where-ever you are.
Falcon has already posted about shop times etc...
Buen Camino

 

[D.Matthew]

I'll be starting the camino at the exact same time. I'm your partners age. My trip is more to help me unwind and clear my mind as I'll be done with grad school in June. I hope to see you on the trail.

Best, Drew

 

[frida]

Oh, that's nice! Then we will surely meet you!
I can´t wait for the summer to come. Right now I'm in north of sweden, and here is cold! today it was -37 degrees C :shock: And I can't do my daily walks.. (I can hardly be outside for more than 30 minutes)

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, frida,
Sounds like you're having a great time preparing (mentally and physically) for your camino. You've gotten good advice here, but I thought I'd add a couple of things.

First of all, if it's really hot, 3 pm is not going to be a good time to start walking. It will be the blazing heat of midday. If it's really hot, and you want to avoid as much heat as possible, leaving early and trying to arrive before 2 pm is probably your best bet. I once met some peregrinos who carried hammocks and stopped walking around 2, then ate a long lunch, took a long siesta on their hammocks (which they tied to trees), and then started walking again around 6 or 7 when things had started to cool off.

It's true that many stores in Spain close from 2-4 or 2-5, but even in the smaller cities, if there's a chain grocery store, you may find that it doesn't close at all during the lunch hour. But that's not something you can always predict.

Buen camino, Laurie

 

[frida]

Thank you for the advice Laurie! I like the idea of taking hammocks with us, we were already planning to by two in Santiago to have on the festival afterwards. Never thought about that we could use them on the camino also. But that would be an item we buy on the camino, not bringing from home...

I was wondering if anyone knows the best way to get from Santiago to Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal, in the end of July?

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, frida,
Well you certainly picked an out-of-the-way part of Portugal to go to! I have traveled around Portugal a lot and have never been to Idanha a Nova. I have used the Portuguese bus system web site a fair amount, so I tried to find out what buses went to Idanha a Nova. It looks like there are two buses a day from Castelo Branco to Idanha a Nova. Leave Castelo Branco at 12:25 or 17:15 (this last bus only runs on Monday through Friday).

But of course that leaves the larger question of how to get to Castelo Branco! And it looks like there are a lot of buses that go from Porto to Castelo Branco, and I have pasted in some of them here. Based on the times, you would have to take a bus from Porto to get you to Castelo Branco for the 17:15 bus, which means taking one of the first three buses listed below (first is departure time, second arrival time, then price is 18.30). And of course getting to Porto from Santiago by bus is also a pretty easy thing to do. I don't know if you can buy your entire ticket through to Idanha a Nova in Santiago, or if you'd have to do that in Porto. But Porto is a LOVELY city, so if you can, I'd suggest you spend some time there.

Just one last piece of infor -- you should check out the Rede Expressos web page ( http://www.rede-expressos.pt/default.aspx) to get more specific information. Be careful when searching for buses to Castelo Branco, because there is another one up in the Douro area and that one is indicated Castelo Branco (MOGAD). Goof luck with your planning! Buen camino, Laurie

08:30 13:10 18.30 Diariamente (every day)
10:00 14:42 18.30 Excepto Sábados, Domingos e Feriados. Citi Express
10:45 16:10 18.30 13:30 - COIMBRA (this means that you change buses in Coimbra)
14:00 18:36 18.30 Excepto Sábados e Domingos. Citi Express
14:30 18:45 18.30 16:30 - COIMBRA
16:15 21:05 18.30
17:00 20:30 18.30 18:30 - COIMBRA
18:15 22:55 18.30 Diariamente Citi Express
19:00 23:45 18.30 21:30 - COIMBRA

 

[frida]

Wow, this forum really is a goldmine! Thank you very much for the bus-info!

Now we bought our flight-tickets!!! The cheapest way to get to SJPdP became ryan air. We arrive in Biarritz on the 21st of june, at 10.40, so we plan to start walk a bit the first day. Because of the tent we'll bring, we have the option to walk as far as we want

Boots were bought this weekend. It became Meindl boots, for booth if us. Really comfortable! And my partner got a Osprey backpack, 38 l. I've already have a Everest backpack. its a bit too big (41 l), but thats the one I've got 8)



And we got a very good friend that will take care of our two lovley cats for the two months we will be away. Not an easy task! So thankful to our friend that he won't travel or anything for the whole summer One big thing less to worry about!

We're so exited!!

 

[Pieces]

one of they great secrets of life that "they" don't tell you is thay you likely will never really feel adult, it is all just a great big scam...

P - 40+