BillyBoy
New Member
I thought some visitors who are interested in starting from Barcelona might be interested in this site,
http://www.camisantjaume.com/
which is an association for the promotion of the Catalan leg of the Way of St. James. One can start in Barcelona itself, but more appropriate would be to start at Montserrat, the great mountain-monastery-shrine to Our Lady a short train ride outside the city, which has been a centre of pilgrimage for the Catalan-speaking world for over 1000 years. From there you have a couple of days' journey to Logronyo, where you pick up the Camino Frances through Aragon.
Note that the site is, at present, only available in (mainly) Catalan, French, and Castilian. Anyone with a working knowledge of at least one Romance language should be able to decipher most written Catalan. There is a very good downloadable PDF file naming all of the towns you pass through, the km between them, and indicating where there are refugios or interesting sites. A more thorough book on the Cami Catala published by the Association can be purchased at certain bookstores in Barcelona. The site can also get you your credencial.
Given how popular Barcelona is these days and how easy it is to get cheap flights there, it may be a good place to begin your camino.
http://www.camisantjaume.com/
which is an association for the promotion of the Catalan leg of the Way of St. James. One can start in Barcelona itself, but more appropriate would be to start at Montserrat, the great mountain-monastery-shrine to Our Lady a short train ride outside the city, which has been a centre of pilgrimage for the Catalan-speaking world for over 1000 years. From there you have a couple of days' journey to Logronyo, where you pick up the Camino Frances through Aragon.
Note that the site is, at present, only available in (mainly) Catalan, French, and Castilian. Anyone with a working knowledge of at least one Romance language should be able to decipher most written Catalan. There is a very good downloadable PDF file naming all of the towns you pass through, the km between them, and indicating where there are refugios or interesting sites. A more thorough book on the Cami Catala published by the Association can be purchased at certain bookstores in Barcelona. The site can also get you your credencial.
Given how popular Barcelona is these days and how easy it is to get cheap flights there, it may be a good place to begin your camino.