Planning
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There are endless sources for information about the Camino including YouTube, blogs, books, personal accounts and tour company sites – just to name a few!
These are our trip parameters:
– The Journey is the Destination. (edited from Ralph Waldo Emerson)
– Just the two of us! We have been to Europe before as part of group tours and that way of travel has its benefits… and downsides. We hope to make many friends along the way.
(Post-Camino update) – We did make friends along the way but everyone walks at their own pace. Friends come and go so just the “two” of us was great.
– Follow the Camino Francés route from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain
(Post-Camino update) – We really loved the Camino Francés route. If we had to do it over again this is what we would do – Yes start early in the season which means going through the valley NOT over the mountain. Day 1 go to from St Jean to Valcarlos and on day 2 take a taxi from Valcarlos to Roncesvalles (YES a TAXI). Under no condition should anyone walk the highway from Valcarlos to Roncecsvalles it was a extremely unsafe thing for us to do. St Jean is a good starting point and walking to Valcarlos gives you the bragging rights to say you crossed from France to Spain.
– Plan everything on our own, that is – no tour companies, our own research, our own scheduling, our own timelines.
(Post-Camino update) – Definitely plan on our own and NO tour company (we never used a tour company). Use booking.com as the primary for lodging – this was 100% successful.
– Walk to our destination each day and carry are own backpacks with the essentials of what we need (see post on essentials).
(Post-Camino update) – Big change of plans here in regards to carrying everything. For the backpack we carry we would change the plan to this – just put this stuff in the backpacks (water, snacks, rain gear, weather jackets) – about 12-15 pounds total. Take an additional travel soft travel bag and stuff all the stuff in it (1 bag) and then use this transport service (jacotrans) to take that bag each day from our starting location to the ending location. That’s correct – use a transport service. We would estimate that 75% of people do the Camino this way for about 7 euros a day. We starting doing this in Pamplona and it saved our Camino – they never failed.
– Prepare for all weather conditions and be happy with what we get.
(Post-Camino update) – I wish we would have trained in rain and snow (or just cold rain). It would have really helped mentally if we would have been prepared for adverse conditions.
– Know there will be all sorts of surprises and welcome them.
(Post-Camino update) – There are also hardships, injuries. The Camino isn’t so much as a physical challenge as it is a mental challenge. A very worthwhile challenge.
– Because of Covid and health concerns (our age!) we will opt in for a few accommodation upgrades.
(Post-Camino update) –We would always do private rooms again! Always... We needed the privacy. The private room allowed us to relax a bit more and get ready for the next day.
– Do not hurry. Plan where we will stay, what we want to look at, but allow for unexpected. Do all that planning and see how many days it will take (our case 49 days).
(Post-Camino update) We are really happy we took extra time. We didn’t really feel the Camino experience until about day 4 or 5.
– Schedule rest days (we are 66 years old we need rest days) including taking most of Easter week off. (Post-Camino update) – 5 days of walking was about right for a rest day but just know you have to pick a good city for a rest day (like one with restaurants – don’t pick Los Arcos for example). Too many rest days in a row can get old even in a large city (Leon, Burgos – 3 days each – too much). We stayed 4 days in Astorga (it was Easter weekend) but four days in Astorga was about 2 days too long but we wanted to stay for Easter Sunday there. One rest day (two nights) in a normal small city (i.e Ponferrada, Portomorin, etc.) was about all we could stand before it became boring and we wanted to leave.
– Document the journey (this blog) and hope others follow us (virtually).
(Post-Camino update) – Very important. Everything blurs together with a document blog. Many times we asked ourselves – where did we see that thing….where was that place where they had….
– If we don’t make it, we will come home and then we will start again someday where we left off.
(Post-Camino update) – I thought we were going to quit everyday for about the first week on the Camino. See the reasons in the summary blog post – but it was to Janice’s credit that we kept going not mine – she’s the pioneer.
Timeline
October –
– Training begins (have to exercise anyway).
– Buy a few books.
– Started looking at potential starting dates.
– Investigated costs (how to buy plane tickets without knowing return date – more on that).
(Post-Camino update) – Training was really necessary but should have trained differently. We should have tried to walk for a 5 hour stretch at least once a week to simulate a Camino day. The Camino is a physical challenge at first but turns into a mental challenge when we had to walk even though the weather was bad or we were tired. Elevation changes are significant on the Camino so hill practice +/- 900 feet in a day would have helped prepare us.
November –
– Get health issues under control. Get our Covid booster, schedule wellness exams.
– Extended our daily walking (3 to 4 miles a day). Start hikes with elevation(900 feet).
– Started buying trip items. This is a misleading planning item since just about everything we bought for the Camino we will use again. That said, we did buy a lot of stuff so we don’t want to mislead others that this is insignificant. (Thanks REI and Amazon!). We looked for deals, we went to the North Face outlet store (Lincoln City, Oregon) and got a super deal on jackets. REI kept sending discount cards so we used those.
– Start Spanish lessons!
December –
– Started extending the walks (try to walk at least 8 miles at a time once a week or more). San Diego Safari Park was a great place for this since each loop is apx. 2.7 miles with an elevation gain for each loop more than 300 feet. We are now tracking how fast we can walk comfortably without being exhausted so that we can estimate what we can do in Spain.
– Set the starting date for the Camino.
– In Spain we plan to walk no more than 11 or 12 miles per day. Some days are less than 5 miles with one or two days at 12. Our average is about 11 miles/day.
– End of December – Started booking where we will stay. I know – this is not the way many people do this. For all of our careers though we have been project managers and this is the one item we just had to try and plan for certain (where we would sleep).
– Booking where to sleep – I am not kidding this is a lot of work. Take the starting point Saint Jean Pied de Port and then start looking down the Camino. Figure out where a good stopping point for the day might be by using all sorts of criteria like how far did we walk yesterday, what type of places are there to sleep, what must we see along the way, try not to walk on a Sunday, do we need a rest day, look at Google street view of these places, read every review we can trust about these places, what did other pilgrims do, see where a good Easter week rest week will be etc. etc. Then… start booking each day (yes commit with credit card), put each day into Google Calendar as you go and when you get to Santiago de Compostela see what day it is! (49 days). Rest a few days, get to Barcelona and do tourist stuff there for a couple of days and then come home. OK that planning (just that planning) took 4 to 5 six hour days. It was fun though! And then over the course of the next few days changed some things, called Spain and tried to confirm places we couldn’t do through booking.com. As it stands now we are kind of sure we know where we will sleep – maybe not though.
– Now we need to commit – Bought the plane tickets. We opted for refundable tickets just because Covid still makes this trip uncertain.
– Bought the train tickets from Paris to St. Jean Pied de Port – didn’t work because CC wouldn’t go through, called the bank, tried again, didn’t work! Finally worked after three bank calls.
January –
– Start making this blog.
– Met with the travel doctor at UCSD (got more vaccines – Hepatitis A, tDap, Shingles, pneumonia, flu). Arms are sore
– Got more serious about the Spanish lessons (not going well).
– Talked to people that know Spain and got their insight.
– More research and what to see along the way – Janice built an extensive google doc – too much to see we need more time!
– Started training by walking with the backpacks on.
February –
– Get international health insurance coverage.
– Darn! Change the plane tickets and leave a day earlier and stay a night in Paris so we don’t risk missing the train the next day to St. Jean Pied de Port. Thanks Covid. Oh well – a night in Paris, “Could be worse, could be raining” – look it up. See my “T minus 4 days” post where I explain the travel change.
– As of this writing our USA covid barcodes are not accepted in the EU as a “vaccine pass“. So when we land in Paris we have to go to the airport pharmacy where they look at our USA/CDC covid card/barcode and then the pharmacy generates the EU covid barcode which we scan and put into French health app (pharmacy gets $36 Euros each). Without the EU vaccine pass we risk being denied boarding on the train and/or being fined 135 euro’s each. This was the primary reason we landed in Paris a day earlier than planned so we could get all these details done.
March –
– Move the house sitter into her room.
(Post-Camino update) – Starting in mid-March was a risk but we are happy it all worked out. The “season” starts around Easter and we were a month ahead of that. We chose to start early because for the past two years, due to covid, the Camino was really closed up. We knew that 2022 all the pilgrims would be ready to make this their year so we wanted to start early and get a ahead of the crowd. That said, many places in the small villages were still closed. Churches were mostly shut and many times we were the only people staying in a house with the private room – the owner handed us the front door key and said lock up when you leave in the morning. Also weather in mid-March can really be tricky with snow. Many days we started walking with the temps around 25 -30 degrees Fahrenheit warming to the low 50’s. Luckily we were only snowed on twice and we managed to be in a good location when those snow days happened. Do your research on your timeline but I can tell you snow and rain make the day difficult if you have fixed plans for a destination and you must walk (you might even have to consider a taxi for a really bad weather day). We spoke with others and summer can be hot so if you can’t do the spring I would suggest early Fall but pick a cooler time of year (maybe not winter!)