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Random Thoughts on Refugios, etc.:

On Refugios - a good experience, but unnerving at first.  At Roncesvalles, a large mass of people are led into rooms with piles of blue mattresses. This is the first refugio for most people in the group.  The idea is that you grab one for yourself and put it down on the floor, anywhere you can find a space, as soon as you can.  We were being helpful, passing mattresses to other people, and ended up with no place to put our own mattresses.  Some tolerant and helpful staff eventually found us a spot. (Oct 2003 - someone just returned from Camino told me Roncesvalles now has all bunk beds). Note: as soon as you arrive in Roncesvalles, make a dinner reservation in one of the two restaurants there. They have limited capacity and fill up. 2007 - refugio now in different building with assigned beds.
 

 In refugios with multiple rooms, sometimes they keep a few rooms locked, and open them late, for latecomers.  If all beds and mattresses are taken, many refugios will let you sleep on the floor.   A backpack pad is useful for that. On our trip, which was Sept - Oct 2001 (yes, during 9-11, but that's another story), we would usually get in around four pm, and never had to sleep on the floor. In several cases, the refugio was full and there was an overflow facility available.

The refugios are unisex, and in some cases you will find yourself in a different room than a traveling companion. Many people snore - earplugs help.  Also, many people like to start very early so they get to the next refugio early.  Expect to hear a lot of noise from people getting up starting around 4:30. (If you do get up this early, you will miss seeing the beauty of much of the trail, and stand a good chance of missing a yellow marker and getting lost).  The trail is well marked in the country, but you need to pay attention.  Marks consists of splashes of yellow paint on rocks, building corners, etc.  There are widely spaced official markers.

 There was hot water in all but one refugio, and all bathrooms had toilet paper. One small refugio had no bathroom - just a field (we did carry toilet paper).  There are public fountains in almost all of even the small towns, and the water is perfectly safe to drink.  Spain is a first world nation. Your CFSJ little yellow guidebook will tell where to find the fountains.

Where to Start:

Even if you don't have enough time to walk the entire Spanish path, I recommend starting at St. Jean Pied de Port or Roncesvalles, and walking to the farthest large town that fits your schedule (Pamplona, Logrono, Burgos, Leon, Astorga). The first part is too beautiful to bypass. Come back another time to continue. If the weather is likely to be bad, start from  Roncesvalles. Otherwise, take the route Napoleon over the Pyrenees from St. Jean, and book a reservation at the Orisson gite, 06-81-49-79-56, about 6 miles out of St. Jean, and half of the total vertical gain in elevation. The next day will be an easy walk to Roncesvalles. You should call a couple of days in advance to be sure of a place at Orisson www.refuge-orisson.com . You can email Orisson at refuge dot orisson at wanadoo dot fr. Note: 5 April 2007, a pilgrim died from hypothermia on the route from St. Jean to Roncesvalles. He was travelling with two others, but in the intense fog they became separated, and he went the wrong way - was found lying down in waist deep snow, alive, but died as he reached the hospital in Pamplona. Rescue was hampered by fog and snow. Every few years pilgrims die on this route due to cold and exposure, some in March or April.

Pilgrim Passport or Credential:

You need this document to use the refugios.  You can get the church issued document in Roncesvalles, the pilgrim office in St. Jean, or the cathedral office in the large cities. You do not have to be Catholic. You will have to designate the purpose of your pilgrimage as religious, spiritual or cultural. If you indicate cultural, you will get a different completion document in Santiago. The guidebooks have detailed info on where to obtain a credential. Each night get it stamped where you stay. At the moment various organizations issue credentials, but starting in 2009 you will have to use the official church issued credential for admission to church sponsored refugios and to obtain the compestela.   In Santiago, show it to the pilgrim office by the cathedral and if you have satisfied the requirements for the pilgrimage, they will issue you the Latin certificate of completion or compestela. The minimum distance to qualify is walking the last 100 km to Santiago. If you start your pilgrimage near the minimum distance, you need to get two stamps per day to qualify.

Non church issued credentials can be obtained from various pilgrim societies such as American Pilgrims. Go to www.americanpilgrims.com  - scroll down the home page for the link, and request 6 weeks in advance.

Miles/km per day:

We averaged about 12.5 miles per day (20.8km) just counting our walking days from Roncesvalles to Santiago. Had a layover day in Burgos and Leon. We were among the slower pilgrims. Others were striving for something like 30km per day.  There are refugios or other places to stay every 15 to 20 kilometers, so you can go at a slower pace, and I recommend it.  There is much to enjoy if you aren't focused on getting to the next refugio.  If we do it again, we would have a layover day in each cathedral city.  The big problem with that is the people you have been seeing continue on.

Our spreadsheet of Camino Francés route with towns, distances, elevations:

Don't use as your only guide, as I may have typos, varied the route a little, etc. When you click on this, go to the bottom and click on edit to get a google spreadsheet view you can save as an xls file. http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pPFto0EzOaDttuP4KzHx6YQ

Elevation Profile of entire Camino, distances, places to stay:

http://www.godesalco.com/iphp/perfil.php This link is so useful I listed it separately. You can select any two points between Roncesvalles and Santiago and it will generate a profile that you can print. In addition the initial display shows cumulative distances so you can calculate distances between any two points, and the next display shows distances between each place with accommodations. This information can be downloaded as a spreadsheet. Once you have the spreadsheet, you can add columns converting kilometers to miles.

Weather:

Expect some rain, particularly in April-May and mid Sept - Oct. For example, Pamplona, from the site below, averages 10 days of rain in April. If crossing the Pyrenees in early or late season, talk to the pilgrim office in St. Jean re whether taking the high route or the road route is appropriate. To see historical weather by month, click on this site: http://www.peterrobins.co.uk/camino/weather.html

Money:

ATMs in all the larger towns - i.e. every 3 days or so. We used one of those debit cards that can also be used as a VISA card. You will have a numeric keypad to enter the pin number, so you need a numeric pin number or know how to enter your alpha pin on a numeric pad.

Internet Access:

Many refugios now have internet. However there are a lot of pilgrims contending for use, and they are usually Windows 98, and the usb ports and/or cd drives may not be available. There are also internet cafes in the larger towns, as well as in the library. Uploading photos can be a problem: See http://la-via-lattea.blogspot.com/2006/10/bloggers-guide-to-camino.html for some of the problems.

Health Care:

During 2004 Holy Year you could get a health card that provided free pilgrim health care on the Camino. That was only for holy year. The Confraternity of St. James guide reports that Cruz Roja (Red Cross) centers provide free emergency care for pilgrims. Refugio hosts and other pilgrims will give you help and advice on caring for blisters and other typical walker's problems. Check to see if your current health coverage needs anything special to cover major medical emergencies while traveling in Spain.

Re: Language:

We met very few English speakers the whole trip, no Americans till Santiago. Didn't hear English for 3 or 4 days, then met a woman from England, saw her a couple of days. Some Germans spoke English, crossed paths for several days with a woman from Santiago who spoke excellent English. A couple walking from Holland spoke English.  We have zero French or German. Our Spanish is ok for travel but not for extended conversation, so for example, we traveled quite a few days with a woman from Brazil who spoke no English, and marginal Spanish.  We became good friends, but had to rely on translators every few days.  We heard more German and French than Spanish for the first two weeks.  Once into Galicia, there were a lot more Spanish pilgrims. We started out with one of those $30 translators but abandoned it at the 2nd refugio - to slow - our fractured Spanish worked fine.

Where to stay and what it costs:

If I knew you personally, I would insist that you get the Confraternity of Saint James publication above, as your bible of food and shelter location and cost. You can get this info from the web with a lot of work.

 If you are looking for a little broader range of accommodations, we have found that the James Brierley guide lists more of the little hotels.

Accommodations change frequently. To cross check, I google, using the hotel names that I find in the confraternity guide or Brierley guide, as well as the city. For example:
Itzalpea, Ramuntcho Hotel des Remparts st Jean Pied de Port
If just google for hotel cityname I get all these commercial site hits that are usually worthless.

One reference on where to stay I saw recently was published in PDF form on the ultreya forum. I tracked down the original site:  http://www.caminosantiago.org/cpperegrino/cpalbergues/albergues.html . It is a list by location of refugios and price. It is in Spanish, but after the introduction, but the list of refugios is clear even with minimal or no Spanish. If you want to be entertained, and get a rough idea of the English translation of the introduction, go to google and use this exact search term "refugios y albergues" cpperegrino. It will give you an exact hit on the page that contains the list.  Then click the google phrase that says [translate this page].  You will get a computer translation from Spanish to English.

My 2006 estimate of average cost per day - one person, just staying in refugios, buying lunch materials and buying supper, about 30€. This would be 12 for refugio & breakfast, 5 for lunch material, 10 for supper, 3 for etc. I think absolute minimum would be 20€. I've seen 10 quoted, but that would mean not contributing enough to the refugios to cover their cost. A small hostal (small hotel) room for two will be about 50€.

A 2005 list of refugios, price, distance apart: http://gocamino.oakapple.net/library/albergue.pdf

Short Video on GR65 and Camino de Santiago Scenes:

If you have high speed internet, these are some of our images from walking the GR65 in France and the Camino de Santiago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoMjJZKEfjg

Bedbugs

There has been a problem in 2005 and 2006 with some of the refugios having bedbugs in late season. I don't have any tested advice on this. During our Sept-Oct 2006 trip we stayed in hostals and didn't have any problems,  but hostals are small hotels with fresh sheets when you check in. We also talked to some pilgrims in Astorga about it, and they had had one bite between the two of them. You can get a treated bag liner or sleep sack. If I were going to use the refugios, I would consider carrying a single fitted sheet that I had treated ahead of time with Sawyer Permethrin Pump Spray or the equivalent and cover the mattress with the sheet.

Cell Phones

From Richard on Santiagobis: If you want to buy a phone that will work in Europe and the US, you can find a used one on ebay. Search ebay for GSM Phone Quad Band Unlocked - be sure the charger works for both 110 and 220 - read the fine print or get email from seller to verify. Charge it and leave it on a day or so to test it. Once you get to Europe, buy a SIM card to get a local number and some minutes. You can add minutes later.

Cell Phone Rental with pickup and delivery at Madrid Airport:
This service was recommended by Rebekah on the GoCamino forum. http://www.onspanishtime.com/web/

Getting There and other transportation comments

We flew to Madrid, train to Pamplona, bus to Roncesvalles. Others taxi from Pamplona to St. Jean. The Confraternity of St. James website gives this number for a taxi: Francisco Igoa Martinez (+ 34 649 725951) provides an 8-seater taxi service from Pamplona to Roncesvalles. One site says taxi rates to Roncesvalles are 42 euros and St. Jean are 68 euros.

The Pamplona train station is in the Plaza de la Estación (District of San Jorge) Northwest of the city center across the river. From there you can take the Number 9 bus to the city center. The bus station is in the city center. The bus station is at  Conde Oliveto 2.

Grant Spangler's page on getting to  Pamplona & Roncesvalles has more taxi numbers:: http://groups.msn.com/ElCaminoSantiago/GettingToRoncesvalles.msnw

For checking or booking bus service schedules and rates all over Spain, go to the ALSA bus line site  www.alsa.es  (an English button is on home page).

If you are in the Barcelona area you can get to Pamplona by bus or train from Sants station near the airport (Sants Estació) . The bus service is not ALSA, but is: http://www.vibasa.es/ . You can also fly via SpanAir or Iberia https://www.spanair.com/web/en-gb/Search/Post.aspx http://www.iberia.com/OneToOne/v3/bookingForm.do . Costs on the order of 60 Euros.
 

From Judith on the www.caminosantiago.com pilgrim forum as of Feb 2005:

"Bus service from Pamplona to Roncesvalles (Montañesa from Pamplona Bus Station) ... Monday to Friday leaves at 18.00: Saturday leaves at 9:30 and has the day off on Sunday. Costs €3.91 payable on the bus to the driver.

Taxis Pamplona to Roncesvalles, Monday to Friday (daytime .. until 22.00) costs €42. The charges for Saturday/Sunday and National Holidays (daytime) is €53.

Pamplona to SJPP, Monday to Friday (daytime) will cost €68. Saturday/Sunday and National Holiday (daytime) the charge is €85.

There is no point in going up late as the refugios close at 22.30.

Backpack45 comment - Fares should be accurate thru 2006 then will probably change by a few euros.

From a Santiagobis posting:

From London,  fly to Bilbao. The  bus ride from Bilbao is 4 hours (14E) to Bayonne, walk across the Bayonne bridge to train station.  

Train ride is 1 hour to SJPP  4 times a day in summer.  Plenty of rooms for rent in SJPP. Buy food for your day-hike over the mountain.

 

If you start from St. Jean you don't have to go all the way to Roncesvalles in one day. There is a refugio in Huntto and a few miles after that is a new refugio Auberge
dÓrisson still in France so they are called auberges. If you want to stay there reserve in advance:tel: 06 81 49 79 56  or email:jean-jacques.etchandy@wanadoo.fr .

From Jason's June 2004 Ultreya posting:

From Biarritz
Bus. ? departs from outside the airport terminal to Bayonne SNCF station. Direct bus from Bayonne to St Jean three times a day. Check link below for schedule..

From Bilbao
Bus. Bizkaibus A-3247 departs from outside the airport terminal to Plaza Moyua (central Bilbao) every 30 mins from 6.00am (6.30 am weekends) to 11.00pm; journey time 40-45 mins; cost 1.00 EUR.

Taxi. Depart from outside the terminal; journey time 20-30 mins; cost 16-20 EUR.

From Bilbao regular coach service to Hendaye, tickets and bus stop at Termibus by the Hospital Civil de Basuto, journey to Hendaye takes 1 hour 50 minutes cost ?7. From Hendaye take train via Bayonne to St Jean, journey time three and a half hours. (backpack45 note: Bayonne to St. Jean now by bus - see link below for times)

From Pau

From Pau you can take a taxi to St. Jean for about 200 euros - a 1 1/2 hour drive, if you reserve in advance. I found this Pau taxi site by googling so can't verify anything about it:
http://diy-hols.com/Pau_airport_transfers/pau_airport_taxi.htm

From Ron's Feb 05 www.caminosantiago.com pilgrim forum posting

Train from Madrid to St. Jean: The train to Irun leaves from Chamartin station in Madrid not Atocha. Don't get off the train in Irun, however. Stay on for another ten minutes until it crosses the border into France at Hendaye. There, you'll need to get another train to Bayonne France (about 35 minutes) where there is a shuttle bus to St Jean Pied de Port. (backpack45 note: Bayonne to St. Jean now by bus - see link below for times).

I checked the RENFE website for Madrid to Hendaya (that's how they spell it in Spain). Takes 7 to 8 hours to Hendaye, about 35 euros, maybe another 4 hours to St. Jean ignoring time between connections, so a long day.

Getting to Paris from Santiago from Rebekah's 07 Santiagobis posting:

Take the bus to Burgos, and from there catch the Madrid-Paris HotelTrain.

Bayonne to St. Jean

This is now a bus shuttle thru SNCF that leaves three times a day - Enter Bayonne and Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and appropriate date in the following link:
 http://www.ter-sncf.com/english/index.asp?regID=11  The english link sometimes doesn't work. If so, try the french link:
http://www.ter-sncf.com/poitou_charentes/index.asp

Starting from Astorga or Leon:

Abbreviated from Michael's Jan 06 Santiagobis posting

You can fly into Valladolid ( Ryanair flight) and take the bus to Leon and then onto  Astorga. Valladolid transportation schedules: (paste link into Google and translate if your Spanish is not sufficient)
 http://www.aytovalladolid.net/modules.php?name=Transporte&file=Bus

 This has 2 buses direct from Vallodolid every day to Astorga morning and evening.
 There is a more regular bus to Leon i.e nearly every hour
Astorga transportation:
 http://www.astorga.com/transportes%20publicos%20en%20astorga.htm

 You can get a bus in from Vallodolid airport to the Bus station which is 10 km away.

 Alternatively there is a bus directly from Madrid to Astorga.

Airline Schedule for Spain:

Iberia airline schedule

Interactive Madrid Metro Map: http://www.metromadrid.es/redmetro/visor/plano.asp

The airport is on the pink line towards the right. Move the mouse and the names will become large enough to read. The Atocha train station is on the blue line a little down to the right from the center.

Camino Statistics on Travelers

Look at the Archdiocese of Santiago de Compostella for camino statistics by month, year, age thru 2003. In brief and rounded for 2003: June 8800 - July 16000 - Aug 22000 - Sept 10000 - Oct 4800. Ages 16-20 9300, 21-30 18000, 31-40 14000, 41-50 12000,  51-60 11000, 61-70 6000.  I think age distribution is misleading in that many young people join the Camino in Galicia.  The statistics for Roncesvalles to Leon would show an older set of pilgrims. Trends of annual totals: 1998: 30000, 1999: 155000, 2000: 55000, 2001: 61000, 2003: 75000. Sex 60% men, 40% women. Reason for pilgrimage: in 2005, 53% religious, in earlier years about two thirds religious.

Translation Hints:

A number of good European sites are not available in English. I have the Google Toolbar. One of its optional buttons is Translate. With that, when I am on a foreign language site, I click Translate this Web Page, and I can navigate thru the site successfully.

Other Interactive Sources of Information: Forums and Listservs:

I've found four forums on the web and a listserv (email oriented).
http://groups.msn.com/CaminoSantiago  - 85 members but heavily infiltrated by porn spammers - so I have dropped from the group
Santiagobis yahoo group - 600 members - good information - about 5 to 10 messages per day.
saintjames yahoo group - 121 members - similar to santiagobis and ultreya.
ultreya yahoo group is forum for www.ultreya.net/ - 138 members
GoCamino listserv - a long time group, just moved to new host, see below.

www.ultreya.net is a yahoo group and is really clogged with advertising if you are trying to follow a thread thru several posts.  It does have search and archives.

Santiagobis is the most active at this time, and you can count on a good response to a query in 24 hours.

The gocamino forum is provided by the American Pilgrims on the Camino. To join the forum, see http://gocamino.oakapple.net - more on the American Pilgrims org down the page.

http://www.caminosantiago.com/way_of_saint_james/pilgrims_forum.htm  is a commercial site based in Spain that has an English version. It's pilgrim's forum is active with good answers.

http://groups.msn.com/ElCaminoSantiago by Grant Spangler has a wealth of Camino information - maps, routes, train and bus schedules.

http://www.infocamino.com/ interesting new site - at the moment only in Spanish.

Bicycle Links

An excellent Camino Bicycle forum: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Santiago_Bicicleta/

This site has practical info on bicycling the Camino - gear, etc.: http://homepage.mac.com/verbier7/04bicycle/index.htm

This site in Santiago rents bicycles and will deliver them to your start point, and you ride back to Santiago to return them. They also rent bicycle gear. Roughly 320 euros for 2 bikes, 12 days. All this info per email from Steve. We haven't bicycled ourselves. http://tournride.com/portal/index.php?&idioma=2

You have to dig thru this site, but you can uncover lots of good bicycle related info: http://www.interam.com/camino/indexeng.htm

Easy to read for a quick overview of bicycling the Camino and general Camino info: http://www.goxploring.com/camino/

A useful bicycle site, but last ridden in 2002 so may not be current: mayq.com Camino Info

Camino Related Blogs of Interest:

These are all blogs I try to follow.

http://moratinoslife.blogspot.com - Rebecca's saga as she and her husband move to Moratinos, a Camino stop on the meseta, and restore an old house. I recommend starting from day 1.

http://verylongwalks.blogspot.com/ - A couple walking from London to Santiago. As I write, they are in northern France.

http://www.vfpilgrims.blogspot.com/ - Sil's blog - a walking pilgrim - has walked the Camino, walked to Rome and walked other pilgrimage routes.. Also contributed the Via Francigena info I have below.

American Friends of the Camino

This active organization of mostly U.S. pilgrims sponsors an annual meeting, has an informative website:  http://www.americanpilgrims.com  and supports the gocamino forum.  To join gocamino, see http://gocamino.oakapple.net Note: This is a replacement for the original gocamino run for years by Linda Davidson. The new gocamino has the archives of the original listserv. 

The 2008 Annual Pilgrims Gathering - March in Santa Barbara

These annual gatherings are during college spring break. There is also an associated hospitalero training session. For more information, keep checking www.americanpilgrims.com

Sound Links:

The Spanish sound site: http://www.escoitar.org/ has many sounds, one of the comments posted on the site contains the sounds of the Cathedral bells, with the sound of water falling in the praza de platerías xunto a fonte dos cabalos. To get there: Click and you get a google map. Below the map are three boxes. Put A Corona in the Province box, then Santiago in the Comarca box. Put berenguela in the 3rd box and hit the pesquisar button. That brings you to a bunch of sound comments. You want the one that says Miguelangel says on Nov 21, 2007 @ 08:01 AM: Right now it is the 3rd comment. Click the play button. Thanks to GoCamino's Rosina for the heads up about this site.

Video Links:

You can google for camino de santiago under the videos tab. Also YouTube has some, including ours. YouTube video quality is terrible, but we put together a 3 minute video that gives you a flavor of the Camino and GR65. For a high quality presentation, come to our show when it is in your area. For the YouTube video, click below:

Other Links:

I've listed this link earlier, but am repeating it because it is very useful:
http://www.godesalco.com/iphp/perfil.php You can select any two points between Roncesvalles and Santiago and it will generate a profile that you can print. In addition the initial display shows cumulative distances so you can calculate distances between any two points, and the next display shows distances between each place with accommodations. This information can be downloaded as a spreadsheet. Once you have the spreadsheet, you can add columns converting kilometers to miles.

Confraternity of St. James - a good planning resource and the source of must have Camino guide as well as guides to some of the other routes.

www.pilipalapress.com publishes a walkers guide to the Camino and also one for Portugal. The Camino guide is excellent and listed above  - haven't seen the Portugal guide.  Their website has a number of Camino links, a series of photos on the Camino, and sample pages from their book.

www.pigrimsprocess.com publishes several Camino books, all by Eyln Aviva - one a story of her Camino journey, and a couple of novels in the setting of the Camino.  I'll put more info in the books section once I get a chance to read them..

http://www.pilgrimage-to-santiago.com/ This is a new site in English dedicated to providing information on the city of Santiago de Compostela - it's been up since about May 1st, 2004 and so far looks good.(in 2004 was called santiago-today).

http://www.peterrobins.co.uk/camino/ - a good site with a lot of info on the various routes, plus an excellent weather page mentioned above.

http://www.caminolinks.co.uk/ This UK site is has a well organized set of camino links including links to private journals, to Camino del Norte and Via de la Plata, which I do not cover.

http://www.caminodesantiago.me.uk/ Leslie's UK site has a wealth of information, including articles by other pilgrims, and a nice set of photos.

http://www.ourcamino.com/  This Camino site is maintained by Jim and Eleanor Clem, authors of Buen Camino, which I enjoyed and reviewed earlier. The highlight of this site for me is the excellent photo section. It also covers the books well.

http://kidsoncamino.com/  - For those considering walking the Camino with children, this site is based on the experiences of a couple walking from Leon with their 16 months old daughter.

http://www.robertward.ca/index.html - Robert Ward is the author of two pilgrimage related books. Virgin Trails is about his search for the holy places of the Virgin Mary, and All the Good Pilgrims about his Camino tales. Check his site for more information.

http://onfootinspain.com/ - Nancy Frey and Jose Placer founded this well regarded walking tour company in 1999. A good choice if you are looking for a knowledgeable, guided walking tour on the Camino or other parts of Spain and Portugal.

Check out the  Online Telegraph bookstore - informative overall Camino web site in English. Not recently updated.

http://timelines.ws/countries/SPAIN_A.HTML - a timeline of Spanish history and related related links for those who want some historical background.

If you want to study Spanish in Santiago de Compostela, the following link looks good, but we have no info other than the link:
http://www.spanish-university.es/santiago-spanish-course.php

Photo Links: Just enter Camino de Santiago photos into the Google images page and you can get a lot of good trip photo links, so I won't duplicate them here. Same thing for alltheweb images page.Also the caminolinks site above has a good photolinks section.

Public Domain photo link: http://rubens.anu.edu.au/raid1cdroms/spain/santiago_de_compostella/

A slideshow of Camino pieces from the Victoria & Albert Museum: http://tinyurl.com/38udep

Canadians - Little Company of Pilgrims Canada

There is an active society of Canadian Pilgrims. See http://www.santiago.ca/ for more information. They are sponsor annual pilgrim gatherings open to all pilgrims. See the website for more information.

Google Earth routes, GPS Points from Le Puy to Santiago:

This website collects all the various gps info and google earth paths into one spot: http://users.skynet.be/watermael/gps/50358.html

Maps

From Roncesvalles on the yellow path markings are good enough so that a map is not essential. It does increase the comfort level. From St. Jean to Roncesvalles by the high route, most of the way is on small paved roads, but near the top you need to pay close attention, so read the various guidebook instructions, stop at the pilgrim office in St. Jean, and get their little map, and don't go over in the dark or heavy fog. You will miss spectacular scenery if you do. The Brierley guide and Davies and Cole have useful maps in an English language guidebook. The best thing out if you want more than the guidebook maps is the 2008 Davies and Cole Map booklet in our booklist. We also got Michelin maps but didn't get much use out of them.  There is a flimsy Spanish language map of the Camino that you can buy in bookstores in major towns along the route.  There is also an good map website for the world, though it doesn't always get down to the street level: http://www.calle.com/world/index.html  Also, try the University of Texas public domain maps: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/
Ediciones Way publishes maps you can buy in bookstores in Spain.  Fold to 3 1/2 by 3 1/2 and have distances, altitudes,  refugios, etc. There is one that covers the Camino from SJPP to Burgos, and Somport to Burgos; another from Burgos to O Cebreiro and another from O Cebreiro to Santiago.
The name of the map series is "El Camino Jacobeo en tu Bolsillo";  ISBN 84-930395-2-7  in Spanish, French, English and German. I've heard they may be ordered from the publisher:                           Ediciones Way, S. L.
 San Anselmo No. 1
2818 Madrid
Spain

Camino Gear List

The gear list is a google spreadsheet. To get an xls file you can save, click on  http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pPFto0EzOaDsxg2LWJ5jPYg - on the bottom right of the resulting google spreadsheet is an edit button. Click that, and you will be able to view it in a form that can be saved off to your hard drive as an xls file.

Camino del Norte:

Camino del Norte is a less traveled route that was originally used by pilgrims from England. The Confraternity of St. James has information on this route and has recently opened a refugio on it:  Volunteers run the Refugio de Peregrinos de Miraz on Spain’s Camino del Norte

There was an excellent diary and other information on this route in http://www.raunsbjerg.dk/ Based on reading the diary, this is a difficult but beautiful route, lots of climbs, scarce accommodations, poorly marked. However, this site is now offline. You can google for camino frances vs camino del norte, and read the ElCaminoSantiago entries for some idea.

The Primitive Route:

This is a branch off the Camino del Norte that leaves at Oviedo and joins Camino Francés at León. For more info see: http://www.csj.org.uk/route-camino-primitivo.htm .

Vía de la Plata

Starts from Seville and joins the Camino Francés at Astorga. 734 km to Astorga. See Confraternity of St. James routes page: http://www.csj.org.uk/routes.htm  A new site dedicated to VDLP is under construction: http://alberguesperegrinos.com/

The Camino Portugués:

This 232 km route starts in Porto in northwest Portugal. For initial info, see the Confraternity of St. James page: http://www.csj.org.uk/route-camino-portugues.htm - we are considering doing this route. http://www.caminhoportuguesdesantiago.com/EN/caminho.php is a site on the route thru Portugal. A link to color maps of the route: http://alberguerates.com.sapo.pt/01PT/P05CC_PT.htm . Also see John Brierley's update pages to his Camino Portugués guide http://www.caminoguides.com/latest.html . Also, on our Camino page 3 we have some notes from  our Portugal walk.

Peter Robin's website of 100+ routes to Santiago:

http://www.peterrobins.co.uk/camino/ for an interactive map of routes from all over Europe. He also has a good summary of significant dates affecting pilgrimage from the earlier days on. For instance, do you know that Provence was once governed by Germany(prior to ww2)?

The route from Somport to Puenta de la Reina

This site is in Spanish, but still helpful for those who wish to travel this beautiful and lightly traveled route: www.jacajacobea.com .

The Route from Arles, France

The Somport route above is the western-most segment of the Arles route. This site on the Arles route http://chemindarles.free.fr/ , has what appears to be excellent information. Also, there is an active forum where you can post questions about the route. There is also a Miam Miam Dodo guide for the Arles route, which you can get from the Confraternity of St. James http://www.csj.org.uk/ .

http://viatolosana.free.fr/ is dedicated to the Arles route, but is only in French.

Another map site I've found useful for the Provence and Arles area is http://provence.angloinfo.com/maps/192/Arles+Map.html where you can zoom in using Google Maps.

 A profile of the Arles route at:
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/cheminsdecompostelle/Leschemins/leschemins.html

You can also Google for VIA TOLOSANA

Other Pilgrimage Links:

The Via Francigena From Canterbury to Rome:

March 2007 - Sil from Santiagobis tells me that there is now a Confraternity of Pilgrims to Rome: http://www.pilgrimstorome.org.uk/index.html

http://www.eurovia.tv – Website of the Association for The Establishment of European Pilgrimage Routes. Current Project is the pilgrimage to Rome. This association issues pilgrim identity cards for the Via Francigena

Sil provided all of the following (Nov 5, 2006):

The two most active organisations are:
(AIVF) Association International Via Francigena: www.francigena-international.org  (Website in 5 languages)
Based in Rome – started by Adelaide Trezzini in 1994. You can become a friend (AMIS) by joining the Association. You can buy their accommodation and monument guides called the Guida Vademecumum – one for Canterbury to Gr St Bernard and the other from Gr St Bernard to Rome.
They also have maps called Topofrancigena for these two regions. Adelaide recently provided an excel document called the Dormir-Francigena with additional information on accommodation. Members receive a `pilgrim passport' to have stamped along the way and if you walk the last ± 140km from Aquapendente, you will receive the Testimonium in Rome.

(AEVF) Associazione Europea della Vie Francigene: www.associazioneviafrancigena.com /
(Website in Italian and English)
Founded in Fidenza in 2001. Not yet a membership organisation for pilgrims but you can register on-line to receive their monthly e-newsletter (Italian).
The website offers Interactive maps, about 300 excellent (1:10) downloadable maps for Italy, daily stage guides, accommodation information and a downloadable pilgrim passport free of charge.
They also offer a link to www.rivistaviafrancigena.it  where you can order a copy of the glossy bi-annual magazine VIA FRANCIGENA in Italian and English. Issue no. 23 is now available.
You can see a few pages of the magazine here:

http://www.camminideuropageie.com/default.asp?s=102&o=313&c=0

There is also Eurovia in Austria (not sure how active they are though).
www.via-francigena.com  (Web site in 5 languages)
Started by two Austrian guys they say that "EUROVIA is an association that is revitalising the pilgrimage culture in Europe under the slogan "Ways for humans". They offer a useful DVD video of a pilgrim who walked from Lausanne to Rome called "Via Francigena" (in 5 languages). The site also offers lists of accommodation, a pilgrim passport (not for free) and a FORUM.

For a slideshow of photos from Aosta to Rome (taken in 2004) look at Jeff McDonald's excellent site at
www.senderos.awswa.com

Some useful (though perhaps a bit out-dated) info can be found here: www.giovannicaselli.com

A good Guide Book (even though it is in Italian) for the Gr St Bernard to Rome section is the Guida Alle Via Francigena obtainable on line from TERRE DI MEZZO www.terre.it
The latest edition (May 2006) is now available. It has useful strip maps for each stage which we found invaluable when walking in June/July 2006.
There is an online pdf file guide in French to the Italian routes:

http://www.verscompostelle.be/VIA%20FRANCIGENA%20et%20variantes.pdf
or
There is an English Yahoo Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/via-francigena/  with 100 members.

St. James related rhymes:

Thanks to Silvia from Santiagobis for the following:

Sailing in ships:

You leave behind all fun and games
When you set sail for Saint James (15th C)
Original verse: Men may leve alle gamys
that saylen to Sent Jamys

Cockle shells:

July, to whom, with Dog-star in her train
St. James gives oysters, and St Swithian rain.

He who eats oysters on St Jame's Day will never want for money

Hops production:

Till St Jame's Day be come and gone,
You may have hops or you may have none.

1425 – Purchas his Pilgrim.
Upon a hill stondez on hee
Where Sent Jamez ferst schalt thou see
A Mount Joie, money stonez ther ate.

Mary I of England: Catholics & Protestant squabbling:

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockleshells
And pretty maids all in a row.

A skipping rhyme:

Blue bells, cockle shell
Easy ivy over
oh no, here comes miss blackwell
with her big black stick
now it's time for arithmetic

Third Camino Page for Le Puy to Figeac to Aire-sur-L'Adour information.