Our Camino

 Due to lack of time, we decided to skip parts of the camino that pass through highly urbanized cities and came up with this...

DAY	DIST. (KM.)	FROM	TO	ALTITUDE
1	7.4	Sain wt Jean Pied de Port	Orrison (Reservation Required)	821
1	11.6	Saint Jean Pied de Port	Valcarlos (Alternative)	575
2	18.2	Orrison	Roncesvalles	953
2	11.2	Valcarlos	Roncesvalles   (Alternative)	953
3	21.5	Roncesvalles	Zubiri	530
4	20.3	Zubiri	Pamplona	460
5	24	Pamplona	Puente la Reina / Gares
6	21.9	Puente la Reina / Gares	Estrella/Lizarra
7	29	Estrella/Lizarra	Torres del Rio
8	20	Torres del Rio	Logroño
9	29.6	Logroño	Najera
10	21	Najera	Sto. Domingo de la Colzada
11	73.1	Sto. Domingo de la Colzada	Burgos (by bus - skip  Belorado and Agés)
12	31.1	Burgos	Hontanas
13	28.5	Hontanas	Bocadillo del Camino
14	24.6	Bocadillo del Camino	Carrion de los Condes
15	26.6	Carrion de los Condes	Terradillos de los Templarios
16	30.6	Terradillos de los Templarios	El Burgo Ranero
17	37.3	El Burgo Ranero	León
18	75.7	León	Foncebadón (by bus - skip San Martin del Camino and Astorga)
19	27.3	Foncebadón	Ponferrada
20	24.1	Ponferrada	Villafranca del Bierzo
21	28.4	Villafranca del Bierzo	O Cebreiro (by bus)
22	21.1	O Cebreiro	Triacastela
23	18.3	Triacastela	Sarria
24	22.4	Sarria	Pontomarin
25	25	Pontomarin	Palas de Rei
26	27.3	Palas de Rei	Arzia
27	19.2	Arzia	O Pedrouzo
28	20	O Pedrouzo	Santiago de Compostela (12 p.m. mass)
29	0	Santiago de Compostela
30		Santiago to Barcelona

This will still change of course, as plans often do. But it will be our guide for now as we get started on this long-awaited walk.

Being the organized people...

...that we are, we plotted our itinerary rather early. Long before any other arrangements were made, and even several months before we had to apply for a Visa, we already had the Camino Pilgrims app downloaded on our phones, which served as our guide. (It still truly amazes me, the apps that are available out there. ♥) The shortest trip on the app shows 31 days so we had to do some modifications to fit our schedule. (Translation: We basically eliminated those parts with the highest elevation. So, if the going up and going down is too steep, we're getting on a bus! ☺) We wanted the walk, true. But we're not going there to punish ourselves. This was our prayer, not our punishment, in action.  

This was our initial rough 
Camino Itinerary

The trip is not going to be all about the camino, either. Since we were already in the area, we decided to start our trip with a tour of Paris and cap it with a few days leisurely stroll around Barcelona. And to make our lives easier and less complicated, we divvied up the planning of the itinerary. Angie took charge of Paris and I took charge of Barcelona. The camino itself is not a problem since we had our trusty app (God! I hope it's trusty!)  to guide us on our way. The task is to organize everything from the time we land at the airport in Paris to the time we board again in Barcelona to go home. That covers the airport transfers, accommodations, meals, entrance tickets, tours and transport around the city, and yes, even the tips. 

Planning a complete itinerary to a place you have never been to, with a limited time frame and on a modest budget is no small feat, but thankfully, it doesn't have to be excruciatingly complicated either. Particularly now, when we live in this century where information is quite literally available with the touch of our fingertips. (God, I love technology and the Internet! Well, most of the time anyway. ☺ ) We were able to book cheap flights (Cheapoair.com), reserve affordable accommodations (Airbnb.com) and sign up for free tours (Sandeman's, Runner Bean Tours and Freetour.com) with little or no stress at all. 

The trip is almost upon us now. We'll be making a last check to our itinerary in a few days to finalize everything, but it's more or less locked. We are so excited to finally make this happen!


P.S. In one of my conversations with a learner, it was mentioned in passing that Carcassonne is along the train route to Saint Jean Pied Port. I nearly whooped when I heard this news. You see, Carcassonne is one of the places my sister and I have always dreamt of visiting. We read some books in the past that described this fortified city and yes, I think we even played the board game once or twice. ☺ We've always been curious as to how well-preserved this centuries-old city is, and rather excited to see how our imagination will stack up against the real thing. Now that we have the opportunity to go, we are not about to miss this chance. And so, we re-visited our rough itinerary and checked where to fit an overnight stay in Carcassonne in the calendar... :D