Hi, Noe847,

I have always walked the Camino in May, but my son walked in September a few years ago and he really enjoyed it. The scenery is quite different, obviously, the fields have been harvested, the colors are a lot more brown. But he had spectacular weather (not one drop of rain) and was in at least three or four villages for their harvest festivals, just by chance. The crowds weren't bad, I think he only had problems finding a bed a couple of times.

If you are thinking about 2010, though, you should know that it's a Holy Year, which means that the numbers will take a huge spike upwards. Most of us who self-describe as "camino addicts" are planning to walk on one of the alternate routes that year, such as the Camino del Norte, Via de la Plata, etc, because the Camino Frances is going to be mobbed. If you look at this compilation of statistics of pilgrims on the Camino, you can see the spikes that Holy Years bring.

http://www.archicompostela.org/Pereg...regrinanos.htm

It's getting more and more crowded every year, but it's still a wonderful experience. Buen camino!

Thanks, lreynold1! Actually we chose 2010 because of the Holy Year. Maybe going in the autumn will help us avoid the summer crowds, at least. It might be a good idea for us to consider one of the alternate routes.

I have met my wife and sister in law in Santaigo and they received their Compostelas.

Accounts to follow.

Final Installment

Well, here we are in San Roman where my father was born more than a hundred years ago. We walked here from Santiago on a very fogged in morning, going from a 5-star hotel to a working farm. It was several hours before the sun cut through the mist and we realized how high into the mountains we had ascended. The damage from the fires of the last two years was very dismaying to see; many mountains are denuded of trees in great swaths and there is a major effort to get rid of eucalyptus trees which burn so fiercely and fed the flames.
We're getting up early in the morning to work with the cows - cleaning up yesterday's old hay and silage, putting out the new food, carrying buckets of milk for the babies and special feed for the mothers-to-be, and milking the cows (not a job for novices from New York). We've picked a field of string beans and ate that with potatoes and Spanish sausages (chorizos) made in San Roman. We gathered huge squash to make a most delicious soup. Everywhere you look there is food popping out of the ground or on the trees - potatoes, carrots, lettuce, peppers, garlic, onions, lemons, apples, kiwis and more and more. To my effete horror, Ascuncion (my 86-year-old cousin and still working) cut off the heads of 10 chickens. She laughed at me squirming. We plucked feathers and cleaned innards. The sweet little spot under the old chestnut tree, where we sat and drank coffee and chatted, looked like a killing field. A few days later, Ascuncion cooks Spanish crepes (filloas), running the batter down over a tilted stone. The stone is the size of a small desk and rests over a open fire and the crepes are the size of dish towels. We gobble them down.
The big news in town is a debate about installing a toilet in the church. This is a tiny church we're talking about and the arguments are fierce, funny and bitter. There is an estimate on costs but everyone knows that the expenses will double or triple if it is built and someone will get rich. Why does such a small place need a toilet when even great cathedrals do not have one? Who will really make money from this deal? Who will clean it? Can't the priest, who is old and one of my cousins, just use the facilities of a nearby house? Would the toilet just be for the use of the priest? What about elderly parishioners? If you're installing a toilet, why not install a bar and maybe an internet cafe?

In between farm work, there has been a big fiesta in town with lots of loud music and no one dancing. Farmers do not dance and are suspicious of any man who would attempt it. We have visited the beautiful rivers and bays of Galicia and had lunch in nearby Portugal. We've walked up and down the hills to visit relatives. One elderly woman (a cousin somehow) is living in the 200-year- old house where my grandmother was born. The stone house is really tiny and a wreck but fascinating to see - a kitchen with a huge open chimney and fireplace and space for cows and pigs making up the ground floor and a staircase leading to 3 small rooms above. This lady remembers weaving and spinning cloth from flax and showed us a heavy blanket she had made. She kisses us and peers into our faces. She sees my father looking back at her and smiles.
Another neighbor keeps pigs and makes the famous spanish hams and chorizos. She gave me the recipes and, if I had two pigs in New York, a huge chimney for hanging meat and a hot fire for 8 days, I could do the same. Every night after dinner, we take a walk (a paseo) through the local villages. All the dogs bark at us. Neighbors sometimes pop out of doors to gossip. Although it is 11 o'clock at night, it is ok to bang on the door of old cousins to introduce them to their New York cousins and to talk about the dead and the living. The stars hang low overhead, huge and beautiful in the cold night, as we wind our way home.
Tomorrow we fly to England. This is absolutely the last email and the end of a wonderful and amazing trip. I hope you enjoyed traveling with us.
Andrea

What an amazing report! I have enjoyed it so much. Aduchamp has a wonderful eye for the kind of detail that makes for fascinating reading.

Thank you

Dear Aduchamp,

Finally caught up with your wife as I've been traveling.

Congrats to her, and I hope you had a wonderful reunion.

I'm sure your support and encouragement were essential to her successful camino.

gruezi

Thank you Gruezi.

Her stories and sketches are wonderful and we are headed back to the US on tuesday.

I hope my version of the family within a week.

Please do let us know the outcome of the great toilet debate! Enjoyed your report so very much. Thanks!

I thought the toilet debate would be a great movie, it could capture the essence of Galicia

I haven't been checking in to this site much recently, too much work, but I did want to say that I would be happy to answer any questions about some of the lesser travelled Caminos de Santiago. This fall I walked the 5 day Camino Ingles from El Ferrol to Santiago, and the Camino del Salvador (Leon to Oviedo) plus the Camino Primitivo (Oviedo to Santiago)-- about two weeks total. Iin contrast to the better known Camino Frances (that Aduchamp's wife walked), these routes are not busy at all.

On the Camino Ingles, we didn't see one other walker, yet the trail is well marked and the accommodations fine (we stayed only in private hotels and B&Bs on this trip - my husband came with me and he is not as enthusiastic about the pilgrim albergues as I am.)

On the other Camino del Salvador and Primitivo, there were more walkers, but never anything approaching a crowd. Two nights I was completely alone in albergues, and usually there were about 5 or 6 of us. I did this walk in late Sept., though, so the numbers would be higher in the summer months.

Here are links to my pictures if you're interested. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's a wonderful way to get out and see some incredibly beautiful parts of Spain.
Laurie

http://picasaweb.google.com/laurie.r...aminoIngles08#

http://picasaweb.google.com/laurie.r...inoPrimitivo1#

I looked through quite a few of your photos and they look great. I've very interested in the Camino. Do you have a trip report written about walking the English Camino? I have future plans (sometime) to do the French route but the English route looks interesting too. Was it easy walking through most of the route or were there some difficult spots.

Hi, Adrienne,

I don't have a trip report, but I will go back to my journal and piece one together sometime this weekend. My overall impressions of the Camino Ingles were that there was a lot of asphalt walking during the first couple days, much less at the end. In terms of scenery, the coastal parts (the first few days) were much prettier than the more rural inland parts, which tended to go through a lot of eucalyptus forests. There was only one day that had any elevation gain to speak of, I think it was about 300 meters up, and on country roads, so the grade was not very steep. This camino is not particularly strenuous, I'd say.

I think that if I only had a five or six day segment to walk and wanted to try a Camino, I would probably do the Camino Portugues from Tui/Valenca to Santiago instead of the Camino Ingles. That camino has much more of a "Camino feeling" to it, there are very nice albergues in Tui, Redondela, Pontevedra, and Padron. But the Ingles has some very nice stretches as well, and the towns of Betanzos and Pontedeume are very pretty.

I think there would be some interest on this board on the Camino as it's becoming more a more popular destination. There seems to be much more information in English on the internet now than there was a few years ago.

I've had an interest in walking parts of the Camino for several years but as vacation time and finances are limited I've chosen more traditional vacations each year. Also I don't know anyone who would want to do the walk with me so I've put this off but it's always on my list of travel plans.

I've read several books about walking the Camino; some were really bad but there were a couple of good ones that I enjoyed. There was also a very good trip report in the UK Telegraph that I copied and saved.

Perhaps when you have some time you could post your experiences on the different Caminos in a new thread. It doesn't have to be a full blown trip report but your impressions, similiar to what you wrote above.

Thanks!!
Adrienne

Hi, Adrienne,
I just posted my impressions on the Camino Ingles on a different thread, and I'll put up some comments on the other two I walked in October as soon as I get them organized.

One think about walking nearly any Camino (I would exclude the Camino Ingles and the Camino del Salvador from this comment) is that even if you start alone, you will never walk alone unless you want to. On my walk from Oviedo to Santiago, about 10 or 11 days, I was alone but quickly met people and on some days walked with others. This was in October, and in some places there were only a few people (in Lugo, there were only five of us in the albergue), but I alwayas had walking company if I wanted it. So I wouldn't let the fact that you can't find anyone to walk with hold you back. I'm a 58 year old woman and I never felt threatened or nervous when alone.

I remember particularly one example -- it was about 7:45 a.m. (still dark in October in northern Spain), and I was walking alone with my headlamp going up a hill. Up ahead I saw the glow of two cigarettes. When I got closer, I saw two sort of gnarly looking men standing there, I said buenos dias, they responded in kind, told me it looked like a good day for walking, and on I went. I would never even consider doing such a thing in the US!

Laurie

Hi Laurie,

I did see the other thread but didn't have a chance to read it yet. I'm on my way out for the day so will absorb it when I return. Thanks for posting so quickly. It's good to know that there are others to connect with on these walks and there is nothing to fear from walking alone. I certainly wouldn't be walking alone on a trail where I live.

I'm putting a link to your other post on the Caminos here so there's a connection between the two posts. I'm sure I'll have questions once I've thoroughly read your other post.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35166247

TTT for Robin

Bookmarking it. Thanks.

ttt