Iberia discounts

[bill deutschman]

I would like to provide an alternate view of cycling the camino and
encourage you to take your bicycle if you so choose.

> Since I walked I do not know precisely what routes Liz followed; I do
know,
> however, that she felt that the available maps, etc., for bikers were
> misleading and of little help.

The book The Way of St James, Le Puy to Santiago by Higginson, the guides
from the Confraternity and the guide by Lozano have detailed directions and
maps.  Lozano provides a separate cycle section and his maps clearly show
the roads and the trail.  We purchased local maps in Pamplona for each
province and found that they were adequate.  Our friends from Germany had a
detailed cycle guide that was much better but it was in German. Next time I
will buy it and struggle with the German.

>I also know that she was quite aware that
> there is some danger for bicyclists (reportedly 6 were killed in 1999).

I can only speak for my wife, who doesn't like traffic, and myself' and we
never heard anything about 6 deaths in 1999.  One of our guide books
described a fatality several years ago where a cyclist came around a corner
at high speed, found that the road surface changed abruptly and crashed.
Many of the cyclists passed us on the down hill sections at speeds that I
though were much to fast for adequate control but they were young and
fearless and I never saw any crashes.

We found the auto drivers to be very courterous and never felt that we were
in any danger.  We would have trucks slow to 6 or so miles per hour on hills
when they couldn't pass and wait for a safe opportunity or until we could
find a spot to get off the road.  Many drivers waved, honked and shouted
Buen Camino or Bon Courage.  Our only problem was with large trucks in a
high cross wind.  They moved over and passed us with lots of room but there
was still a lot of wind buffeting.
We never had a close call in the 2100 miles we cycled and most of the roads
had wide breakdown lanes for cycling.


> Many bicycle pilgrims were riding on the routes that I walked, but it was
my
> impression that they would have preferred to have been on paved paths.

Can't tell you about others but we found that much of the camino in Spain
was along the side of the roads or on a paths that was separated from the
roads by a few hundred feet.  We decided that it was easier to ride along
the road where we could still see the other pilgrims rather than try to
cycle through them as many of the groups took up the entire path and we had
problems getting through them even though we slowed to walking speed.  There
were a few sections where the roads and the camino diverged.  Somtimes we
were able to follow the camino but sometimes it was too difficult,  e.g. the
section from Mouzos to Portomarin, so we followed the road.

You will enjoy cycling the camino and will not miss much of it.  I suggest
that you stay in the refugios or in the small hotels and campgrounds where
the other pilgrims stay as that is part of the pilgrimage.

bill
olcbillafireserve.net