Train destinations

[Donald Schell]

Dear Daniel,

My daughter, who lived in Spain, explained to me that most Spanish train
routes radiate like spokes from Madrid as center.  If you're going to
Madrid, you should be able to get to Pamplona and on to Bayonne easily.

Taking the local to St. Jean will get you in around 11:30, so if you begin
immediately, you're starting to walk at mid-day.

The local to Urdos will get there at something like 9:00 on a weekday or
(later train/bus from Pau that does run on Saturday/Sunday as well as
weekdays) 10:30 on a Saturday or Sunday.

My experience of walking from St. Jean and not actually getting through the
village and on the road until 12:30 was that it made a very long day and was
a difficult way to begin.  If I were going that way again, I'd spend the
night in St. Jean.

Arrivial at Urdos is enough earlier that it seemed an encouraging begin to
me.

The train that I've taken twice from Paris to Pau actually goes through
Bayonne and then heads East to Pau (and beyond that to Lourdes).  From Pau
there is a local train to Oloron Ste. Marie (a pilgrimage town on the French
side) and from Oloron, the train has been replaced by a bus that continues
the train.  Some people begin at Pau or Oloron (and of course some have
begun well before that in France).  I chose Urdos as a starting point in
order to walk over Somport.  When the local train pulls in at Oloron, the
bus is waiting.

Last May my wife and I took the bus to Urdos, so we took the bus through the
foothills and at the edge of the real ascent to Somport.  That makes the
most direct comparison to St. Jean - walking up to the pass and into Spain
on your first day.  Somport is higher than the pass out of St. Jean and the
mountains are more jagged and spectacular.  The two great monasteries that
welcomed pilgrims on that route are in ruins and Roncesvalles is not.  Those
are the two obvious points of comparison.  The other is that there are many
more people going the route from St. Jean (or starting in Roncesvalles).

It's a one day walk from Urdos over Somport to Canfranc Estacion (and
another day from there to Jaca).

My son and I had planned to make that same crossing at the beginning of last
month (June), but it was raining and cold at Urdos and I guessed we'd be
walking up into a snowstorm, so we took the bus to Canfranc Estacion and
walked on from there.

As you know I'm a fan of the Somport/Jaca route.  It's beautiful,
well-supported (well marked route, good albergues), but because it's
markedly less traveled, it offers a significantly quieter, more
contemplative way to begin than St. Jean/Roncescalles.

I hope this is helpful.  Buen Camino!

donald

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