[Gocamino] Maps??

[Grant Spangler]

There is an equivalent to the USGS in Spain, it is the "CENTRO NACIONAL DE 
INFORMACIÓN GEOGRÁFICA" , AKA as the "INSTITUTO GEOGRAFICO NACCIONAL"

On the Web at:
http://www.cnig.es.
In Madrid at:
General Ibañez de Ibero, 3
28003 MADRID, España.

The killer maps are the ones on CD-ROM from the military. Every time I'm 
there, they have none. Oh, well. You can buy paper quads for about three 
Euro, but the price soon becomes astronomical for the entire Camino Frances.

They also produce a yearly road atlas and CD-ROM digital map available in El 
Corte Ingles. The map program can reside on your PC in about 165 MB of 
space. It's not as easy to use or as detailed as Microsoft Streets and 
Trips, but it gives you every paved road in Spain. It goes by MOCI, or Mapa 
Oficial Carretera Interactivo, and works in English as well.

As far as getting detailed maps inside a GPS, well, it's not quite there 
yet. Garmin has fabulous coverage of the entire Continent, save for the 
Iberian peninsula. There are pockets of detailed coverage, like Madrid and 
Barcelona, but no nation-wide contiguous maps. Pitty. There are lots of 
trekkers who would love to have a moving map in their pocket, but it seems 
we need to wait. As an aside, if you are planning to use a GPS in Europe, I 
recommend buying a Garmin IN EUROPE. To get the European basemaps, you need 
to buy the product in Europe. A North American model will not have the 
European basemaps in it.

I have the profiles posted in two different ways for the daily gain and loss 
of elevation on the French route. Look at my site under 29 Etapas, and also 
the three 'Profiles' pages.

Onward,

Grant

Grant Spangler
GASpangler at hotmail.com
http://groups.msn.com/ElCaminoSantiago
http://community.webshots.com/user/ElCaminoSantiago