[Gocamino] Staggering crowds

[jmayor]

Dear fellow pilgrims,

My wife and I leave for Spain mid June for 5 weeks. We plan to train or bus
to Jaca or Canfranc to begin our pilgrimage. We did this part of the Camino
5 years ago and wanted to see it again hoping it was still maybe not so
crowded. After reading a recent posting about crowds in May and hearing from
a friend about a recent book published in Germany that is a best seller
about the Camino, I'm concerned with the amount of people on the "Camino
Frances" once we connect with it and I was considering busing or training
(if that is a word) down to the Via de la Plata route at some point if the
Camino and/or the Albergies on the Frances route were too crowded. Has
anyone done this? If so what is a good place to make the connection and to
where on the Via Plata would it be a reasonable place to start from? Looking
at a map I see that perhaps Burgos to Zamora via Valladolid might work, or
walking to Leon and dropping down from there? If over crowding on the
Frances route is impossible to avoid all together, maybe we should consider
going on the Via de la Plata route directly from Madrid where we fly into
from the U.S. It's not that we are anti social at all, we love the fellow
pilgrims who we have met on past Caminos, it is just that we do not take
cell phones with us, we avoid e-mail,try and stay in the moment as much as
possible and we spend most of our time (like many people) in silence for the
four weeks that we walk. I hope to avoid all but the necessary reservation
while away. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Jeff Mayor
P.s. If anyone has taken the "Renfe" to Jaca from Madrid, which station did
it leave from and where is it in relation to the Plaza del Sol??