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<TITLE>Re: Train destinations</TITLE>
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Dear Daniel,<BR>
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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. <BR>
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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. <BR>
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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. <BR>
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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.<BR>
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Arrivial at Urdos is enough earlier that it seemed an encouraging begin to me.<BR>
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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 Marie (a pilgrimage town on the French side) and from Oloron, the train has been replaced by a bus that continues the train.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. <BR>
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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).<BR>
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It's a one day walk from Urdos over Somport to Canfranc Estacion (and another day from there to Jaca). <BR>
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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.<BR>
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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.<BR>
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I hope this is helpful. Buen Camino!<BR>
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donald</BLOCKQUOTE>
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