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Please forgive me for including the previous message, but I wanted to second
every suggestion made in it. There is a very real sense of continuity
to walking the Camino, which is ruined by cutting out segments in the middle.
Please do consider starting a little closer to Santiago and then walking
the rest of the way!
<p>Even with the unattractive approach to Burgos, I found the meseta simply
wonderful to walk ... and that was in real solitude, in the middle of January.
<p>That's my three cents, for what it's worth ...
<p>Carlos
<p>"E. O. Pederson" wrote:
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<div style='background-color:'>Obtaining consensus on this matter is likely
to be impossible, for personal tastes are highly variable. About
the only stretch most walkers consider unpleasant enough to miss is the
latter part of the days walk between San Juan Ortega and Burgos, a route
that takes one around an airport, across an expressway and thence 6 km
or so alongside a busy highway through uninspiring industrial suburbs to
the center of town. [A newer route avoiding some of that urban discomfort
is available, but I have not walked it.] Taking a bus from the urban edge
into central Burgos, however, only makes a somewhat long day a little shorter.
On my second walk in 2001, because of the events of 9/11 and travel difficultes
for a week thereafter, I had to cut my walk three days short and opted
to take a bus from Belorado into Burgos. While San Juan Ortega is
well worth seeing, I decided to give it a miss my second time on the Camino
and cut! 2 days of walking, avoiding suburban Burgos in the process. I
cut another day by taking a bus from Mansilla de las Mulas into Leon, missing
the suburbs of the latter city (nowhere near as unpleasant as the eastern
suburbs of Burgos), a choice made by a number of European walkers who joined
me on the bus.
<p>Many pilgrims would choose to miss all or parts of the Meseta from Burgos
to Mansilla de las Mulas, but I, for one, would have felt badly cheated
if I had not walked that stretch. I found the route across the Meseta one
of the most inspiring parts of the trek to Santiago. The vastness, aridity
and unpopulated nature of the open landscape, and the severe weather that
can sometimes hit unexpectedly, give a little taste of how terrifying the
pilgrimage must have been in the middle ages. But, of course, we know there
are comfortable refugios for us at the end of the day.
<p>If I had to cut a full week from the pilgrimage, my choice would be
to begin at Pamplona, Estella, or perhaps even Logrono and walk the distance
from there. I most certainly would cut out the stretch from St. Jean Pied-de-Port
to Roncesvalles. While there is a perverse fascination with starting
at St. Jean among American walkers, I would never again waste the day crossing
the Pyrenees and would begin at Roncesvalles, where most Spaniards "doing
the whole Camino" start. The route napoleon is far too difficult
for the payoff it provides, especially as a first day of walking, jet lagged
and out of shape from riding trains or busses. From Roncesvalles to Pamplona
the route is pretty enough, but compared to the stretch from Somport and
Jaca to Puente la Reina (Navarra) on the Aragonese route, or to later stretches
on the Camino Frances, it is uninspiring. This, of course, expresses personal
preferences.
<p> E. O. Pederson
<p>Seattle, WA</div>
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