Lourdes - Santiago 2014

[JabbaPapa]

I am now formally committed by Vow to our dearest Apostle and to Our Lady of Lourdes, as well as to the Communion of the Saints, the Dead, the Living, and the as yet Unborn, to undertake the Pilgrimage to Lourdes (by whichever means) and the Pilgrimage to Santiago from Lourdes in the year 2014

May God have Mercy on my Soul

 

[Saint Francesco]

Great idea to put this all together. God bess you on your Way... expecially our Mother Lady Mary

Sent from my GT-S5830i using Camino de Santiago Forum mobile app

 

[Deleted member 3000]

There is great train service to Lourdes for a pilgrimage to there. From there head for Oloron!

Search the Internet for videos of the June flooding. The Pau was way up into the Grotto.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=relmfu&v=xTwaUxX8uF4

 

[JabbaPapa]

falcon, I've walked the route before, even though I went to SJPP last time -- and I walked to Lourdes from home BTW

(NOT next time LOL)

But yeah, avoiding the Roncesvalles > Pamplona "tourigrino" crowds is something I'm aiming for next year ...

 

[naplesdon]

JabbaPapa and Falcon, I just returned from the Camino Portugues and plan to do the Camino Aragones next year as well with a start in Oloron. The day I arrived in Santiago there were 1700 people registering at the pilgrim's office descending from the Camino Frances and just 40 of us coming from the Portugese route, I like that kind of ratio. My question is: once you arrive in Puente la Reina from the Aragones how do you avoid the CF crowd? I love walking the Meseta, so I'm thinking to do that and then take a bus from Palencia to Ferrol and walk the Camino Ingles. Any ideas? How many people do the Ingles just to get a Compostela?

 

[JabbaPapa]

JabbaPapa and Falcon, I just returned from the Camino Portugues and plan to do the Camino Aragones next year as well with a start in Oloron. The day I arrived in Santiago there were 1700 people registering at the pilgrim's office descending from the Camino Frances and just 40 of us coming from the Portugese route, I like that kind of ratio. My question is: once you arrive in Puente la Reina from the Aragones how do you avoid the CF crowd? I love walking the Meseta, so I'm thinking to do that and then take a bus from Palencia to Ferrol and walk the Camino Ingles. Any ideas? How many people do the Ingles just to get a Compostela?

I know the numbers have risen again rather dramatically since my last Camino in 2005, but I found then that the crowds weren't really all that bad between Pamplona and Astorga/Ponferrada or thereabouts -- notwithstanding some larger numbers towards Burgos and Leon, which was even the case back in the '90s.

Avoiding the first 100-150 K and the final 150-200 K of the Francès, by taking alternative or less-travelled routes should let you avoid the worst of the "tourigrino" crowds, not to be unfair and unkind to those attempting the Camino and simply failing (mainly from simply not understanding in advance how cruel and hard the Camino can be), of whom there are quite many on the Camino out of Roncesvalles, Burgos, and Leon.

I learned something interesting today, at an unplanned lunch with an ex-pilgrim (he did the Le Puy route in stages over four successive years) -- which is that the most influential French National hikers' Association is actively discouraging the French from taking the Somport route. Supposedly because it's dangerous (which it could very well be for non-pilgrims unused to anything but hikers' trails devoid of traffic), but more likely because of the inevitable stretch of tarmac that I've heard of, French trail-makers having a severe tarmac allergy.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

The Randonee guidebook does recommend taking a bus for a short stretch before the tunnel. They are trying to get a pedestrian-friendly right of way.

Puente de la Reina was a shock. After weeks of a couple of pilgrims per day, suddenly there was a hundred of those pesky beasts!!! On the other hand we got to speak English for the first time in those weeks, and immediately made good friends.

 

[JabbaPapa]

The Randonee guidebook does recommend taking a bus for a short stretch before the tunnel. They are trying to get a pedestrian-friendly right of way.

Exactly what my friend said at lunch.

But he says it goes beyond that, he's suggesting that they're actually discouraging the whole route simply because of this stretch of non-hiker-trail.

It's understandable I guess -- mountain hikers do not get their jollies from tarmac and tunnels.

Puente de la Reina was a shock. After weeks of a couple of pilgrims per day, suddenly there was a hundred of those pesky beasts!!! On the other hand we got to speak English for the first time in those weeks, and immediately made good friends.

Took me a solid WEEK to recover from the shock of walking into the massive crowds at SJPP after about 50 days of near-total solitude ...

 

[JabbaPapa]

It'll be May 2014 from Lourdes.

My doctor has given me a, if not green as such, at least a flashing amber light. Caveam.

This will be my first non-summer pilgrimage, but given that the numbers on foot are starting to go mediaeval again, avoiding the summer crowds seems to be a must.

I may also just have committed to another Camino in 2017 ...

 

[Jamie Archer]

Glad to see this post! A friend and I will be walking the CF in April. We will start from SJPP BUT we will be in Lourdes for a few days for the feast day of Saint Bernadette first. What a great way to start the camino, I think

 

[JabbaPapa]

Well, now my sister (!!!) wants to walk the Camino with her boyfriend, for three weeks in August, I'd suppose next year. hmmmmm am I now committed to TWO 2014 Caminos ?? Plus possibly the 2017 one with my friend Anton from 2005 ?

 

[Irène Elisabet]

I know this thread is a bit old now, but is there a path to walk from Lourdes to Camino Frances? My guide books say nothing about this!

 

[JabbaPapa]

I know this thread is a bit old now, but is there a path to walk from Lourdes to Camino Frances? My guide books say nothing about this!

Yes -- Lourdes is in fact a stage on the normal pilgrim route from northern Spain to Rome, so that it has been a pilgrim destination since the early Middle Ages at least, and earlier than the pilgrimage to Santiago.

The basic route is a three-day (or thereabouts) hop to Oloron, and from there down to Somport and etc.

(the old parish Church, destroyed by an idiot parish priest, was dedicated to Saint Peter in virtue of Lourdes' location on the Way of Saint Peter, and one of its principal chapels was dedicated to Saint James after the discovery of his tomb)

--

Otherwise, I'm contemplating a somewhere > Santiago > SJPP > Lourdes second pilgrimage in August. hmmmmmm

 

[Camino2014]

I am now formally committed by Vow to our dearest Apostle and to Our Lady of Lourdes, as well as to the Communion of the Saints, the Dead, the Living, and the as yet Unborn, to undertake the Pilgrimage to Lourdes (by whichever means) and the Pilgrimage to Santiago from Lourdes in the year 2014

May God have Mercy on my Soul

Same here
Hope to see you then!

 

[Anniesantiago]

Such a beautiful route!
I'd love to do it again someday...

 

[JabbaPapa]

I have met two other pilgrims here since making my Vow for next year -- amazingly though, last night, I met the second of these, who is a peregrina who not only walked from Paris, she being the first other person I've met to have done so, but astonishingly she also lives in the very same building as I do !!!

This next Camino of mine is starting out very strongly, and I'm still several months from placing my first step on the Way itself.

 

[Irène Elisabet]

I have met two other pilgrims here since making my Vow for next year -- amazingly though, last night, I met the second of these, who is a peregrina who not only walked from Paris, she being the first other person I've met to have done so, but astonishingly she also lives in the very same building as I do !!!

This next Camino of mine is starting out very strongly, and I'm still several months from placing my first step on the Way itself.

When are you starting out from Lourdes? My husband and I plan to start at Lourdes early may 2014 but had planned to catch a bus from Lourdes to St. Jean - if there are other pilgrims setting off on foot, we'd be so happy to join in.

 

[coldweather]

Lourdes is a great way to start on pilgrimage to Santiago. If Catholic, it is a great place to pray and make a good reconciliation before beginning.

May 2013 I took the train to Lourdes and stayed for 3 days. I then traveled by 2 trains to Pamplona where I began my walk. I knew I did not want to attempt going over the Pyrenees by starting in SJDPD.

 

[JabbaPapa]

When are you starting out from Lourdes? My husband and I plan to start at Lourdes early may 2014 but had planned to catch a bus from Lourdes to St. Jean - if there are other pilgrims setting off on foot, we'd be so happy to join in.

No idea -- I'll start when I start.

And I'll be walking from there to Oloron, then Somport, then down that way.

And yes, coldweather, Lourdes is an excellent starting point.

Not just two pilgrimages for the price of one ; but Lourdes is on the ancient pilgrim's Way from northern Spain to Rome (and so for a short time was part of the original Camino route to Santiago ; til the Francès started developing properly, and the detour via Toulouse became the established route) ; and the walking 'round there is extremely beautiful.

 

[Irène Elisabet]

So JabbaPapa: is the route from Lourdes to Oloron to Somport, then down that way the Aragones route? I'm having significant trouble finding details on this route. Would you mind helping me out with a link or something? God bless you!

 

[JabbaPapa]

So JabbaPapa: is the route from Lourdes to Oloron to Somport, then down that way the Aragones route? I'm having significant trouble finding details on this route. Would you mind helping me out with a link or something? God bless you!

Lourdes to Oloron is a part of what's known as the Piémont route ; the Way from Oloron to Puente la Reina is well-documented.

There are multiple variants though, between Lourdes and Somport, depending on how mountainous or otherwise you like to walk. It's currently a very secondary Way, so it's pretty much make it up as you go along ...

You should find some resources here : http://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/search/156368/?q=lourdes&t=post&o=date & http://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/forums/the-piémont-route.53/

 

[JabbaPapa]

Began training this afternoon ...

 

[JabbaPapa]

Well -- leaving later this month !! (3 months later than originally planned, to to some difficult knee problems and other stuff, grrrr -- but I do seem to have picked up a hiking companion for most of the Way !!!)

Planning Lourdes > Compostela, with a detour round the mountains after Astorga, and then Camiño de Invierno after Ponferrada -- then likely Fisterra, as my fellow pilgrim wants to get there -- then back to Santiago, then >> SJPP probably mostly along the Francès IF the knees can take it !!!

 

[wayfarer]

Great to see you back Jabba, have a great Camino and go safely.

 

[Rebekah Scott]

You will love the Invierno. I hope your knees are strong by then!

 

[JabbaPapa]

You will love the Invierno. I hope your knees are strong by then!

I've been in a few of the places along the Invierno when I hitched back from Santiago in '93, and was rather delighted when I discovered that a whole secondary Camino route goes that way !!

 

[JabbaPapa]

Just did a backpack test with all my kit -- which fits inside most neatly, including the extra space for some food etc -- and after a while it hit me ; I've started my packing !!!

I'm really not sure how much I'll be able to keep up communications in here while on the road -- though frankly even my actual departure date is still an unknown quantity -- and cripes I'd love a smartphone running a full version of Windows !!!

I'll certainly post in here from time to time at the very least, though the majority of my online activity on-Camino will be elsewhere : http://pgstheway.com (I've a couple of posts up there already, with a third in the pipeline)

... but I'm starting to slip into Camino Time, where the only important days are today and tomorrow

 

[JabbaPapa]

Starting out from home on Monday, to likely start walking from Lourdes on Wednesday !!!!