Hi, Jan, it's Laurie! I didn't know you posted on this board. It's really an excellent site, I think. Happy New Year to you and Erna.
It's funny, when I read the part of this post about your taking the variante because it's shorter, I thought -- that sounds like Jan! :lol:
In my emails I found some notes from you on the Camino Aragones, which I hope to walk next fall if all goes well. I would like to start in Oloron Ste. Marie or maybe a day or so back, and it looks like you guys joined what becomes the Camino Aragones at that same place. And then you went on to Puente La Reina from there. If you have time, could you post the actual stages you did? From what I can piece together, you took three days from Oloron Ste. Marie to Canfranc Estacion, then to Jaca, and then to Puente la Reina staying on the Aragones.
People on this site have been recommending the detour to San Juan de la Pena, which I know you didn't take. But I'm hoping that maybe it's a way to avoid some of the highway walking -- didn't you say that from Jaca there was a day or so all on pavement?
And I should warn everyone on this board that when Jan says that things are well marked and easy to follow, you should keep in mind that this man has an internal GPS system whose match I have never seen. It is incredible. Jan, we really could have used you on the Norte last summer, when Dana and I were floundering through pine forests with an infinite number of criss-crossing logging roads and trying to squeeze our way through overgrown brush and across streams. Some of it was pretty comical, in retrospect anyway.
Thanks for all your help, Laurie