Getting there (& back)

..As you may have noticed these posts are slightly out of order, its a catch up game, we decided on starting the blog a few months into the planning game, so bear with us, we will get up to date. 

 

Believe me everyday the camino in some form or other pops into our day. (Along with deliveries from Amazon with ' essential paraphernalia' required for the trip, today's delivery includes Laundry soap from www.lakeland.co.uk/21164/Laundry-Paper) 

 

Luckily I have an excited husband (in a camino kind of way, not 'another' kind of way ) but not quite to the extent of Mark who is like an excited puppy, at every opportunity he has his rucksack out and showing anybody & everybody the contents....he probably takes it to bed !  (see wineclubuncorked.blogspot.co.uk where Jacqui & Nick had a demo of Mark in Geoffs poncho & saw the contents of Marks rucksack, they were very enthusiastic..not !!)...

 

Anyway, I digress a bit, so back to 'Getting There' its very tricky with no easy answers but one asks is that part of the challenge, why should a pilgrimage be easy ?

 

The added dimension for this group, there are five going, two of which live some way away, they would all prefer to travel together and don't really want to fly the budget airlines they would rather take the train, which we must admit seems more in keeping with the whole experience.

 

This however is not as straightforward as you might think, initially they will need to get to Dover to catch the ferry  to Calais, followed by train to their destination.  We started to research this & it became clear trains don't run to St Jean Pied du Port everyday, this means juggling with the leaving date, extending it to leave a couple of days early to arrive with enough time left to complete a good section of the walk.  This brings its own problems for some, taking more holiday days from work and not family holiday time.

 

After lots of time consuming searching we came up with these options to be put forward to the group, who may also have some ideas, the Eurostar does make the journey easier, giving a more relaxed less chop and change style journey, bearing in mind the first days walk is the toughest through the mountains which is a bit unfortunate but cannot be avoided, so arriving feeling as refreshed as possible must be a bonus.

Outward - TGV
Thursday 4th April Calais to Paris 10:32 - 12:17 £18.00

or

Thursday 4th April Calais to Paris 11:06 - 14:20 £33.50


Friday 5th April Paris to St Jean 07:28 - 16:14 £40.50

or

Friday 5th April Paris to St Jean 12:27 - 19:33 £59.50

 

Outward - Eurostar

Thursday 4th April Ebbsfleet to Bordeaux 08:12 - 15:42 from £73

Thursday 4th April Ebbsfleet to Bordeaux 09:35 - 17:37 From £61 less than 10 seats left

There are later times available

Friday 5th April Bordeaux to St Jean 10:51 - 16:14 £26.60

And getting back is just as tricky, hard to plan as there is no way of knowing just how far the group will manage to walk..

Mark had found a five hour bus journey, this had us rolling around on the floor laughing, he gives us a major hard time everytime we catch National Express coach to London which takes 3 hours..

 

Inbound Journey

There appears to be an Overnight train (Rail Europe website) Barcelona to Paris but too early for April timetable

There should be a train from Logorno to Barcelona but again no timetable yet.

Also Bayonne to Paris (Sat 6th April as no timetable for following week yet) 07:26 - 12:35 £32

 

..Any suggestions are most welcome..

We'll leave you with a camino thought ..

Rapidly changing climate, start the day dressed in five layers, eyes watering with cold, and end the day sunburnt and wanting to throw my clothes to the cows. Never mind Vaseline, I needed an Air Ambulance. ..Martin Sheen, The Way.