Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

[eleanor sara darley]

hi
does anyone know of a good map of the route from Jaca to puenta la reina..?

i meant to buy the guide from CSJ but time and work took me.
Does anyone know if i will be able to get a map of this route online or in France at all.

Thanks
Eleanor x
very excited as leave for france tomorrow morning...

[Debinq]

hi Eleanor

perhaps a little late, but just saw this post, however you may still be in Jaca - I suggest you go to the Mundicamino website and download their route description (with good maps etc) - I printed them out before walking to Puenta la Reina from Somport last year (Sept/Oct) they were very easy to follow - the beauty was that you could discard them after each 'etappe'

buen camino

Peter

ps the detour from Sta Cilia de Jaca to San Juan de la Pena is reallt worth it!

[oursonpolaire]

This might be too late as well, but I would not recommend walking from Jaca to San Juan de la Pena via Atarés. I found the going very difficult-- even the CSJ guide by the late Maurice Fox admitted this-- and it was quite tiring. Even more difficult is the hiking path from San Juan de la Pena to Santa Cruz de los Seros.

I would recommend going by the road from Santa Cilia to S J de la P-- take a taxi one way if you are pressed for time. San Juan de la Pena is a UNESCO World Heritage site and deserves to be so: it is one of the most spectacular things to see in Spain, combining cultural, religious and political history, with astonishing vistas reminiscent of one of Maxfield Parrish' works, and exquisite carvings, seven centuries old, but fresh as the day that they were made.

I was too tired to go further and stayed at the Hotel de Aragon by the junction of the N240 and the road from the Monastery, but a friend stayed at the albergue at Santa Cilia 5 km west, and spoke very highly of the facilities and the hospitalera.

San Juan de la P was the best and the worst day of my 2005 Camino, but it is too extraordinary to be missed.

[Debinq]

hi again

indeed the hospitalera at Sta Cilia de Jaca (Maite) is a real character - she's very good, nothing too much trouble etc . - some hospitaleras-/os would do well to take a leaf out of her book (esp the one at Finisterra!!) methinks

the track from Sta Cilia to Juan de la Pena via Seros isn't too bad really - but the way up from Seros is arduous I thought; perhaps going up the road to San Juan is a better alternative - track down is pretty steep and rocky in parts (and indifferently waymarked - well at least it was on 1st Oct 2006 !! - but brillant when you visit San Juan

buen camino

Peter

ps - if going to the albergue in Sta Cilia say hi to Maite -from the bloke who spoke Spanish (haltingly) with a 'raro' accent!

[Muszla]

To walk through Jaca is easy, because one just has to follow Avenida de Francia due west, with the ciudadela on the right. But there is (or was ?) also a marked trail to the east of the citadel. Does anyone know about it? How can one find it on entering Jaca? Where does it go back to the main GR65.3? Can one bike it? Is it nicer than the main one, or would it be only a desparete trail-finding? Is it waymarked? And a very important question: does it lead to the St. Michael's bridge?? In the past the Camino led across the bridge, didn't it? Please help!

[oursonpolaire]

I wish I could help, but I don't know that path. I went to see the Saint Michael's bridge on my rest day, after conferring with the staff in the Turismo (who knew a fair bit about the Camino and the routes).

[Muszla]

Ta for answering!
I was intrigued to find out about this path having seen a map Jaca published at the MSNforum http://groups.msn.com/ElCaminoSantiago/CaminoMaps5.msnw . I have no idea where the map comes from! It shows two marked Caminos through Jaca. None of them passes St Michael's bridge, but I read somewhere, alas too long ago to remember the source, that the medieval route did pass the bridge as the only reasonable way through Jaca. A most interesting item, don't you think?
Now I'm too far away from Jaca to prove it myself, but perhaps someone knows more about it?