getting to O Cebreiro from Santiago

[katmar]

Any advice on how to get from Santiago airport to O Cebreiro? Arriving from Dublin mid afternoon on a Tuesday. First time doing any part of the camino and hope to walk from O Cebreiro to Santiago in 7-8 days, does that sound ok for a reasonably fit middle-aged woman and 20+ son, also fairly fit and well travelled.

[Ange]

Hi,
I've just got back - was unfit when I started but began in St Jean so was fairly fit when reached O'Cebreiro (middle aged woman - there's got to be a better phrase than that but I can't think of one right now!). This was my progress, treating O'Cebreiro as Day 1:
O'Cebreiro to Triacastella - 20km
Triacastelle to Barbadello - 30km
Barbadello to Hospital - 30km
Hospital to Boaente/Casteneda - 35km
Castanede to Santa Irene - 20km
Santa Irene to Santiago - 20km
Six days but some fairly 'big days' in there, so 7 I would have thought should be fine if you're reasonably fit, don't get any injuries, with a day in Santiago at the end.
The bus station in Santiago is easy to get to and from the airport (will be buses, taxis etc at airport) - I would have thought this was your best bet and then just ask at the bus station what the best option is. You might be able to find a timetable if you google it?
Just a quick tip while I'm here - the last 150km gets very busy, even when I did the walk in April, so I would suggest avoiding the bigger towns which attract many of the bigger and organised groups (and anyone with the John Brierley book!) - we purposefully went to smaller villages/albergues (and a 'casa rural' in the case of Casteneda) and so stayed in quiter places away from the crowds but also got 'out of synch' with the larger numbers setting off each morning from eg Sarria (which was horribly busy and full of stressed pilgrims trying to find a bed) - we just walked straight through to tiny peaceful Barbedelo and got a room straight away and had an hour or so of almost solitary walking the next day away from the hoardes. It depends what you want of course, if you want a good choice of restaurants and bars you'd probably like Sarria!
Hope this useful. Buen Camino! :O)
Angela

[Covey]

Welcome back Angela and many thanks for your update.

I have found in the past that the "organized groups" can be a bit of a menace when walking the Camino Frances. They often stay in the private albergues where they can book in advance ( the official "state" albergues never take bookings) so when you are planning on where to stop the next night, you have no idea if an albergue which has say 40 beds has a booking for 20 beds which means that there are really only 20 beds available and not the 40 you think there are.

Those of us who are middle aged or older, and therefore in our prime, are really just recycled teenagers!

[katmar]

That's great Angela, thanks. We will probably take your advice about avoiding the crowds and staying in smaller places. Have found a bus timetable for Lugo so might stay the night there and make our way to O Cebreiro in the morning.
Regards from another "recycled tenager"!
Katmar

[Ange]

That's a pleasure Covey, I'm enjoying still having a link to it all, apart from e-mails to all the friends I made on the way of course.

I much prefer 'recycled teenagers' to middle aged - that's me from now on!!

We coined the phrase 'party pilgrims' - I'm sure it's been used before - for the strange breed who appear in the latter stages and seem to go from albergue to albergue by taxi and stay up late partying and drinking - not quite sure if they'd captured the spirit of the Camino, but they seemed to be having a good time anyway! Perhaps some are drawn to returning and doing it properly at a later date... I had to tell myself that to stop me from having very un-pilgrim like thoughts... ;O)