Where exactly is Allison walking?

                                                                               (copied with thanks to santiago-compostela.net)

This is a bit boring, but it's all about where I'm going, where I'm staying, and a couple of nice maps so my mom can follow me along.

The route I'm walking in Spain is a little different from my first Camino.  Back in 2006 I started on the Camino Frances in St.-Jean-Pied-du-Port (see upper right corner), which is a little town just over the border in France.  I trudged up and over the Pyrennes, a little way past Logrono before terrible shin splints(?) caused me to stop.  Not wanting to leave something undone, I went back in 2007 and walked from Logrono to Santiago de Compestela (upper left corner) to complete my camino.

The Camino Frances is a great walk.  It has a superb infrastructure of albergues (pilgrim hostels), inns, bars & restaurants every 5-10kms; is very well way-marked with little yellow arrows painted on anything that doesn't move (ie. sides of buildings, trees, stop signs, fence posts, and the occasional cow); and tons of pilgrims.  10's of 1000's of pilgrims.  Too many pilgrims.

So this time around, I decided to go off the beaten path a little and try the Camino de Madrid, which starts right in the city of Madrid.  I won't, but it does.  One can walk from the Church of Santiago right in a main plaza, walk out of the city, thru the dreary concrete suburbs and into the beautiful countryside beyond, heading NW to where it intersects with the Camino Frances in Sahagun.  (hint: I'll start at the beautiful countryside part).

Here's a link to a map of the route (it will come up Peter Robbins Madrid route page.  Go down about 3 paragraphs, below the list of cities, and click the first 'view' button beside Google.  You'll get a map with a series of pink boxes, just click each box to reveal the route): 
http://maps.peterrobins.co.uk/google/overview/madrid.html

Then I'll take a Left and continue on the Camino Frances to Santiago:
http://maps.peterrobins.co.uk/google/overview/frances.html

Only 100's of pilgrims of people walk the Madrid route each year, so the pilgrim infrastructure is  minimal.  I'll have less choice of how far I walk each day as only certain villages along the way have any type of accommodation or services.  I'm planning to spend about 15 days walking this first camino, broken down as:

Day  1: subway to Tres Cantos, walk to Colmenar Viejo (12 kms)
Day  2: Colmenar Viejo > Manzanares el Real (15.6 kms)
Day  3: Manzanares el Real > Cercedilla (19 kms)
Day  4: Cercedilla > Segovia (31 kms and climb a mountain)
Day  5: Segovia (stay over to nurse my sore feet and see the city)
Day  6: Segovia > Santa Maria la Real de Nieva (32.2 kms, ouch!)
Day  7: Santa Maria la Real de Nieva > Coca (20.6 kms)
Day  8: Coca > Alcazaren (25 kms)
Day  9: Alcazaren > Puente Duero (25 kms)
Day 10: Puente Duero > Simancas (6 kms, then bus off-route to Valladolid to sightsee and spend the night)
Day 11: sightsee, then bus back to Simancas >  Cigunuela (6 kms)
Day 12: Ciguenuela > Castromonte (24.3 kms)
Day 13: Castromonte > Medina de Rioseco (17 kms)
Day 14: Medina de Rioseco > Villalon de Campos (27 kms)
Day 15: Villalon de Campos > Sahagun (37 kms) or > Grajal (25-ish kms)

I was planning to start walking this Saturday, but the weather forecast is awfully miserable, so we'll just have to see how it goes.  All the above is tentative - if I feel like walking further and there's a place to stay I might keep going one day.  And, more likely, if I want to walk less one day, and I can, then I will.  I'm playing it all by ear.  Or should I say, 'by foot'?!!