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thanks

Richard not a hard one but the stage we missed out over the mountain before Segovia is long and a lot of uphill and downhill. We missed stage and went by train because it was getting hot June July and accommodation was uncertain. However is supposed to be the most interesting stage of this camino. spiritofthecamino.com/camino-de-madrid-highlights/ The best guide and most up to date info you can get at www.rayyrosa.com. They have a private albergue on the Madrid in the early stages and have all the up to date info on what is open and what not. They are lovely people and have walked most of the caminos as well. We also skipped part of the first stage out of Madrid to avoid trudging through Madrid suburbs. There is a local train that drops you, from memory at Tres Cantos.

Ray and Rosa have a hostal at Manzanares el Real - we phoned them and they picked us up in town as the hostel is a little out of town.

Also the stage from Tres Cantos to Manzanares de Real avoid doing on the weekend if you can - there is a bit that is fairly rocky with washouts on the track that is used by trail riders as well and they seem to be out in force from Madrid on weekends- slows you down and you have to keep standing aside for them.

Richard one of the great things about the lesser used caminos is that they tend to throw up the unexpected and locals also seem much more friendly - see this video th-cam.com/video/HNxQ9f4PWAc/w-d-xo.html

@@Dougyharry thhank you for the tips. yeh i have seen a video of the madrid camino and from madrid to segovia is very mountainous so as its my first 1 i am getting a train from madrid to segovia and skipping that part then walking to villaloid which is about 70 miles away. Is it hard to find the arrows and the way to go in those small towns and are the municipal auberges hard to find.

Dan - not sure if you saw this one where we tried to show some of the albergues. th-cam.com/video/OtUr2t35UkA/w-d-xo.html

Hi Dan - thanks for watching it- we like it when we feel someone actually gets some value from the videos - as we have from watching other people's videos. yes we did ring ahead for pretty well all of the albergues. Not so much to book as to just make sure they were still operating and to let them know we were coming. However we could just as easily have turned up and still would have been ok. There was never an issue with beds - often on our own or with one other person. Nava de Asuncion we stayed in the municipal albergue which was situated at the back of a sports hall and opened out on to the playing fields. It was small, only 2 bunks but fine and from memory 5 euros each. We rang ahead here as well on the day we were arriving as it was opened up by a municipal employee for us.

@@Dougyharry Hi Douglas, thank you for getting back to me on the queries l had. This is really helpful. Having walked the Francés, l’m looking for something different and the Madrid route looks perfect in terms of the solitude and tranquility l’m looking for. Thanks again. Best Wishes Dan