Travel Zamora to Sarria in Catalonia

Hi!
You mean Galicia ;)
13 min is plenty of time to transfer in Ourense, or any other train station really. And Spanish high-speed trains (for the Zamora-Orense leg) have a
good one-time performance.

I use train trasport in Chicago all the time and did not worry when booking, but on review.... I knew I could confirm on the forum.

Thank you!

I agree that 13 minutes should be fine. I doubt the Ourense train station is very large.

I really liked Zamora. It’s a small city with few tourists and nice to wander around. There are a couple overlooks with good views and down by the river are the old olive presses. Sarria has little to offer other than it being the starting place for those walking the last X days to Santiago. We did that walk back in 2019. ¡Buen Camino!

In Sarria we stayed at Hotel Mar de Plata the night before our walk. It’s a few minutes walk from the train station and about a 10 minutes walk from the Ponte de Áspera where you pick up the Camino. Like most hotels on the Camino it’s geared to pilgrims and affords basic, yet clean, accommodation.

I enjoyed my visit to Zamora in late 2019; I found it to be a beautiful medieval town with a good deal of history behind it. And while it has bigger visual spectacles on offer, one of my favorite moments there was seeing the "Traitor's Gate," as it's known to those whose sympathies lie with Castile -- though if they lie with Leon, it's the Loyalty Gate. (I'll let you look into the curious and even slightly amusing history of this site yourself.)

I haven't been to Sarria, but I took a quick look at photos on the internet, and it appears at least to have an aesthetic medieval ambience, which would be good enough for me.

WARNING

Your post title says "... to Sarria in Catalonia". But the body of the post indicates a different Sarria, the one in Lugo (Galicia). Those two are nearly 1000 miles apart. Just sayin' :))

Furthermore, and this is a piece of advice, not particularly to Terry, but in general to those visiting: always write the names of the places abroad exactly as they're written locally. Not doing so can lead to (costly) misunderstandings, since there might be subtleties that make the difference between one place and another.

Should you have written "Sarrià", it'd automatically be clear you were referring to one in Catalonia, but "Sarria" -which is even pronounced differently- points to the one in Galicia. And again, in Catalonia, it could refer either to the district in Barcelona (Sarrià) or a town located 80 miles from Barcelona (Sarrià de Ter).

Yes!, I know, this is not the case here cause the body of the text 'clarifies' that the Sarria he's looking for is "near Ourense", which is in Galicia, but still.

Yes, you are so right about getting the right Sarria!

The earlier "warning" about correctly spelling place names is excellent, and I second it -- I've occasionally seen forum postings and comments veer towards incoherence because of the ways in which posters spell their destinations of interest. And in line with that good advice, I'll point out that in Spain, the official and common name of the state in which the Sarria under discussion is located, is Galicia; though Galiza (with one "i") is an accepted alternative in the Galician language, and I wouldn't be surprised if even "Galizia" were to turn up in the rich field of Galician literature.

Just a follow up bro my original question. I did catch the train from Zamora to ourence. The reason there is a bus is because the train route from Ourence to Sarria is under construction . The process is rather organized. When you get off the train at Ourense, they pile the train passengers on to busses and transport everyone to the Sarria train station. All worked rather well!!!!! Hope this helps someone else.