08/12/07 CÁCERES #2

Mary and Betsy picked me up at 11:30 at the Placensia bus station and we drove to Cáceres to sight see. After looking and eating we drove back to the Casa Rural where we had dinner and a good night sleep. The following morning we drove to Trujillo which is a town with a wonderful squre and just a nice place to do some sight seeing. The three of us went our seperate ways and after about 1/2 hour Mary and I joined up on one side of the square and we could see Betsy sitting in the shadow of a large statue of a horse and a conquistador catty whampus across the square. The next thing I knew Betsy was sitting on the ground in the square and I said to Mary something like, 'I wonder why Betsy is sitting in the square?' as that is what it looked like she was doing. Just sitting there. I walked over and by that time someone else had gone up to her and as I arrived she informed me that she thought that she had just broken her foot. She had absent mindedly walked off a 2-3 foot step which was right next to the stairs. She was looking at us and her camera and never saw that the identical looking stones were actually way down there. So, the ambulance was called but it couldn't come so a police car came and took Mary and her to the hospital. I went to get the car which was a fair distance away. By the time I got to the car Mary called me and told me that they were being loaded into the ambulance to go to the hospital in Cáceres as the foot was broken and there were better and more experienced doctors for such problems in Cáceres. I followed in the car and Mary was able to help me find the hospital. The ambulance driver used his siren and zipped off over the horizon. We spent all afternoon at the hospital and after the x-rays it was established that she had broken her foot in a couple of places. Fortunately everything was still where it was supposed to be but she would have to have a pin put in after a couple of weeks so that it will heal properly. In the mean time, she has a 1/2 cast and has been advised in the most firm tone that she is not to put any pressure on that foot and cast. Explained in Spanish and English! During much of this time I was standing outside the hospital shooting the bull with a Spaniard who had worked as a back hoe operator for 35 years in Germany as only one relative was allowed in the hospital with the patient and they had kicked me out.
We finally got out of the hospital without paying anything; the Dr. said that it was up to the hospital and the insurance co. in the USA to solve. In the discussion about the money the Dr., who spoke some English, thought that Betsy had asked him if the hospital would pay her any money and the look on his face was worth a million words! We explained that the question was how we should pay for the services. OH, everything was understood!
We are in a nice room here in Cáceres with three beds in one room. This morning we internetted and were able to arrange a Business class non stop flight for tomorrow afternoon out of Madrid for New York JFK for Betsy. Her son and/or daughter in law will pick her up. She should be able to keep the foot up in Business class which is important according to the Drs.
After we get Betsy situated Mary and I are going to go to Guadelajara just East of Madrid and reevaluate our trip. Make a new plan so to say.

08/12/07 CÁCERES

On the 7th I took train and bus up to Frómista and stayed in a hotel. Got up that following morning with my back hurting a fair amount and hit the road. Talked with a woman from Slovania (I think that is the spelling, it is just South of Austria and used to be in Serbia) who told me that quite a few Slovanians walked the Camino. My lower back felt pretty good when I quit walking at Carrión de los Condes. I stayed in another .5 star hostel. I did quite enjoy the 12th century church outside my window and got some nice pictures even though they said I couldn't take any pictures inside. I got started about 7:30 the next morning on my way to Ledigos. There was a long dirt path with round pebbles from 1/2 inch in diameter to 2 to 3 inches in diameter imbeded in the dirt that stretched on for 19 KM. Many parts of me were hurting by this time, my back in particular. Behind me I could hear this guy singing at the top of his lungs and as he came closer I could hear that it was opera and in Italian. He came up to me and in his small English and my 0 Italian we talked for a while. It seems that he started on the Camino last year and after walking for some days he went into breakfast one morning expecting to walk that day, but instead found himself on a bus back to Genoa. So he is walking a short bit this year to stand in the center of a particular church which was supposed to give one the ???, well he didn't know either but had hopes. So, when I came to the town of Calzadilla de la Cueza and stopped for a sandwich, coffee and water, it was a good thing that I wasn't close to a bus station as I was not in a real happy state of mind. I got in Ledigos which according to my dinner companion who was from Strasbourg, France and spoke some German, probably better than mine, we were just about at the end of the world. I agreed. My bed was so bad, another sway backed monster, which was in a room so small that I couldn't put the mattress on the floor without truning the bed frame on its side which was impossible. So, even before it was completely dark I had awakend hurting from my neck to my knees. I battled this all night with my lower back hurting more and more until I figured how I could sleep on my side sort of up on the bed rail and mattras leaning on the wall. Of course every time I woke up after a few moments I would think that I had to pee so I would get up and go to the can. There were beams that were very low and finally I forgot and really konked myself in the dark. I was up early and knowing and fearing my lower back put great effort into getting the back stretched out. I was out of there before 7 am. That early is a wonderful time to walk as the normal walkers aren't on the road yet and the long distance runners hadn´t had time to catch up to you from their last stop. It was a beautiful but as I walked I thought that maybe it was time to quit. 38 days on the road was not all that bad for an old fart. I got into Sahagún and went to the railroad station to see what my options were. Called Mary who was down below Placensia with Betsy and we made a plan. I would like to say that in spite of the four seperate and distinct areas in my back that hurt, the toe nail that was gone, and the two that were working on detaching, etc., that I had struggled on until I dropped. But the reality is that after being in Salamanca with Mary and later Betsy, I really had lost the desire. The walking is wonderful and I loved it especially in France where there were not so many people, but in fact I just ran out of steam. So I went to Salamanca by train and bus and the next morning went to Placensia where Mary and Betsy picked me up. Then the new story began which is in section 2

07/06/07SALAMANCA

9 days of the easy life and now I will go back up to Frómista tomorrow and start again on the Camino Sunday. Mary and Betsy will pick up their car tomorrow morning and start their road trip. After my ill advised slumber on the sway bed I have spent much of my time trying to get my lower back to relax and generally be happy. Although progress has been made I will see, I should say 'feel' how it takes to the backpack. My bet is that all will be OK but Sunday will tell. The plan is for me to walk 15 more days and then meet Mary and Betsy at Sedor some 45 to 50 KM. short of Santiago for an evening and then for me to continue on the next morning for the last two days while they bask in the sun. We have a room reserved in Santiago on the 25th and I hope to finish on the 24th. The two of them have promised me that if there is not a happy outcome to this back dilema they will take me back if necessary although a bad back in a small car does not really have the sweetest sound to it. In any case I would have to find a way to get to somewhere close to them. Not an insurmountable project I would guess since most towns have some kind of bus service and I do have some oxycoidine in case of a real emergency. My experience is that one oxycodine pill and one tylenol has an astonishingly soothing effect under trying circumstances.
The three of us have seen lots of 'brown stone' here in Salamanca and it will be nice to just look at the countryside for a few days. Old churches and other such buildings are wonderful but after so many a rest is required for me at least. It will be quite interesting to start walking again. Although one sort of rotates through people on the Camino as everyone goes at their own pace, there is a continuity because you run into the same people time and again and then as they go over the horizon for the last time you have seen and connected with other people. Now it will be all absolutely new faces for a few days for me.

07/01/07 SALAMANCA

Well, this is the easy life, or I think it should be. Mary and I have been walking around and looking at the city together and she can explain it all to me. We stayed in a supposed 4 star hotel for the first two nights but my bed had sort of a sway in its middle. We took a nap on the second day as by that time I had relaxed was tired all the time, but unfortunately when I woke up my back really hurt. The old lower back pain. I can only think that it came from the sway in the bed and the fact that I slept so soundly in one ill advised position. So, I am now spending lots of time trying to keep my back stretched out and relaxed so I can go North again in a few days. Fortunately I do think that I am making progress.
We have moved into a little 1 star hotel which is absolutely wonderful. Not only is the price much better but the whole atmosphere is quite delightful and charming. Mary heard about it from some of her class mates and immediately made some reservations for when Betsy and I were here. The beds are better also!
Salamanca is only 1.5 hours diving time from Madrid and is quite a destination for young couples from Madrid on the weekends. Boy is it crowded on S and S. Not only are all the students here but the weekenders! Still it is a wondeful town and we continually enjoy watching and listening to the storks as they come in and clack their beaks at each other in greeting. We are now going to look at the old Roman bridge and have a little picnic by the Torme river.

06/29/07SALAMANCA

The night of the 27th I had dinner for the third or fourth time with the French couple and then the next morning we had breakfast together, they put on their backpacks and were off towards Leon. We will truly be out of sync now and I will not see them again. They have been walking the Camino for years going for about two to three weeks each year. They started in Le Puy and plan to walk the last stretch next year from León to Santiago. Nice people.
So they hit the trail and I went to the tourist office and waited for a bus to Palencia where I could catch a train to Salamanca. It was all nice and the train was interesting as it was a local train which stopped about every 10 minutes. I got to watch a lot of people doing their thing.
I was so glad to see Mary and there she was on the platform waiting. Her hair has grown so long I hardly recognized her at first but I couldn´t miss that smile a 100 miles away. We went to the hotel to get rid of the backpack and had lunch where she knew the waiters which was fun. She finished school today and after telling me consistantly how she was the slowest student in her classes it turned out that in fact she wasn´t if her grades were any indication of her ability and achievement. What a non surprise for me!!
I have not decided when I am going back to the Camino but it will be some time after the 4th when Betsy arrives. I will go over my Camino distance and lodging book and do some serious kilometer counting to see exactly how many days I should take to get there. Now that I am not too worried about a few long days I think that everything will work out OK so I believe the chances of everything going according to plan has increased to 40%.

06/27/07 FRÓMISTA

So it seemed that the dog had gotten a fox tail sticker in his paw and was having a hard time of it. The German and the limping dog went to the train station to try that mode of transportation. This is the first time that I have seen someone with a dog and since the logistics would be a nightmare I can understand why. Went through Burgos to a little town on the other side called Tardajos and stayed at another lousy place. I had been thinking hard about my back and those who know me well may wonder that I was able to do the thinking and still walk without wandering off the edge of a cliff or trip in a pot hole and break something, but anyway I was able to trace back to when I first started having trouble with my back and it was in Scottsdale when I started using the treking poles seriously. This got me thinking about maybe trying walking without them if the going wasn`t too hard and I did that which turned out to be a good thing. Yesterday my back didn´t hurt much after I stopped and the only problem I had was that I had to sit around all afternoon as usual doing nothing. I just can´t go down to the cafes and sit there telling the same story or lie all afternoon so I have been going a little crazy each day. So, this morning I talked with a Basque woman and her husband at breakfast and they said that they had walked 40 km. the day before. Although they are younger I though what the hell, I am going to have to change something or I am going to quit the Camino from afternoon bordom. So, I took off this morning and walked 34 km. with out a lot of trouble as of now. This leaves me with a new lease on the Camino!
Tomorrow I am going to take a bus down to Salamanca and visit Mary for a few days before she takes off with Betsy, my sister for a road trip. I, needless to say, am very excited about seeing her. When I come back to the camino I will start putting the km. behind me and have less time to lay around in the afternoon.
This morning in the town of Castrogeriz I saw something of note. As I was walking by the main church, a car drove up, three women got out and put on the backpacks from the trunk, the backpacks all decked out even with the conch shell, stood in front of the church and took each others picture, then took their backpacks off put them in the trunk, got in the car and drove away. Everyone has to do their own Camino I guess!!
Today going out of Castrogeriz the path took us up a very steep incline to the top of the hill which was narrow but flat. Then we came to the other side which was very steep and certainly showed me where the rain in Spain mainly falls. It was plain to see that there was a lot of plain there and I was going to have to walk across it all. Which I did as I am now in Frómista.
The French couple with which I have had dinner a number of times are in the room next to me at the pension where I am staying. It is interesting how people cross each others paths even though we are all going our own speed and our own distances.

06/25/06 TARDAJOS

On the 21st I made it to Santo Domingo de la Calzada and But, came by the partial ruins of an 8th century monostary which was really interesting. It seems that these really old churches etc. in this area looked more like Greek/Roman temples than what we think of as a church. Or, from what little I have seen it seems that way to me. The next day was Belorado where I had a really nice place to stay. I ran into the French couple that I had had dinner with a couple of times before and we ate together again. There was also a Swiss guy from Geneva who could speak a little English and another French speaker who could speak virtually no English. How I believe a myth was born. The French speaker with virtually no English asked me if I had met the man from USA, San Francisco who was 82 years old? I thought about it and asked him if the guy had a bad limp on the left side. Well, yes. Then I asked him if his name was Gordon? Well he thought maybe so. This sure sounded like Gordon who I had met just this side of the Pyrenees and who is 72 years old. I know this because we did a little age comparison stuff when we stayed at the same hotel. When one doesn't speak the languages to well, those mistakes happen.
Eighty two--- Seventy two it is only a 1 and a 0 different.
The next day on to Villafranca Montes de Oca where I stayed in one of the worst places I have had the bad luck to encounter. It was just so drab and down trodden looking along with the fact that the owner's children worked there and they were just as badly behaved and surley as any teen ager who didn't want to do the job can be. Very depressing place. Basically it was a truck stop and had big trucks coming in and going out until very late at night. Gointg out fo there the following morning it was up hill, down hill, up hill, d... until San Juan de Ortega where a bunch of Germans and Austrians were drinking coffee at a restaurant. They were not walking together but just all ended up there and had stayed at the same places much of the time. Then a South Korean showed up walking alone along with the rest of us. Unfortunately I didn't have the chance to ask her 'WHY'? That night I stayed at Atapuerca in a lovely little Hostel attached to an Albergue. On the 25th I got starterd by 6 am as there was a long ways to Burgos and I wanted to be there before 1pm so that I could get a stamp for my pilgrim's passport at the cathedral before 1pm. I made it in time as I had a map of Burgos and realized that I could take a bus from the outskirts to the center of town and did just that with a couple from Italy. On the way out fo town I ran into a German speaker with a dog who was having trouble because his dog was lame and he was trying to go on a train. I have just been kicked off the computer.