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.

06/21/07 SANATO DOMINGO DE LA CALZADA

Yesterday I made 2 mistakes. My side excursion was to Ventora not Borgota and the word for pilgrims in Spanish is Peregrinos.
Today was a 22.5 km walk (according to one book) over rolling countryside. It is quite beautiful with sping flowers on the sides of the trail and amber fields of grain in the background. Last night I had dinner with a French couple who I have seen at a number of stops over the last four or five days. Theu were at the pilgrim church service last Sunday. We didn't have a lot of language in common, they could do a little bit of English, Spanish, German and lots of French; I could do a little bit of Spanish, some German and lots of English. Made for an interesting conversation. Anyway we agreed on one thing, they didn´t like the Gîtes (There I finally figured out how to do the little hat!) and Albergues any better than I do. I also walked for a while with two 35 to 40ish women from either Denmark or Sweden today for a while. They have been on the road for 6 weeks and had started in Le Puy. After a bit of talk, they put it in gear and just walked away from me at an amazing rate. Youth and lots of walking does that for you. Which reminds me of the Dutch woman of 60 years who had started in Holland and when I met her in France she had already walked 1700 km. Two German women from Wurzberg had hooked up with her but unfortunately the Dutch woman walked those two German women into the ground with three 30 km days. One thing one must know here is what you are capable of. One must walk their own Camino at their own pace or things can get rough. I am of the 20 to 24 km range kind of guy!

06/20/07 NÁJERA

Yesterday the walk was 22.5 km to Navarrete and a hotel just outside of town. This was the nicest place I have stayed in since the beginning of this journey. Wow, now I know how the middle class lives! It was a good walk through the town of Logroño where I bought a Herald Tribune newspaper and retired into a cafe to drink coffee and read the paper. What a wonderful relaxing treat even if the news has not changed a whole heck of a lot in the last month. Then the Camino went through a huge sports park where people were walking, running and holding many camps for little kids. Fun to watch. It is very interesting here in that people seem to keep an eye out for the Pelegreños (Pilgrims). On the way out of town from Viana I came to a cross road in the early morning just after sunrise and a woman was stopped there with her car and was getting a baby out of the car. Naturally I was looking at the baby but pretty soon someone started to whistle at me louder and louder until I stopped and looked back. In English the person, looking out of his front window, told me that I had just walked past a turn off for the Camino. Very nice!
Today was a short day so I took a little excursion to Borgota to look at the church etc. There I noticed something interesting. In the middle ages in this and many other areas they tended to build their churches on higher ground and had their steeples pointing up to the spiritual heavens, the hightest structure around. Now, if there is any higher hill around or if not for that matter, the highest structure reaching up to heaven is,..., The cell phone tower! How times change.
I realized something else today, if everything goes according to plan (30% chance of it happening I would think), I have walked more than 1/2 of the days I am going to walk. Today was the 27th walking day and by my reckoning I have 26 days ahead of me if I can finish it and go on to Finnisterra. Boy, that sure sounds like a long time to me and my back right now! But, on the Camino hope springs anew every morning.

06/18/07 VIANA 2

So, I am in the city library fo Viana where the internet is free and I was told at the tourist office would be open some time around 3, a little before, a little after, who knows!
So: by the time I got to Puente-la-Reina my back was killing me, I drank the beer, took a nap and ran into the New Zealanders. They were nice, but had no idea what was going on except that the America's cup which they said New Zealand was winning was taking a break during that time. Along with them there was a German who had moved to the states in the 1960s and had done quite well for himself which he made sure everyone around him knew about. The next morning my back was pretty good but by the time I had walked the 22.5 km to Estalla I really was in misery and was thinking that if it was going to be that bad then the walking had lost its shine for sure. I did some work on my backpack and made it so I could pull the shoulder straps closer together in the front of my chest and change their position on the muscles on top of my shoulders. This back problem is an old one from when I played football in high school and had a rib popped out. Up to this day the rib and the ensuing muscle cramps are still a problem. Sometimes more, sometimes less: now seems to be more presumably due to the extra weight and pressure on it.
When I got up about 6:30 the next day I could see that it had been raining and during the time that I packed the backpack it started to really pour. Out the window I could look up the street which went up fairly steeply and then at the end of the block turned into pedestrian stairs. The water was coming down those stairs like rapids in a river and flowing down the street to a small lake around a rather large drain grate. Wow, this did not look good! It was Sunday morning but after the rain had abated a little I found a place where I could get some coffee and a little bread for breakfast. During that time I remembered the first rule I had learned in France. DON'T WALK IN THE CAMINO MUD IF YOU CAN IN ANY WAY AVOID IT! So, I looked at the map and saw that a road went directly to the next stop at Los Arcos. Now that there are new freeways these older national roads are not used much except to travel back and forth tbetween the little villages. So, on the edge of the road off I went and it was quite wonderful. The bicyclists, who are going with traffic in contrast to me who walked facing traffic would drive by and shout 'Buen Camino' and the drivers would honk and/or wave. There was very little traffic and I hardly got wet at all. And the fiddling with the backpack was able to keep me from jumping out of my skin from back cramps. This is not the first time that I had thought that I had fixed this back pain/cramp problem with the backpack and as I sit here my back is hurting quite a lot so we will see.
Last night I went to a mass for the pilgrims at the local huge wonderful church. As I know little about the dogma it was very interesting and seemed by the tempo quite like the Episcapalian service. The priest was quite charming and looked like he really liked talking and interacting with us all. There were lots of people from many lands I can assure you. This walk today was pretty good and the back, if not perfect, was bearable. I am getting now to parts of Spain where one can see long distances, but I notice that there is another mountain range in the distance. I fear that means up and down again. The 'up' is easier than the 'down' for me as the right knee rebels on the down slope.
Poor Mary is feeling pretty lonely there in Salamanca. All work and very little play can not be that much fun for her. She has been doing some of my reservation work, calling and finding me a place to stay, as I still am trying to stay in hotels and the like when I can. It seems to work out better for me. I really appreciate her work as often it is impossible for me to get someone to do it for me where I happen to be and when the person at the hotel starts chattering at me I have no idea what is going on and don't know if I have a reservation or not.

06-18-07 VIANA

We will see how much I can write in less than 9 minutes when this thing turns off. The first two days out of Pomplona were the worst of the trip. First they marched us up to a ridge where there are a lot of wind mills, which I like a lot, but then the down side was very steep. I went to Puente-la-Reina where my back really hurt. Thus I drank 1.5 liters to sooth my nerves and the nerve endings which worked but didn't do a lot other than that for Met two from New Zealand who were on their boat in the Azores and were on the the mainland watching the American cup which was having a few days off so they decided to do some of the Camino. It was nice to talk English for a while. Saw them the next day and they were suffering as they were not in shape at all. Each day i have been putting in about 20 km. The next day was another day of up and down and my back hurt so much that I was wondering if I could go on much longer. I stayed that night in Estalla and it rained like crazy. I have run out of time. I will come back to this.

06/14/07 PAMPLONA #3

Well I did buy some walking shoes, this time regular short treking shoes not hiking boots as I think the going will be better than it was in France. I ask myself how long I will carry the old boots with me; well certainly long enough for me to feel real sure of these new shoes. Hate the weight though. In my mind I worry about the kilogram kilometers. They add up!
Anyway, to polotics, I have had a number of interesting discussions, but up at Orisson a guy which I took for German asked me what I thought of Bush et al. I expressed my views and then he was quiet as is the usual reaction. Then I asked him what he tought of Merkel (the German chancelor). He then started in on a diatride of how the whole world hates the USA now etc. etc. After a few moments I told him that he was not answering my question about Merkel and then he understood what I had asked and laugh, laugh no he was not German rather Austrian. Ha, Ha. Very interesting to hear such from a man who would be living in either the National Social greater Germany with possibly one of Goebel´s children at the helm or living in the greater Austrial workers paradise if it had not been for the Americans. Particularly for a guy from a country which has never really faced up to their part in the jewish holocost etc. as far as I know. But there you go. The opposite reaction which I liked a whole lot better was from a French man. In the same basic type of conversation he told me that America and France were friends and had been for a long time. Friends disagree sometimes but that doesn´t end the friendship. During the build up to the Iraq war when the talk was at its worst between the USA and France his daughter, who is at the university, got on the anti USA bandwagon. He told me that he took her on a little trip down to Normany. There at the memorial he told her something like,`Look at this and never forget what America has done for us. Your grandparents were right on the edge of the invasion and to this day they get all misty eyed when that time is brought up and they think of all those young men.´ All of us who have been to Normandy know how moving that cemetary is. So, just like humans, you get more than one opinion from different people.

The rain has stopped and I am on my way back to the hotel via the bus. Then tomorrow it is off to the races again with the new shoes. I have hotel reservations through Monday so I am a happy guy. Especially since the weather forcast is for dry clear weather!! Lord only knows when I will find a computer again that is hooked up to the internet and that I can use.

06/13/06 PAMPLOMA-2

I must admit that I was really excited the next morning as I walked towards the start of the Napoleon route over the Pyrenees. This route is the same which Napoleon took which in those days was fairly well traveled already by shepherds and pilgrims. Well, it was steep and fortunately I had a reservation at the Orisson Gite which is 7.9 km up the mountain. Well, again, it was STEEP, like doing two or more Camelbacks one after the other with a backpack on. Fortunately it was cool. A bunch of Italians with little backpacks came out of a church and started with me but soon disappeared into the distance. I came across two germans from Hamburg, one happy as a clam about ready to break into a yodel while the other was sitting on the ground just down and out. They had just started and I have to say that anyone who started their first day going up the Pyrenees has my total admiration. Well, I sort of question their sanity, but they like I had no real understanding of the task here. Anyway by 1:30 to 2 most everyone who was staying at Orisson was there and it was 'the sound of music, or Heidi' in real living color! Farm houses down in the valleys white dots of sheep moving around, mist wafting around the peaks. Quite something. A real hard thunder storm cleared the air to perfection. Good dinner and I went to bed in a lower bunk which is really quite important to me as I am continually trying to hydrate myself day and night so I have to pee at least 3 times a night and sometimes more often. Climbing down to do that is not a pleasant experience! Next morning a good breakfast and then for the Spanish border. The weather was absolutely clear as a bell and the scenery was great. I passed the down and out German who had learned his pace and was slowly making it up the grade which was very steep but not as bad as the day before even though it was lots longer. (I am actually at this moment listening in the background to 'The dawning of the age of Aquarius'! I think that I am in a time warp.) When I got to the Roland´s spring close to the top and just a few meters from the Spanish border there was the German´s friend on the verge of yodeling. THEN TO SPAIN!!!, up a little more and then DOWN; DOWN at an increadable steep angle. Very hard on the knees, especially the right one. Then past Roncesvalles to Burguete. (For THE BOOK GROUP: I stayed in Hotel Burguete where, I learned at breakfast, Earnest Hemingway wrote much of 'The sun also rises´. They have kept the downstairs just like it was when he was there and described it in the book. I have not done this yet, but if you go to www.hotelburguete.com you might be able to see it.) The next day, June 12 I ran into a Gordon Lindsay from Walnut Creek east of Berkely hobbling along. Boy did he look rough! He asked me if I was going to stay at the Gite, now called a 'Albergue', the same but much larger with more beds in one room and I fear no more toilets. I told him NO, I was staying at the hotel-restaurant Akerreta, just past Larrasoaña. Oh, did he want to stay there also so I wipped out the cell phone which he did not have and we got him in. I took off and after drinking a liter of cold water was about to go back and take his pack for him but he hobbled up to the door looking really rough. He is, I think, a little older than I and started just at the Pyrenees. He stayed also the day before me at Orisson but collapsed on the down grade and had to lay down in the middle of the path. The next person who came along called someone and by the time the people got there to help him he had been able to get up and try to go on, but the helpers took his pack, put him on a stretcher and got him down to the Albergue in Roncesvalles. He took a rest day and is hobbling along. He says his wife worries too much and his daughter thinks that he is crazy. But, like me, he thinks it is now or never so he presses on. We were able to talk a fair amount that evening and that was really nice. I have found the isolation really hard to deal with and it brings to focus how the isolation I felt when I first went to Germany in 1960 and during the time I was there, as I never really got so that I could have a truly probing intellectual discussion in German, affected me actually for all the years since then. The next day on to Pamplona where Mary had found a hotel for me for two nights; finally after 20 days of walking I am taking a rest day. I have the problem of my boots wearing quickly and I can´t make up my mind whether to try to buy some new walking shoes, or not. I would still have to carry the boots which are heavy for insurance and I am not sure I want the extra weight. But on the other hand my right foot might start hurting badly, it has started to hurt ocassionally already, and I really don´t want that since generally I am holding up fairly well.
I have learned that I am not cut out to sleep in the same room with many people. That might have been OK when I was 21-22 and we slept with 5 in the room but at 68 it has absolutely NO appeal. So I am trying to plan the trip so I can stay in hotels, and the like where I can have a room to myself. I don´t want to have to walk down the hall to the bathroom but that is Ok if necessary. So, I am off to look at shoes. If I have the energy I will post a little blog about people and politics before I hit the road again tomorrow morning.

06/13/06 PAMPLOMA

As you can see, I am in Spain. I have not had access to a computer in ages obviously, but I will try to recreate what has happened since Navarrenx. Axel took a rest day in Navarrenx to wait for his wife so I took off alone. It rained off and on to Boholeguia which is close to Aroue. There was a gite(the 'i' is supposed to have a ^ over it, but anyway a gite is a communal sleeping arrangement usually with bunk beds and depending on the size of the room many or few beds. I don´t like them!)for 13 people and was run by the perfect momma. This was on a farm and she loved doing this during the season. she seemed to like me and put me in the only single room in the place, BLESS THAT WOMAN! so I was a happy camper. She provided enough calories at dinner for everyone to walk all the way to the ocean and then did the same in the morning along with putting out a platter so we could make ourselves a sandwich for lunch. What a wonderful person! The next day was on to Gaineko Extea close to Ostabat. This was a long one in hot weather. I didn´t take any of the short cuts and ended up going up the equivalent of Camelback with a pack on to look at a little chapel that was built in the beginning of the 19th century. God I was beat especially since I had to go down again. When I got to Ostabat I was really thirsty even though I had already drunk 2 1/2 liters of water so I went into a bar and asked for water. The woman filled up a flask for me and just left. I drank the whole thing and left one euro then went out the door. While trying to find my way out of town I ran into Benoit (from the past) and I asked him how he got past me without me seeing him. He told me that he and almost everyone else took the short cuts. Well, it was good training for the Pyrenees. Benoit was waiting for a replacement part for his backpack which broke under way. The company was shipping a replacement to this little village for him. I got to my Gite and having learned from the night before I asked if they had a single room that I could have (for more money of course) and they did. There was a large (13) group there who walk with just water and lunch on their backs and have a van take every thing to the next stopping place. This is Basque country and I think that this gite makes it´s real money from these tours so at the dinner the husband put on a sing along show during the whole time. Really the first that I have seen since I have been on the road. By this time I was running with the same group most of the time even though everyone walks alone we all end up at the same places as there aren´t many options. The next morning I walked to St. Jean le Vieux which is just 4 km short of the starting place for the crossing of the Pyrenees. Stayed at Hotel-Bar Mendy. Saw the French foreign legoner and his wife´s friend for the last time on the road there. Story: Remember the three people way back there who almost couldn´t sleep in the Gite because of the nurses? Well that was the French Foreign legoner, his wife and his wife´s friend. Since we got things strainghtened out they liked Axel and me. for the next week + we/I would run into them almost every day. Well, it seems that the wife´s friend told the wife that she wanted to learn about the Camino but was concerned to do it alone the first time. So, the wife said something like,´well my husband knows it well and he will go with you.´. Good idea. So they drove to the first Gite, stayed overnight and then the wife provided them a nice lunch at the same place Axel and I stopped to eat our bread and sausage. By the time they got to the Pyrenees where they stopped, they hated each other. Every time he would talk she would role her eyes and every time he had a chance he would tell Axel, in french, that she was a wimp and complained the whole time. It really was interesting to watch. Axel, no shrinking violet he, asked her outright if they were lovers, but she made it very clear she was the friend of the wife only!!! The French f. legoner fought in Algeria and Vietnam for 17 year and then has been on pension for 34 years. I saw him without his shirt on and I can see why he is on pension. His upper chest looks like someone used it for a pin cushon. Anyway, they both looked happy when they shook hands shortly before they got on a bus or train out of there!!!

Part 2 and the French health care system

You may remember that I strained my left hamstring way back in the beginning walking in the rain and mud. By the time I am writing about I had a huge bruise on the back of my left leg which went from above my shorts hem to below my knee. So, before dinner, which we made, I was walking around like normal. During dinner everyone was talking in French so I had completely tuned out and was eating when suddenly I notice that everyone was talking and then looking at me, and then talked some more and then looked at me, etc. Axel explained that these were a bunch of nurses (the women who didn't have reservations and wouldn't leave)and they were VERY worried about my leg, and thought that I ought to see a doctor! I tried to talk them out of it as I bruise very easily now but they kept right on it and in a while they had both Axel and me worried. A. and I went out to talk it over but the next thing I knew one of the nurses who spoke a little English told me that it was out of my hands; they had decided that I needed to see a doctor and had called the mayor of the district. The mayor showed up and it was decided that he would take me to the doctor, NO, can't do that because of liability concerns, so they call the paramedics. This is out in the boonies and the paramedics were eating their Sqturday evening meal drinking a little wine and needless to say took their time showing up. When they came they started towards me with a portable EKG machine and that is where I said NO, NO!! So they put A. and me in the ambulance to take me to the doctor. Axel was the only one who could translate. We got to the doctor who was just a delightful guy and he said what I already knew which was that I had ripped a muscle or tendon a little and due to the medication I take there was a huge bruise. If it didn't hurt too much, he said that I should walk! Then the dr. got us into his car and took us on a tour of the area while taking us back to the Gite. He explained the facts to the nurses, which finally shut them up and it only cost me 63.50 Euros which wasn't all that bad considering that I never made a single phone call or consented to any of this. Anyway, the mayor was still there and told us that he made 150,000 liters of red wine each year which got Axel in action and he bought a bunch wholesale to be sent home to Norway. So, I can say with some expertise that the French medical system is doing fine and Dr. Monet is one really nice guy.

06/06/07 NAVARRENX

Since I have seen a computer the last time I have been to Miramont-Sensacq where I learned that all is not what one sees and one may find out about the French medical system without trying when I stayed in a city Gite there, then to Arzacq-Arraziguet where the nurses from the previous stop were talking at dinner at the gite with about 20 people, then on to Pomps where the German who loved to stay in the Gites made us dinner and considering that he had very little to work with, provided us with a great meal before the German bicycle girls showed up,then on to Maslacq which was a very nice quiet hotel demi-pension, and now in a very old hotel in Navarrenx.
The story back at Miramont-... was that we showed up at the gite first and there was a sign which said that the people who ran it were not there and there was a list of the people who had reservations, and there was no room except for the people who had reserved there. We had reserved and staked out our territory. A little later 2 guys showed up, they also were on the list and they went to the other room and staked out their territory. There were three bunk beds in each room. Then four women showed up and asked us to move so they could all be in our room. We said NO. They went to the other two guys and the next thing we know the guys are in our room. These women were not on the list as we found out later. So we were sitting out in front of the gite sipping some wine when 3 other people showed up. They were on the list and had reservations. However the women were not going to leave and they made that very clear. Just as things began to get dicie, Axel, who I was walking with said that with a little cooperation maybe somehthing could be done. I went up and tried to pick the lock to the upstairs but couldn't do it so I started through the drawers of the desk looking for keys. Finally the keys were found and the upstairs was opened. Problem solved. Oh, forgot to tell you, the place had been fumigated for bed bugs and we couldn't sleep in our sleeping bags and our backpacks had to be in special fumigation sacks. Then the fun really began!, which I will put in the follozing blog.

An aside

Dusty attached a comment onto my EAUZE posting and if you want to see where I am at any time click on the comment box at the bottom and read it and he will tell you how to find the places!

06/01/07 AIRE-SUR-L'ADOUR

With the rain comes some interesting observations. Most of the slugs are orange here. They have industrial strength 18 to 20 inch long earth worms. The weather has been iffy but no real serious rain for a number of days now. On the 30th I walked to Nogaro which was my 2nd 20+ kilometer day in a row and I have been having trouble with my upper back. The next day on the way to a little place called Duburry I spent the whole time adjusting all the different parts of my pack and I think, hope, that some of the problem has been solved. We will see. Last night I slept in a dorm room with a German middle school principle - no spell checker- and two of his female teachers, all about ready to retire soon. Very interesting as this is the first time I have done this. And me who has to go to the bathroom about 4 times a night. Well, at least I was in the bottom bunk!
Tonight I am in AIRE-SUR-L'ADOUR after a fairly short walk today It rained off and on but it was mostly just showers and the parts of the trail which are mud were not too slippery. Nice little place, I have counted 4 pharmacies so there are at least 10,000 people being served here. I have a room in a demi-pension hotel tonight! A room all to myself, what small pleasures there are in this life! Dinner served at 7:30 pm. Breakfast at 7:30. I doesn't get much better than that.
By the way, I think I have this figured out a little. You get up in the morning, dress and eat. You walk, you hurt, you eat a little lunch on the road, you go to your sleeping place, you shower, you wash some clothes, you rub the parts that hurt if you can reach them, maybe you take a nap, you worry about where you sleep later, you eat, you sleep, you etc. Life ain't so complicated!

05/29/07 EAUZE

Last night a father and daughter from Frankfurt came into the place I was straying and also a Swiss man. During dinner The German got going on the fact that Germany has troops in Afghanastan even when they are not supposed to be doing any fighting. He was absolutely strident about his opposition to any war. He kept saying that with Germany`s history in the first 1/2 of the 20th century they should absolutely not be anywhere near a war. The Swiss man seemed to me to be a professionsl pilgrim. He is a youngish man who is somehow on a disability pension. This is his 5th time walking the Camino. He has walked every Way that I have read about. High fat dinner again.
There was no rain today which was a blessing! I walked about 21 km over mostly flat but sometimes rooling landscape. The weather has been so cold and wet here this year that the corn which is supposed to be about 4 feet high now is about 8 inches high. The farmers and the walkers are tired of this cold weather. TV says one thing and the newspapers say another about the weather here tomorrow. I go with the TV! No rain!

05/28/07 LASSERRRE-DE-HAUT

This morning I woke up early and ate early which was nice. Got ready for on the road --- it was raining. Put on all of the rain gear and headed out. I was able to stay dry in spite of the rain and the wind, even my feet, until I came to an old Roman bridge which obviously was not designed for this particular 1000 year rain storm. Water was flowing on both sides of the very dry bridge apex. Thus my feet got soaked and I slogged along. There probably was another way to go around the bridge but I am very tentative about straying from the path. If I got seriously lost with my non existent French I might end an undocumented worker somewhere in France for ever. I am in a nice place out in the country, dry and a happy camper. Now I wait for the telephone conversation with Mary. Getting pretty good on the French keyboard.

05/27/07 Condom

As the Way had been drenched the day before I decided to walk down the road to Condom. It was a little shorter and I did not have to ski in the mud. Got there by 11:00 and found my Gite and had a room with 2 French men. The town was closing down for holiday on Monday. Slept well in spite of all the strange bodies in the room with me. All mistakes are to be attributed to a French keyboard. Many keys are in very different places

5/27/2007 Scottsdale

This is Mary instead of Doug. He had trouble getting his blog to post so he emailed it to me and I posted it. In the translation, we got the odd spacing. Sorry!

o5/26/07 La Romieu

At dinner on the 25th at Mme. Souviron there was a bicycling couple
from northern France. She, Anne Pons is an Environmental Manager for
the largest steel company in France. He, Benoit Renouf, is a
pharmacist. Interestingly, the law allows 1 pharmacy for every 2500
people in the area. Count the pharmacies and one knows approximately
what the population is. They were both very nice to me and helped me
do bookings as well as offered to help in the future with their cell
number at my disposal. I surely do appreciate all the help the French
people here have been willing to give me. With my French, I need it
of course.

I started in a fairly heavy rain for La Remieu with my backpack
raincoat on as well as the slicker. It poured and then the wind began
to howel making the rain come at about 45 degrees. Then the dirt got
very sticky and slick. Oh, this was not fun. I stopped a couple time
in farmers shed but it was only a postponement. The mud got so slick
that I had to push myself up the slopes with my trecking poles because
there was absolutely no traction. Finally after about two hours of
this the wind slowed down and the rain began to slacken. By this time
my boots were soaked through and through as well as lots of me. I had
a couple of things which were not in plastic bags but that will not
happen again. Anyway, finally through the decreasing rain appeared the
quite wonderful cathedral in La Romieu. I went into the town to the
tourist office, had my p. passport stamped, and then found my room.
The landlord allowed me to put my boots next to his stove and gave me a
beer. His wife put my socks in the drier and life began to look
somewhat better. Then the guy who gave me the hat showed up in a
similar shape and he had the room downstairs in the little dorm. He,
Alain Simon, and I had dinner together and then sleep time. I am
spending a lot of time worrying about where I am going to sleep a week
from now as they allow people to make reservations here in La Romieu
all the good places tend to fill up early. The week ends are the worst
of course.

05/25/07 LECTOURE #2

The room in Auvillar was wonderful and there was also a French-Canadian there. We each used the shower and washed clothes. We were staying demi-pension which means that we got dinner and breakfast. When we went down for dinner the Canadian recognized someone and the three of us ate together. The other guy, Axel, spoke French but also English so most of the conversation was in English which was nice of them as it made it possible for me to understand. They both had started in Le Puy and they were full of horror stories of how hard that walk was and how easy the walk along the canal was. It was very amusing and they gave me a lot of information. One thing I had already learned was that one wants to take LOTS of water with them. There is no guarentee (remember what I said about no spell checker!) that there was a little store in a village or whether the store would be open. The dinner was wonderful. We sat out on a patio with a tree shading us and the food was great. I went to bed and actually slept a little bit better as I was slowly beginning to get onto French time. Got up the next morning, had breakfast and then after packing, this is where I realized that the pillow was no longer with me, I hit the road. Benoit (I think that is how one would spell it) was already on the road well before me. It was 9:30 by the time I started and as it got warmer I promised myself that I would not do that again. Very nice up and down walk which ended up at Miradoux. Again it is up on a hill. While walking around town I ran into the guys from the night before and Axel, 56 year old chain smoker from Norway, was staying at the same little place I was staying at. We had another fat/proten filled meal and into bed. Breakfast was waiting for us at 6:30, we ate and the Axel and I headed off for Lectoure. Lectoure is up on another hill, and a steep one at that. I am staying with an older woman who rents out a room and from the smell of it is going to provide me with a great meal. She has 9 grandchildren. Axel went his own way and is sleeping somewhere else.
Anyway, the only thing I miss is the hat. The pillow would have been nice, but it took up a lot of room int he back pack. Anyway, last night when we were eating there was a French guy at our table and I mentioned that the hat I had bought was a piece of junk. He immeditely offered me a hat which was an extra one that he had carried with him. He is about done for this part of his journey and must work for the summer before he can come back and do the rest of the route. Anyway, he wanted to give it to me and although I though it was not all that good I took it and wore it today. AND, it is a wonderful hat especially in the rain today. Fortunately I saw him in town about an hour ago and was able to really thank him properly. So, I am back with a good hat. I will try to put a picture on next time I find an internet connection.

05/25/07 IN LECTOURE

Absolutely first I have to thank Mary a thousnad times for all the support. When everything was going wrong she gave me more courage than she wil ever know. That cell phone which I have here was a lifesaver!
I probably should label this how I lost my hat, threw away my sleeping pad and forgot my pillow. On the train from Paris I changed seats because ther was a very strange person and to make a long story short, when I got off the train I did not have the hat on my head. I realized it almost right away and went to the station master who called the train and they searched for it but it was gone. Nothing to do. From then on every decision I made in trying to replace the hat was a poor one. Finally I got a lousy hat for way too much money and then got on the train to Moissac which is where I decided to start instead of Le Puy. There were cops and conductors all over the place on this little milk run train. WHAT! Anyway the group finally picked a teenage girl who they took between the cars and talked with her, searched her bag, etc. and then they all got off together at the next stop. The girl had that special look of the age. So I got to Moissac and took a cab to the place where I was to stay. The place smelled a little smoky but I didn't think much about it. Well, the place smelled of smoke and I sneezed and wheezed all night. By the time I got up I had decided to abandon my sleeping mat which weighed about 3 lbs. Then the owner's little boy came in with a picture and was determined to explain it to me. So, with all of that I checked under the bed and around the bed but I must have failed to check on the bed because that night I ended up without my little pillow. Then I left the house and went down to the tourist office, produced my pilgrim's passport and had it stamped. I was on my way!! Walked down to the canal, crossed the bridge and headed west. I must admit that I was very excited that finally it had started considering the day before was a -1 on a scale of 1 to 10. I only got lost once but when I got back on the right trail I got talking with a group of French people who come together every year and walk a little ways. They showed me how to make sure not to miss the way markers and were very nice. Actually with a few small exceptions all the people here in France have been wonderful to me. Always nice. So I kept going and then some 20+ kilometers later up on the hill ahead of me was the town of Auvillar. Up on the hill are the operative words here. Went to the tourist office (I am typing in one right now), got my p. passport stamped (this was the second one!!!) and they showed me where I had my reservation.

05/21/07 in Paris

Left Saturday evening on British Air. We were late from the start and then late from there on until I arrived in Paris Sunday evening about 7:30. The phone activated wonderfully and I was able to use it without a hitch. The hotel is 2 star and acts like it is 1/2 star but it is a place to sleep and use as a base. The night person is nice and helpful but the day lady is less than helpfull as she wants only to read her Koran. Talking about multi-racial! Well, they have it here to the max. and it certainly seems to work well at least in this section of town. It is wonderful to see people of different races mingling without any not so hidden agendas.
If the spelling and grammer goes south from here on out; well that is what happens when I don't have a spell checker and extra time to go over the writings.
As Dusty, the one who could carry a 50 pound pack, has appropriately decided not to come with me and my back is getting a little iffy I have decided to make a change in the plan and cut off 430 kilometers from the start place. So, naturally I have to leave from a different train station after I picked this hotel to be right next to Gare de Lyon. Now I am going out at 6:10 tomorrow morning from Gare Montparnasse. I have run back and forth on the metro between the train stations a couple of times but as the metro does not open until 5:30 I am not sure that is the way to get there in 40 minutes. I ran it in 25 minutes this last time now that I know the way, but who knows how it will be in the morning. I hope that the night desk person will know when the taxis start at the train station. Sure hope that I can go to sleep tonight so that I am on Paris time tomorrow morning.

05/17/07 MELTDOWN TIME

I am so overloaded it's almost meltdown time. I'm the worse, but Mary is also stressed to the max. It seems like one thing after the other to be solved. A couple of days ago I walked in full outfit pushing hard with the trekking poles. It felt so good and I felt strong but when I got home my back began to cramp and next my back started hurting like I was starting a new bout of bad lower back/buttocks/leg pain. I began stretching all parts of my back and legs like a crazy man to keep ahead of it and I have been fighting it ever since. I got a deep tissue massage from a very good lady on Wednesday. Now we are all about stretching and stretching. Got to stay ahead of it. Have another message Saturday morning before I fly in the evening.
Today we put the pack together in the final configuration and then after weighting it we started taking it apart and throwing things out. Third pair of pants, 3rd shirt, 3rd set of underclothes, and more, all are gone! Then I went looking for my puffer which I am sure I saw recently. Obviously I don't use it much any more but I want it for insurance. Gone! The doctor's office is not open tomorrow; run around and melt down time. But we have a Dr. friend here at LV who was willing to get me one. Trying to relax, stretching out and keeping my emotional self under control. Nice thing of being older is that I know that each new crisis will also pass and be solved. But, the nights are getting longer.

5/15/07 IN TRAINING

Here are all the parts. Hat with Guernica peace pin; hearing aids, all the better to hear you with my dear; glasses, all the better to see you with my dear; teeth, all my own to be used to bite the infamous camino dogs on their rears; backpack with too much weight; treking poles which use muscles one never believed they had but keep you vertical; and the right knee brace to make sure I don't make an ill conceived motion with that leg. Of course there are the pills, for the heart, and aches and pains; water at all times and a few clothes But, I am almost ready to go.

I hope to post to this blog regularly as long as I am walking on the Camino. That will depend on how my body holds up. If you google 'Saint James Way' you will find out more information than you ever hoped to know about this pilgrimage. I am starting at Le Puy, France and hope to make it all the way to the ocean at Finisterre, Spain.