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%.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
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.
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.
Monday, June 25, 2007
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.
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.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
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!
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!
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
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.
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.
Monday, June 18, 2007
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)