Month: May 2019

Todu I learned that my limit is 25K about 15 miles. I started at 7 and

walked until 4, when the guidebook suggests a 35k day I won’t do it. I just mapped out my trip and I will be in Santiago on the 11th at the soonest.

I stopped at the one albergues that is what it was, run by a religous order, it is in the middle of nowhere and has no electricity

I great sight on the way a field of poppies.

Took an easy day, Made a reservation and sent my pack ahead. I am moving slower than I thought. Luckely I have plenty of time. I am in the measetta the great plains of Spain, it is quite and peaceful and it is a long way between towns.

In the morning I noticed that my shadow had a halo am i blessed.

Always a glutten tor punishment, the town I stoped at had a ruined castle on the hill.

Which I climbed,

The social aspect

of the Camino is wonderful, you meet people from all over the world and strike up friendships, sometimes you meet the same people agai and again and remeber their names. Some you only meet once. Around the table, Germany, Miami, Austrialia, South Korea, Taiwan and me)

I didnt make mu 35km goal today. At about 25k I figure I would get in at about 4pm, by that time there would be a good chance of no bed available. So I stopped two towns before. I tried to call ahead but could not connect.

I am walking endless fields of wheat, barley and alfafa, I am in the planes of spain, without rain, but I did not see any irrigation machinery.

Burgos was Beautiful

When it begain to pour I went into the Museam of human evolution. Europes larges archeological dig is 15 miles outside the city. I walked right by it without much thought. However the best artifacts found are in the museam. The museam is bilingual and is mostly pictures illustrations and text. Ellen did you know that grandmama has a biological purpose?

Here is a selfe of me as an australopithicus visiting the museam.

Tomorrow is 35km, I will try to start really early, wish me luck,

I am not sure that these are pilgrims, but I was surprised how many of us are significantly overweight, I guess what you don’t have in physical conditioning You can make up in will power.

I have been impressed by how many small villages have impressive alter pieces. Apparently many villages cant keep them up. This museum was built to preserve and display them and allows you a closer look.

In this piece Christ is clearly Mary’s child, who were the models? Next I visited the cathedral which is said to rival chartres. They had an audioguide which described each treasure, the artist that created it and the bishop or noble that commissioned it. What is not discussed is who created the wealth. Wealth comes only from workers and peasants. For spain, first feudalism, than colonialism. What would the world be like if columbus stayed home. Of course I oversimplify, hard to be subtle typing with your thumbs. Thanks for reading my blog, it has enhanced my trip to write it.

These are storks, a city bird that eats garbage. It is strange that we tell children that the stork brought them when they don’t exist in America.

The 22E room fells luxious, my own space and you know no one is there in line for the shared bath, the downside is I am all alone. At the Municipal Auberge I would already bave known many people there and would have met new ones I wouldnt have had to eat alone.

I start off strong in the morning but after the first 7 or so miles I begin to get fatigued. In the morning there seems to be pilgrims in front of me and pilgrims behind. But at the end of the day I am completely alone. The last part of today wasnt quaint at all an industrial secrion of Burgos. When it began to rain I got in a city bus for the last few miles.

I wanted to take a rest day tommorow so i found a “hostel” where I would have my own room for two days. The Pilgrims Aubergues where I have been staying are rin like homeless shelters. Everyone needs to be out by 8am and no one can come in before 1 or so, I didnt want to spend a tourist day with a pack on.

The hostel cost 22E/day with a shared bathroom, I am not sure why I am being so cheap with myself. My ski trips cost 250$/day, and club med must be something like 350/day per person. Of course when you are out for 50 days things add up. The camino is less than 50E a day, but that includes the inconvenience of getting off an upper bunk in the middle of the night to pee without killing yourself or stepping on the person who has the lower bunk.

I begin each day raring to go, by the end the walk seems endless. I am staying in a monestary that doesnt have good reviews. It is clearly the oldest building I have ever slept in.Tha tiny village has a magnificent church, Helpfully there were descriptions in english of the art. Here for my grandchildren are two scenes from the life of saint jerome, he helped a lion by removing a thorn from its paw and the the lion befriended him for life, I love the lion.

The next panel is not for the grandchildren. I shows the souls condemned to hell in the last judgement. I havent read the bible carefully but I cant beleve that Jesus who was proported to have said such wonderful things, painted such a grim picture of the after life. What a strange spiritual state to fear eternal damnation.

Today is a cold grey day but much better than a hard rain. I am feeling good. At one point I had a worry, my pack feels too light have I left something behind? I am making good use of lessons learned by listening to the app buddhify, When I have a worry I just think “hello worry” and then just let it go. Sometimes I allow myself to think about what I will say in ths blog and sometimes I just still my thoughts and stay in the moment. “feet” is a common thought, “Hello feet” .

When I meet other english speakers we talk for a while, until someone stops or picks up or slows down there pace. You meet people over and over again, sometimes you learn their stories sometimes not, here is a picture of four women from a small town i colorado, who I have met several days in a row. Marcia , a nurse used this trip to start her retirement, then a she invited her three friends along, and they came.

I may talk too much, I often tell people my age and the fact that I have just retired.

I told one women that the reason I stayed working so long is that I had two nurses working on the project that did all the work, as nurses usually do. This was the right thing to say because she was a nurse.

I had a long coversation about the british health service, my informant felt it was seriosly underfunded and failing.

Today I am tired. It is a long slog on a path very close to a highway through fields of wheat and barley. A man from new zealand told me how to tell them apart. On the way there was advertisements for an aubergue with a swimming pool. It was a little before town so I would not be able to go to the church without putting my boots back on. Once the boots are off you don’t want to put them back on. I have been doing my sightseeing of mideval churches in flip flops, even wearing them to Mass. The first picture is the endless road I trod today, the second should be labeled. “The hardships of a pilgrimage