The Other Bathroom

Some pictures before our do-it-yourself remodel:

And the results after our work: new vanity, medicine cabinet, exhaust fan, light fixture, shower head, door knob, and paint.

The trip of a lifetime!

We are home from Europe, and I think the best way to tell the stories is to post the emails we sent each day.  We'll be doing that below, so read on.  The date on the post is the date we sent the email originally.

Day 14 - Hontanas to Itero de la Vega

Today was much shorter than yesterday at 12.8 miles. We did that in about six and a half hours including breaks. Out time is becoming more predictable, and that makes a lot of things easier.

Today, we had one major hill--everything is a "hill" after our first day! You can see the signs for the distances and the grades for each side. Going up, it was 1050 meters (about two thirds of a mile) at a 12% grade. Going down was 350 meters at an 18% grade. I asked Keith to take a picture because that grade sounded so ridiculous BEFORE I walked it.

The picture of Keith here is at the top of the hill. We were so high I felt like I could touch the clouds!

You can see what the Camino looks like from a long way off in another picture. When I see it like that, I always wonder why it hasn't gotten straighter over time. It seems to me that 500 years of pilgrims would have become more efficient, but it keeps turning!

My bus finally came at a time that Keith could get his camera out, AND it was headed in the right direction!

Today, we were introduced to a phenomenon that is new to us but common on the Camino: tourist groups on buses. Twice today, a bus pulled up close to us, and a number of people got off. I can't bring myself to call them pilgrims, but their trip is probably just enough walking to get the certificate in Santiago! Everyone who walks 100 km, or about 65 miles, is eligible. A Camino friend of ours said two days ago that some tourists took pictures of her because she is a real pilgrim! Today, one group had a variety of people, including one nun who was wearing high top boots! She was our favorite person in that group! They passed us walking, but we lost track of them later in the day.

Someone asked if we notice ourselves losing weight with all of our walking. I guess we really don't notice as much as we expected or hoped we would lose. One way pilgrims break up the walking is in all of the little cafes along the way. There are also grocery stores in most towns. We refuse to diet while we do this, so we eat what we want. Breakfast is usually from the grocery store the night before and consists of bread, fruit, and maybe some sort of meat that can handle being out of refrigeration. We don't really eat lunch, but we stop and eat cookies that we carry or a sandwich that we buy. More that it's warmer, we might buy a Coke to go with it. After we get settled from showers and laundry, we might eat another snack of cookies, nuts, or a sandwich. Dinner has been a pilgrim-intended meal of two plates of food, bread, wine, and dessert or sometimes totally different like pizza. Our highlight the other day was Burger King in a mall!

Well, we're off to see the town.

More walking tomorrow!

Day 13 - Burgos to Hontanas

Our GPS says we walked 20.5 miles today, but I'm suspicious because there's a weird part at the beginning. It was definitely over 19 miles, though. We're dead!

The blister count between us is up to four with three of them currently being treated. We're taking good care of each other!

You can see the town we're staying in tonight as we saw it from the top of the hill. Finally!! The last third of our trip today had absolutely no places to stop and rest! We were very glad to see this town!

Earlier in the day, we crested a hill and saw a place to rest in the distance with the long Camino path between us and the town. It always takes longer to get into town than I expect when I can see it a long way off!

I keep trying to remember to tell you all a story, and now I've finally remembered. It is common on the Camino to take a bus to a town if a pilgrim is sick, injured, tired, or lazy. We see buses and bus stops frequently, and I always tell Keith, "That's my bus!" Usually, it is headed in the wrong direction, so he reminds me where we're headed. Sometimes, I still think a bus might feel better, no matter which way it is going! For the record, neither of us have been transported by anything other than our feet since we got out of the taxi in France. We'll let you know if that changes, but you have to promise not to look down on us if we do it. That wouldn't be the Camino way. :-)

Well, my shoe insoles made things worse. I didn't even make it five miles before I took them out because the pounding pain would be better than what I lived with while they were in! I'm so disappointed! Basically, I bought shoes that fit without any insoles, and there isn't enough room for foreign objects with my feet in them. They weren't all that thick, but they were to thick to be comfortable. Ugh! Now I know that I will need to learn to live with the pounding pain and that nothing can be done to help it. At least I know now! Although, Keith and I agreed that I had to try everything before I decided to live with it. Now I've decided.

Tomorrow will make two weeks of walking. We are planning on a short day to allow our bodies to recover from today. We've agreed to take a rest day in León if we don't take one before we get there. I don't know how far away that is right now, but I think it's less than ten days. The cruise countdown is at 25 days today! Can you tell I'm ready?!

We've checked the weather in the States every few days, and we're convinced that we're missing the summer heat by being here! It's hot today by Spain standards, but I bet it barely got over 80 degrees. These folks are smart with their siesta!

We're off to rest after a pizza dinner.

Day 12 - Ages to Burgos

This will be quick.

We walked 14 miles into Burgos today, and we're in one of the nicest hostels on our trip so far.

I got insoles for my shoes, so we'll see what happens.

We're moving on tomorrow.

Day 11 - Belorado to Ages

18.2 miles in 8 1/2 hours. The rumors have started about full hostels down the road, but we found a place in the town we were aiming for. Out first choice was full, but they told us where there was room, and it was a few steps down the road, so here we are.

Keith took a lot of pictures today including several of me. I ate ice cream around 9:00 this morning while everyone else ate breakfast. There's also a picture of me walking down a very steep path with another steep path going up in front of me. Keith also likes to record the flowers he sees here. Today, he's got a pink one and a white one. I asked him to give me the camera so I could show you what he looks like today. :-)

After the halfway point of our day, we stopped in a town, and I discovered my first blister. I treated it, and we left. The next 7 or 8 miles had NOTHING! You can see a picture of the road that curves twice-- that was the most exciting thing we saw door a LONG time today, so we took a picture of it. We cannot judge our distance well because we walk at different speeds during the day, so we had no idea when it would end. We noticed that we made progress because our view of the windmills was changing. We've decided that we really like windmills because they look so peaceful, but they are so green for the earth.

Tomorrow will be a large city called Burgos. We decided to skip the laundry today, and we'll wash it all tomorrow in a machine. We're also going to include our jackets and rain pants because they have gotten a LOT more wear than we planned!

We have decided how we will end our Camino. After Santiago, it's a 3 or 4 day walk to the Atlantic Ocean. The town there is called Finisterre, and we will walk if we feel up to it, but we will take a bus if we sing have time or energy to walk. We're excited to see the Atlantic from the other side!

We're 27 days from leaving on our cruise, but we feel a million miles from all of that life. When it comes, we'll be glad to see it.

Day 10 - Santo Domingo to Belorado

13.3 miles to Belorado in seven hours. There wasn't much to be happy about for the first five hours today. The guy who took our picture made us laugh when he told us to make it look like it really was: miserable. So, our smiles were the first time we smiled in the day, probably.

We're learning about the rhythms of life on Spain, and one of them is that nothing is open on Sundays. So, we bought food last night for today, and Keith carried it until we stopped in the first town. His backpack was so heavy that he decided to go ahead of me and wait so he could carry it less time. The attached picture is what he looked like when I found him. He'd been there for 20 minutes.

The picture of me is relatively early in the day. My hands are inside of my poncho in the pockets of my pants to try to stay warm. Warm hands means a happier pilgrim. You can see the condition of the road behind me, which is much better than anything we saw the first two days even though it's not very good. The surface is more like sand than mud, and the water isn't nearly as deep. We both have dry shoes today, even after all of the rain.

Keith added up five of our ten days having rain, and two of them have been warm and sunny. That's not what we prepared for, but we are here. Now that we've covered so much ground, we're starting to feel a little proud of ourselves. Ten different beds, ten different showers, and roughly 150 miles. Nothing can be described as routine at all! We have come to think of our plans as only one option among many!

Last night, we ate our first hostel dinner, which we made with three other pilgrims. A bunch of people elected to cook in our hostel last night, so the dishes and pans were a rare commodity. As they finished and washed, we grabbed and ate. We drank our wine out of tall plastic cups... nothing close to proper wine glasses! We loved our dinner! Pasta, which was leftover from another group, chopped onions and red peppers, sausage, tomato sauce, cheese from another group, and a little touch of meat sauce from another group. We also had bread and green olives, with the pits, on the side. We'll be glad to have another hostel dinner when we get an invitation!

I've made a decision about my sore feet-- I'm going to buy shoe inserts tomorrow. In fact, a guy from England we walked with for a while a few days ago came up beside us today and told us he heard about my sore feet from other pilgrims we know from Ireland. Word certainly gets around the Camino! He told me he heard that I don't have inserts in my shoes, and he was shocked! I said they didn't bother me in our training at home, so I didn't think I needed them. He understood, but he still told me to get some. What he didn't know is that two guys from Spain found heel inserts yesterday for one euro and bought them for me! I walked on those today, and that is what made me decide that full length inserts can't hurt. We can't get them today because the pharmacy is closed, but we'll buy them tomorrow either before we leave town or in a town halfway to our destination. At the worst, we'll get them in Burgos in two days.

On the Camino, people give a lot of advice. You take what you want and ignore the rest. I've learned to tell the difference in how Keith talks when he's actually going to follow someone's advice and when he is just being polite by listening to them say crazy things that we would never follow. My feet have gotten us lots of suggestions, so I'll let folks know what works when I figure it out.

We've been at our hostel for three hours already, and no one else had come into our room to stay tonight. There are others here, but they are in different rooms. We're not sure if this place has a bad reputation or if it's in a less-than-ideal location or something else, but we're happy with our stay so far. If our clothes dry tonight, we'll call this a success-- if not, we might throw them in the dryer in the morning just to make life a lot simpler.

We hope you stayed drier than we did today!

Day 9 - Najera to Santo Domingo

Today was a pretty decent walk. Someone taped my feet to try to help with the pain from the pounding. I took pain medicine this morning and five hours later. Altogether, I wasn't comfortable, but I want wincing like yesterday either. The day was shorter, though, at close to 14 miles, so maybe nothing actually helped except less pounding! My next option is inserts for my shoes. We're not sure that they'll work, so we didn't want to make the investment yet.

We felt really good about our pace today. Our breaks were enough, and we made it to our destination before the rain. We weren't so lucky yesterday! 

Some of you may want to know what we see while we walk, and we're attaching some pictures of that from the last two days. Of course, inside of the towns is very old buildings, but between towns are wildflowers alongside of vineyards or other growing fields. We also see towns far in the distance, but sometimes we're wrong about which town we're going to next because we can't judge these distances yet. Today we saw a kilometer marking at every kilometer, which was sometimes good but not usually. We also saw LOTS of Camino path in front of us. There are cultural things, too, like the bull on the hill.

Of all the people we started the Camino with on May 31, we think we're leading the pack. Some have taken rest days, some have been injured, and some have finished the leg of the journey they set out to do this year. It's common to take a bus somewhere along the way, especially on the long days, but we haven't been on anything with wheels since our taxi to Saint Jean, France. We think of ourselves as "slow and steady." One guy we've seen lots of days tells us to pay more attention to the steady than the slow. I think we're impressing some of the young ones who are hoping to do the whole thing!

Coming up soon is a section of the Camino called the Meseta. It will be flat and hot, they say. The past two days have been cooler and cloudy, so my Norwegian skin has appreciated less sun. We think we have at least one more cloudy day sorry a chance of rain at some point in the day, so we're glad to have our jackets.

Keith distracts me when I'm in pain by asking how many days until our cruise. Today, it's 29 days! We're contemplating walking all the way to the Atlantic Ocean after we get to Santiago, but we can't make that decision until a few days before. If we do it, we will literally walk from one side of Spain to the other, and those added days are apparently beautiful. It's as long shot, so we'll see.

Since everything is closed on Sundays in Spain, we plan to get some food from a grocery store before it closes today. We've got a medium length day tomorrow.

Day 8 - Logrono to Najera

Wow! 19 miles! The elevation didn't change much, but it did rain at the end.

You might be a pilgrim if..... You would rather have steep paths than wet ones!

Day 7 - Torres del Rio to Logrono

Today was shorter and earlier than our other days at a little more than 12 miles in 6 hours. Less sunburn, earlier shower, and longer rest make us want to figure out how to end earlier on other days, too.

We're splitting laundry with another pilgrim again, so it'll be all done before we eat dinner tonight. Tomorrow might be another 18 mile day, so we're hoping to rest up.

Before we left, we tried to arrange to share a taxi with other pilgrims. It didn't work out to share with Gerry, but we picked him out at the airport as a fellow pilgrim. Gerry is writing a blog, and we're staying in lots of the same towns and hostels as him, so I thought you might want to see some of the pictures we're too lazy to take because it's a little bit of effort to get out the camera. The address for his blog is
http://gerryscamino.blogspot.com.es

Jennifer might be in a picture from this afternoon. We haven't loaded our pictures for today yet, so there's nothing attached today other than the gpx file that will show you our route and elevation.

I'm truly shocked at all of the injuries I see on people who are still walking! The pharmacy employees (pharmacist, nurse, doctor, or something else?) take really good care of everyone, it seems, but I just don't know if I'll keep walking if I have to wrap both knees and tape both feet just to make it possible to walk fifteen miles again! There's serious dedication out here! I decided to try walking without tape today, and my feet are fine. My muscles wouldn't cooperate for quite a while this morning, but they eventually warmed up. Our worst complaint is the pain in our feet near the end of the day. They feel like they have been pounded and pounded, which they have! I can't really describe the feeling any other way. More than the cardio required to get up the hills, the pain on the bottoms of my feet is what makes me stop to rest.

I'm going now to investigate a postcard and a post office to send a note.

Day 6 - Estella to Torres del Rio

18.6 miles in about ten hours deserves some sort of reward, I think, so we paid to wash and dry our laundry in a machine tonight.

What a day! We realized last night that two out of the next three days would have to be 18 miles, so we opted not to do those back-to-back. We had to psych ourselves out as we passed through the town that other people stopped in if they decided to put off the first eighteen mile day-- that was hard! Keith took a picture of me after we left Los Arcos, which was already thirteen miles into the day. You can see the next town deep into the background on my left, but you might have to zoom in. The place we stopped is half a mile after that town! It was a LONG walk!

Earlier in the day, we came upon a wine fountain right next to a water fountain. Trick question: which one do you think we picked?!

At one point, there was a fork in the path. Our choices were long and flat or short and rugged. We picked rugged and short even though everyone else's guidebooks told them longer and flat was the best option. With that option, we also got great scenery. I took Keith's picture, attached, with one of the fabulous scenes being him. Also up there, we kept seeing a peak with something on it. We finally figured out that it was some sort of man-made structure, maybe a church a long time ago. That's in the other picture.

We're still some of the slowest walkers or here, but we don't have blisters yet. We suspect a correlation between the two, but we won't be surprised if our good fortune runs out eventually.

It's somewhat liberating to live with everything you need in one backpack, besides shelter, food, and water. We have some of the smallest packs out here, and we thank ourselves often for those choices we made in the months before we left. I also thank myself for cutting my hair!

We're off to our pilgrim dinner then to bed before a shorter day tomorrow to Logroño. It's supposed to be mostly flat, too, which works for me!

Day 5 - Puenta la Reina to Estella

14.8 miles in 8 hours. We're pretty tired, so this is short. We're fine.

Day 4 - Pamplona to Puenta la Reina

Before we got going very far, someone offered to take a picture of us together, which is rare. We had lots of road ahead of us. It was still chilly, and the wind was moving.

Later today was BEAUTIFUL!!  We climbed up to a very high point (the wind was crazy there, which you can see in one of the attached pictures) and then came back down on the other side in completely different vegetation.

Before we were done, we were both in short sleeves, and I was in shorts (see attached pictures again)! I even got a little sun on my hands because I use hiking poles.

Today was a longer day of more than 16 miles, but we made it to our intended destination. We've met lots more people today, and we're looking forward to hitting the road again tomorrow. Still no blisters for "Georgia," which our Camino friends are starting to call us.

Day 3 - Zubiri to Pamplona

We walked about thirteen miles to Pamplona today, and the hostel is fabulous! Our clothes did not dry last night, so we carried lots of water in the wet ones today (mostly on Keith's back, because he volunteered and I accepted the offer). My first stop is the dryer-- I'm spoiling myself by paying for the dryer, but it's so worth it to me today!

The path has gotten much better, and the weather is finally good, too.  Pamplona also promises good food.... We're thinking about McDonald's for a change from the regular pilgrim menu.  We'll see what we find.

Our feet are holding up pretty well. The people who have passed us recently have confessed to multiple blisters, but we're both still blister free so far. Keith taped a spot today, but he thinks it's more a pressure point than a blister. I have taped a spot everyday from something that felt weird on our last training walk two weeks ago. It's not becoming anything yet.

The forecast for the next few days is promising-- we might even be able to wear the shorts we brought! I finally took off my jacket in the last few miles today! Paul, Keith's brother, helped us feel a little less ignorant when he wrote to say the French Open in Paris claims to have the coldest this time of year in 100 years. We'll hang onto that hope!

There are so many nice people both on the Camino and in the towns we pass through! Fellow pilgrims celebrate with us when we arrive at a cafe for a break. Today, we were in a little town, and I was hoping to find a bathroom. We asked a lady where a public restroom was. She said there was not one, and she immediately offered for me to come into her house! It was a beautiful gesture, and the bathroom was so nice that I felt guilty for having dirty on my shoes! But, I took it! The life of a pilgrim....!

Tomorrow will be our first day of new road. Since we took a taxi from Pamplona to the start, I've felt like we're backtracking for three days. Tomorrow, we'll be west of where we flew into northern Spain. I'm excited about that!

Well, I've been writing while I sit in line for the dryer, and I've run out of things that I can think of to write. There's really too much to say in some ways! The attached pictures are from yesterday. Keith is freezing in flip-flops while his shoes dry from two days in rain and mud. He took a picture of me from behind while I wasn't looking but was working my way along a Camino path.

Love to all!

Day 2 - Roncesvalles to Zubiri

We walked 15 miles from Roncesvalles to Zubiri, Spain in about 8.5 hours. It's still colder and wetter than we planned and packed for, but we're finding solutions to all of that. Keith said today, "Even if it gets to be 100 degrees and I'm dehydrated, I will not complain about the heat!" (If it comes, I say to myself!)

Today, we're grateful for simple food, hot showers, warm beds, and our fellow pilgrims.

Day 1 - St Jean Pied de Port, France to Roncesvalles, Spain

Longer, wetter, colder, and windier than we expected, but we're in Roncesvalles after about 17 miles in ten hours (with two breaks). Great showers here, and good accommodations.