Estrella Estrella Estrella

Sitting in a cafe with an onion the size of my head.

We are now on day six or seven, I can't really remember anymore. The heel cup in Ben's boot is helping, but he still walks with a little gimp in his gait.

Yesterday we climbed up and over the pampalona basin leaving the Pyrenees for good. Now and for twelve days or more we are walking through the plains of Spain where it does not rain. In fact, its warm as hell and the crunching sound your shoes make on red gravel and the expanse of tilled up barren farm fields reminds you this is gods country, or maybe a Cohen brother movie.

We can only imagine how hellish it could be in the summer, when you should traditionally do this walk.

But, also we found amidst all this farm land we realized it's hard to camp. Bens foot, as I mentioned still hurts him, and so he decided that the four euro a night pilgrim Hostel s with showers are really a deal. And so this morning we sent our tent and cold weather gear and ben his books away to santiago. Can you guess what it cost? I bet you can't so I will tell you: 12 euros with the box. And the woman in the Puenta la Reina is holding it there fir a few weeks to ensure it meets up with us. Humans can be wonderful creatures.

Speaking of wonderful creatures, my cat Cole passed away in Saturday and if you were lucky enough to know him, you can understand how saddening that is. 

Ben chimes in

Spain is beautiful, german insoles have radically altered my level of foot pain, the weather has taken a turn for fantastic, here are some photos of spains (and morgans) beauty, now back to my cafe con leche

A walled city, a warm day and a little luck.

We have arrived in Pampolona yesterday. The walk was long, there was a detour through a park that serpentined with the river. The camino typically crosses a hill, which I am sure would have also afforded us a sweet view of the walled city. The river path was pretty, but covered in concrete, which is sore sore on the feet. We have found a lot of the road has been paved and stamped to look like stone. But this was a bike path, turned suburban sidewalk, turned bike path again. It was worth it, though, to walk up a hill and alongside thirty foot walls and over a draw bridge into the old city. We liked it so much, we stayed an extra day.

Turns out that was a great idea. The sky opened up and its 80 ans sunny.

Ben hurt his foot in Germany and TSA stole our camping gas in Baltimore, so we have been a hobbling camp stove-less duo. In a cafe this morning, a fellow pilgrim mentioned he had noticed Bens limp and cane (nothing new there,  everyone notices). But turned out this pilgrim is an orthopedic doctor and so Ben got a free consultation and the pilgrim even went insole shopping with us. We found an orthopedic shoe store, sized up Ben's foot, and now he can walk!

This is obviously less awesome, but we also found camping gas, which is very hard to do in europe as they have a different gas-stove attachment system. So this ended a multi week saga/headache.

Most photos from yesterday are on Bens phone and he's lazy. Send your greivences to him.

So yeah, hitting the road again tomorrow.

I am tired!

First day over! We hiked a lot and the downhill sucked. So very steep and we were switchbacking the path by the end. I guess that like 30000 or more walk down that path every year so there is no reason to complain. And truthfully, I am just trying to stop the jealousy. Booya!

The hike was actually beautiful and we were in the clouds most of the way.  It was pretty epic to see sheep and horses and cows and sometimes whole towns emerge out of the haze. I took more pictures of animals today than is really fathomable.

And then we arrived to Ronscevalles, which is this amazing small village made up of maybe five collosal stone buildings, an old church and a silo from the time of charlemange, which looks not like a silo but a jail and is also mostly a burial ground. And we ate a pilgrims dinner, which for nine euro each included a plate of pasta and sauce, a full fish and fries, bread, wine and a cup of yogurt to help it all go down. 

Additionally, we went to mass, I did some whiddling and walked from France to Spain over the Pyrenees.

Biarritz

Leaving Biarritz today, after a swim in the heated swimming pool! The French coast is beautiful!

Found a camping spot in the boonies of Biarritz in a town called Bidart. We walked for a while around Biarritz, looking for a ground that was closed and then around a golf course that was in the general direction of where we wanted to end up to find camp ground number two. Ben was reluctant to ask for directions at the fancy golf club, but then ate his words when the man at the front  desk was super helpful and called a camp ground for us and a patron even gave as a ride. And so now we are here, at a four star camp ground, drinking wine that cost a euro per bottle and swimming in a heated pool.

But, on the downside, its overcast and rained a little, so its not really beach weather unless one were a suffer in a wetsuit.

We are walking tomorrow, or the day after.

Hmmmmm...

Ben and I were going to sleep in the airport tonight, at the middle of no-where airport frankfurt-hahn, thank you rtan air. When pammi and al dropped us off, it was literally on a street where oneside was an airport and the other a hotel. The question became two part: a) do they let you sit in an airport when there is a hotel across the one way street and b) do you let yourself sleep sitting up in a plastic airport chair at that point.

We slept at the hotel. We are sleeping at the.hotel.

Tomorrow, fifteen feet away, our plane will take off for Biarritz, France. It seems like a cool beach town, which I would be more excited about if I brought a suit.

After we land and sleep somewhere (beach, pension, park bench), we go on to st. jean pied de port. This is,the town where the ancient walking paths that cone through france meet before all funneling into the camino frances, jacobian route, or most popular of all the potential camino de santiagos you could walk. I will refer to this route as "the road" or maybe "the path" or even "what I did today." What else I can tell you is that this path is over five centuries  old and no cars go there. Catholic folks walk it mostly, and mostly during the summer. They choose this month because there is a mass for st. john (san tiago in spanish) on july 25th. I personally don't know that much about dear john, which is probably too bad. Anyway, I do know Charlemange himself walked part if not all of it and that on the first day we will walk a roman road.

Put it simply, wikipedia el camino frances, and learn more, cause I aint no expert... Yet.

and here is a cool photo Ben took of a dog that was ontop of a garage. His owners had built him a platform, perch thing.

We went to Italy and came back.

We left ellmau a few days ago and drove for a long time. We went to the dolomites in Italy for a night so that Bens grandparents could meet with an woodcarver, and pick up some pieces for their craft store in B-more. Then it was off to Germany, Bad Kreuznach to be exact. This town is where Bens grandmother was born and is beautifully set in a valley surrounded by vineyards. There are these huge walls along thriver where mineral water from a well is pumped up the structure and then drips down and through these sticks that the wall is made from. In Germany,if you are sick,sometimes your doctor sends you to a spa or maybe even to this town, where for six weeks you are expected to walk these tall structures and cure what ails you. Oh, and drink beer.