Back on the Camino

​Today I resumed my pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago.  I missed two weeks while my blisters healed.  In fact, the blisters weren’t fully healed, they had behaved like bunnies and had multiplied.  While I concentrated on the really deep ones, it turns out that there were at least 8 others that hadn’t gotten so deep as to resemble hamburger.  At any rate, I could still tell that there were several sore spots still there.  I had chosen to carry my rucksack because I wasn’t sure how far I would go today.  Then I received a call from my Camino buddy Dave that someone had taken his boots(!?).  Apparently, someone had seen his boots in the ‘boot box’ at the entrance and had mistaken Dave’s boots for his because of the color and had placed them in his backpack.  When Dave tried to leave, his boots were missing and this other gentleman’s boots were still in the ‘boot box’.  Fortunately for Dave, he had overpacked and had a pair of ‘city boots’ in his backpack for after the day’s hike.  He was able to hike today and the albergue was able to contact the ‘switcher’ and the boots were exchanged.  All of that to say that I tried to speed up my ‘link up’ with Dave by hiking a stage and a half today.  I could feel it in my feet as the day progressed, but it all worked out ok.  22 miles and my feet feel ok now.  Tomorrow, I will see how my feet feel in the morning and I will try to link up with Dave for the rest of the Camino.  Thanks for following along!  

Buen Camino

Transportation in Berlin

Berlin is a big European city, so I expected differences.  But these differences were fun.

Walking.  I feel like I have a fairly fast pace while walking but I found myself passed much more often than I passed someone.  It is not just that Berliners are tall (they are that) but they always seem to be going somewhere in a hurry.  Well, they are.  They walk to places that we would ride to.   Berlin is a compact city so my brother walks to his doctor, walks to the train station to go to work, walks to the grocery store.  People walk (or ride bikes or trains) to school.  They are doing the same thing that we do when we drive our cars to school, activities or church, they just do it on foot.  And they are pretty conditioned for walking.

Bike transportation.  This is obviously a very bike friendly city.  Any route of any size has separate bike lanes.  Many are ‘protected’ by lanes of parked cars between traffic and the bike lanes.  If the route is too busy, they have marked bike lanes beside the roads which aren’t shared (except at intersections) with pedestrians.  There are a couple of curiosities when compared to the USA.  Most of the bikes are simple commuter bikes.  Only 1 or 2 percent of the bikes have drop handlebars, the rest are T handlebars.  This makes sense based on what they are used for; commuting.  Also, it is hard to go fast in the bike lanes since they are effectively single bike lanes and you can’t pass the inevitable slower bike ahead of you.  So you u may as well enjoy the commute.  It is also just as illegal for bikes to use auto lanes as it is for cars to use bike lanes.  I saw a bike use a left turn lane to go to a new street (in the absence of a dedicated bike lane) and a car behind honked at him and a short conversation ensued.  Less than half the bikers were using helmets.  The proportion was higher in the younger people but it was still surprising to my American eyes.  I suppose that there are some reasons since the bikes aren’t going real fast, they have safer dedicated lanes and you have to figure out what to do with your helmet after get to where you are going and you secure your bike.

Autos.  Certainly there are many cars here, but far fewer on a per capita basis than in the US.  Simply put, most Berliners, like my brother and his wife, don’t need or own any autos.  The vehicles here are different.  Not just the many European marques that we don’t have in the US.  The cars are mostly compact to micro cars which are easier to park (see the image of the parked Smart Car).  Also see the image of the classic Mini Cooper which I was surprised to learn was manufactured all the way through 1999.  This car was voted the second most influential car of the 20th century after the Ford Model T and in front of the VW Beetle.

SUVs are there but big ones are rare and I haven’t seen a single pick up truck this entire week.

OK.  Tomorrow, I fly to Spain to resume the Camino.  I have hiked up to 17 miles here without problem so I think that my foot is ready.  One nice thing about the Camino is that you can adjust as needed and nothing is wrong.  Thanks for following along.

Buen Camino!

Rick 

Increasing my distance

​More walking today in Berlin.  

I was walking through one of the parks today and I heard marching band music at a distance.  With the sounds of the drums, I knew that it was live music.  Of course, I spent 4 years at West Point becoming very familiar with marching to marching band music.  I couldn’t see where the music was coming from.  Napoleon instructed his Generals to ‘march to the sound of the guns’, so I made a right turn and followed the sounds.  I never found out what the occasion was, but I was at the street as the band started playing and marching towards the street.  Drum lines, brass and fifes in military uniform, leading 3 platoon sized sections of soldiers, airmen and seamen.  A fine detour.

The parks also have interesting statuary.  I came across this statue in one of the parks.  It looks for all of the world like an early first millennial German tribesman hunting an American buffalo/bison.  I guess a bit of artistic license is ok.  

The foot continues to heal.  I went 10 miles today without any problem.  Again, no hills or rucksack so I need to continue to build up.  But I am getting there. I spoke with Dave who was hiking the Camino with me before the blisters.  He has built himself up to 20+ miles a day and wants to continue to increase his distance.  I won’t push my foot any farther than it can take, so we will walk separately and meet up in Santiago.  In a way, this will be cool.  Part of the trip will be with a partner on the trail and part will be by myself.  I think that this will be good.  I will fly into Madrid on the 20th and take the train to Leon.  Then I will hike at my own pace until we meet up in Santiago.  Of course, we can change our plans, but this will give me more time for reflection (without conversation).  Thanks for following along.  

Buen Camino! 

More Berlin

Today was my first full day in Berlin.  My brother and his wife were at work so I went out walking.  My job here is to increase my walking distances so I plotted a route to Museum Island.  The route is a mix of very walkable cityscape and very nice parks with hard packed dirt paths.  I went about 8 miles.  This was probably a little too long despite the fact that the route was totally level, even and I walked without a backpack.  When I finished, there was no injury, just a bit of residual soreness.  No harm, no foul.  You don’t know your limits unless you test them.  At least that is what I have always tried to teach my 3 year olds.  

The walk did give me a chance to get a nice street side view of Berlin.  It is a gorgeous city with very walkable and bike rideable streets.  In fact, my first impression of Berlin was ‘Smart Cars and older bike riders’.  Both were all over the place.  Of course there were younger riders and cars other than Smart Cars too, it just seemed that there were a lot of both of them.

Museum Island is an amazing place with 5 interlinked museums with outstanding landscape architecture.  The museums were built from the mid 19th century through the 1930 and the buildings themselves are definitely part of the show.  Well worth a visit from anyone, even if you aren’t rehabbing a blistered foot.

I have had a great time talking with my brother and his wife who are both teaching PhD’s.  Their home is in an upper class apartment building built in the 1910’s which they rehabbed by taking it down to bare structural timbers.  An interesting technique (to those of us who are engineering inclined) is that the dimensions of those wooden support beams are 12x12 inches with a substantial channel cut into them which was then filled with dirt.  This was apparently a noise reduction technique from 100 years ago.  My brother tried to retain as many features of the original as he could and the apartment is gorgeous.  Lots of fun.

Tomorrow, I will try a different direction for about the same distance and Wednesday go back to Museum Island for more distance while exploring the museums that I just got to gaze upon from the outside.  I am still on track to return to Spain on the 20th and resuming the Camino the next day.

Buen Camino!

Berlin

​

I am going to Berlin to visit my brother Dan.  My feet are healing.  I have been able to walk up to 5 km without problem.  That is a far cry from 25+ kilometers up and down hills with a 25 pound rucksack.  I need to let my blisters continue to heal and to build back some callus.  While in Berlin I will increase my walking.  OK.  Because I may go from museum to museum in a very interesting city, it may seem more like a tourist trip. Hey.  You may as well enjoy the rehabilitation.  

I have been to Berlin once before.  In 2015, I had finished my service in an Ebola treatment unit and I needed to spend 3 weeks SOMEWHERE ELSE before returning to the US.  In the US, I would have had to go into isolation (basically house arrest) for three weeks to make sure no disease manifested itself during an incubation period.  This wasn’t how things worked in Europe.  All that was medically required was to check my temperature twice daily and to contact medical authorities if I developed suspicious symptoms.  Germany and all the other European countries adhered to that protocol.  So I went to Berlin to visit my brother.  I never developed symptoms, I enjoyed myself and returned to the US 3 weeks later.

My brother lives in the old ‘East Berlin’ which livelier and more colorful (and cheaper) than West Berlin.  Still, there are many sights to see and a very efficient city transport network which will take you anywhere in the city. I am currently enjoying a quiet train ride to Berlin which travels, at times, above 180 mph.  We will be there shortly.

I am looking forward to walking again and building up (and seeing stuff)

Buen Camino

In Germany

​It has been several days in Germany and I owe everyone an update.  I arrived in Brunst, Germany on April 8th.  

Brunst is a small village which is home to my best friend and Rugby buddy from my US Army years.  We were in sister units in the Army and we traipsed around West Germany playing Rugby teams where ever we could find them.  If there wasn’t a Rugby team at our installations, we would form one.  It was a great time of life.  (Oh yeah, I also married Jo and we had our first two children.). Dave left the US Army and stayed in Germany marrying Christa, who happened to be from Brunst.

The trip to Brunst involved two flights and two train tickets and a taxi ride, all executed in either Spanish (of which I know little) or German (which is rusty).  Also, I had to work through a train system which was not something that I normally do.  But I made it.  Sometimes arriving at the next transportation leg as the doors were about to close, but I made it.

In Brust, my blisters started to heal.  I can walk now (with the occlusion bandages) almost without pain and you can see the epidermis growing in over the red, raw blister base.  I am now increasing my walking (without the backpack) to help maintain my conditioning and to stress the soles of might feet (within reason) to start building up the callus.  I am still on track to meet Dave Anderson back on the Camino a week from Sunday in Leon, Spain.

Dave has been doing well through some tough climbs and long days.  If our calculations are correct, we will meet in or around Leon, Spain on the 20th. God willing. 

Buen Camino. 

Detour

​Dave waited in Logrono with me while we tried to figure out when I would be able to resume the Camino.  That was very kind of him but I knew that he wanted to continue on the Camino.

However, you have to go with the flow.  Yesterday, I got a good chance to look at the quite painful blisters on my left foot when i removed the occlusive dressings.  Yuck. Deep oozing hamburger beefy blisters on the ball of my left foot the size of two quarters and a depth of those two quarters stacked.  There are also a few smaller but similarly deep blisters on the sides of my smaller toes that came from steep downhill on day two.  Yesterday, I couldn’t walk without supporting myself on my trekking poles.  There is no way that I can continue to hike the Camino right now.  These feet need to heal and putting on my medical and military medical hats, it will probably be two weeks before I can trust them to hold up to the conditions on the Camino.

Dave resumed the Camino this morning continuing the path that we had planned together.  Tomorrow, I will visit a friend who lives near Nurnberg, Germany for a week, then to visit my brother in Berlin to finish (hopefully) my convalescence.  Two weeks total should suffice and then I will fly to Leon, Spain to rejoin my friend/classmate Dave for the final two weeks of the Camino.  

The Camino is a journey and this is just part of that journey.  I won’t say that it is bad or good, just that it makes me adjust to the circumstances.  I am not disappointed that I won’t have all the Camino stamps in my Pilgrim’s Credential.  (I realize that I need to explain that.  I will compose a post describing that process.)  With Grace, I seem to be past that.  I will try to remain in the moment and appreciate all that I have been given.  I will use the recovery time to post some earlier events that either eluded posting or which were eaten by Blogspot without leaving remains.  Maybe a few things that occur while convalescing.  Thanks for following me on this journey.

Buen Camino

Things that I love on the Camino

​One of the best things on the Camino is the variety of pilgrims.  I am not sure of the statistics, but it appears that about half of the pilgrims are women, but the large majority of those under 30 year are women and the majority of those my age are men.  Pilgrims come from many countries.  The largest group is naturally from Spain, but they only constitute about a third of pilgrims.  I have enjoyed speaking with the many English speakers on the Way.  The Dutch, the Danes, the Czechs and others whose English is excellent.  I have even had a chance to practice my German!  The Irish ladies were a hoot.  We meet at dinner and shared wine until lights out at 10:00.  Today, there is a couple from Cornwall and a pair of sisters from Wales.  I haven’t run into anyone from Scotland, but several from the Midlands of England.  And, about 20% are from the US.

The albergue (pilgrim’s hostel) is  an interesting lodging.  Generally, they provide beds in a communal setting.  Usually in a large room but usually with dividers between groups of 4 or 6 beds to reduce the effects of snoring.  You usually can hear someone snoring, but with earplugs or ear buds, it is usually manageable.  The albergue usually provide a communal meal, usually prepared by the staff and occasionally self catered.  The food may be pedestrian or quite good but it is always filling.  It is served family style with fine local red wines.  Navarro, where we are currently located, is famous for its red wines.  The showers are usually warm and most of the albergue have some sort of clothes washing facilities (usually hand washing).  Clotheslines usually suffice to dry your clothes but the wool socks often require securing to the outside of your pack for the next day’s hike to completely dry.

Albergue typically have a single entrance where you can pay your fees, collect your bed ‘linen’ (usually something disposable) and move to your assigned bed.  While I don’t try to tempt anyone, there is very little security for your items and apparently very little need for that.  The entrance to the albergue is secured at night but often that is so that the pilgrims are forced to return to the albergue for sleep by 10:00 PM (I don’t need any particular motivation).  The albergue can be located in relatively modern buildings in the middle of a medium sized city, it can be in a several hundred year old building which has been converted to an albergue (there are LOTS of old buildings in this region of Spain), in a modern purpose built building or in an actual monastery Albergue from the 12th century.  The heaters usually work, but not always.  The albergue do provide blankets, usually at no cost.  Despite the availability of on line reviews, often we are surprised by our occomidations.  But there is always something about them to enjoy.  That is the Camino, the Way of St. James.

Buen Camino!

Rick   

Below is a typical alberge in a partitioned area of a 14th century church. 

Ampollas (blisters in Spanish)

​The most recent stage of my journey was from Estella to Los Arcos. It was neither particularly long (22 kilometers) nor steep, but it was uneven and rutted and covered with irregular stones. This was a problem for me as the blisters that I had been fighting since the end of day two became much worse. It was apparent when I arrived in Los Arcos, that I would need to let them heal for 2 or 3 days before I would be able to continue the pilgrimage journey.  After some discussion, we decided that Dave would continue on foot and I would take the bus to the daily destinations until my feet healed. 

Dave really wants to hike all the way through to Santiago and possibly to Finisterre.  This site on a spit of land is the westernmost point of land in Spain and it earned its name as the ‘end of the earth’ in pre Roman times. It is not considered to technically be part of ‘the Way’ but many people continue the two days past Santiago to complete their pilgrimage. For me, the pilgrimage is what we experience on the journey. What we see in the beautiful countryside. What we hear with the bird calls and the creeks. The fellowship we experience with the wonderful pilgrims with whom we share the journey. I don’t need to ‘touch all the bases’ in circling the diamond to achieve what I came here for. Plus, it is hard to listen for God or appreciate His creation when all you can think about as you walk are your painful feet. 

I have no problem waiting for the appropriate time to start walking again. I came here for the Camino. 

Buen Camino

Stage 4

Today, we hiked 20 miles including ascents of 500 meters over the Alto del Perdon.  We crossed this as a ridge topped with wind turbines.  One of the things that Dave and I have discussed is the varied soundscapes of northern Spain.  From the sounds of the streams rushing down the hills to wind howling as you cross open fields.  A new sound was the whoosh and whine of the (enormous) wind turbines as we crested the hill.  This is a land of sensations when you take care to listen.

While the Spanish civil war is 90 years in the past, the memories are still physically present here.  We rested by a cemetery to the dead of Franco’s party complete with the Falangist imagry and graves dating from the mid 1930s.  Later, as we crested the hill with the wind turbines, we came across a memorial to those who supported the Republican government against the Falangists who were killed and ‘disappeared’.  There was a plaque describing this and someone had scratched out the word ‘legitimate’ when it was used to describe the elected government that had opposed Franco.  I guess that the sources of this conflict are still present.

Tomorrow, we will leave Puenta La Reina enroute