Saturday, May 21, 2011

Journey to Santiago - Day 15 and 16, Thirteenth Stage

Distance walked today: ? km 
Total distance walked: 262.6 + ? km 
Total distance left: 489 - ? km 
Information on the stage traveled here.
Information about the town of Burgos.

Yesterday Adal took the day off to rest his legs and walk around Burgos.  As I mentioned before, Burgos is the town of the Cid, so there's lots to see.  The Cathedral even holds the remains and tomb of the Cid!  The entry to the Cathedral is 5 euros, 2.5 Euros for the walkers upon showing their credentials.  Credentials are a type of passport showing you are an official walker and there's places for stamps at each town.  It's proof you walked what you said you walked.  Adal left his in the room when he went to the Cathedral, and he told the girl at the window: "But I can show you my feet!"  No thanks, she gave him the discount.  As a rule, Adal usually doesn't pay to go into a church (and even free it's pretty hard to get him to go in, unless it's historical), but he had a feeling the tomb of the Cid was inside.  He wasn't disappointed!

The rest did his feet well, as they were able to air out and recover.  He plans to take his next rest in Leon, another major city along the way.  Even resting though, he walked all over the city.  He stayed at a nice hotel and was enjoying the pampering.  He found an Australian to share the cost with the first night and then a German guy the next night.  He's been hanging out with the German guy, a young 21-year-old, a bit.  I guess the Canarian Juan found another group of good looking girls to follow.  He was last seen massaging the tired feet of a female walker.

Today the plan was to get to at least Hornillas del Camino, and last time I spoke to him that was still on track.  Tomorrow I will have to confirm with him his actual stage end.

The hardest days for me are Fridays.  That's our relaxing day and when I most miss him.  Usually we'll get sushi or pizza and talk about what we want to do on the weekend.  Today I got a call from a friend here in Sweden to go check out Stockholm's Titan Arum, the corpse flower, that was in bloom.  It only blooms once every few decades, so it's a big deal.  The kids ran around, and we were lucky it was over it's fullest bloom because the stench it gives off is of rotting meat.  Tomorrow there's a party for one of N's classmates. 

Really, I'm taking it day by day, because if not the idea of doing everything by myself will overwhelm me.  Just one day at a time, just like Adal.

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