We noted the first hour or two in that our feet already felt like they usually do at the end if the day. Not a good sign. Somehow, I don't understand how, I got two new blisters today, after walking 70 miles in the last 5 days. These are on my heels so my guess is I've been compensating and walking differently because my toes hurt so much... And now I have blisters on my heels also. Emily and I are just waiting for that magical day when every step isn't painful. Today wasn't that day. Oh, and my left ankle that's been hurting (and still does) is swollen. Great.
I have 5 blisters and my pinky toe right now (it's hard to know how to count it because its kind of blistered all over). But the good news is a couple of them look like they're actually healing! Yay! Progress!
Ok, enough about that. Today was overcast and it rained lightly the whole day so my pictures aren't so great. Here's what I got.
This is the wine fountain that wasn't on. What a let down! Should've known it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day!
A shepherd herding the sheep.
The grapes were being harvested for wine. The friendly Spanish man invited us to take a look.
Lunch with only 5.7 km left to Los Arcos... The longest 5.7 km of my life! (Hopefully)
What every exhausted pilgrim likes to see, nice flat land with a dirt path!
At the end of the day today the guy walking ahead of us turned down the path leading very far away with no town in sight. We thought we were much closer to the end and when we saw him turn that way we couldn't believe it. Luckily we saw the sign and that he was going in a different direction and we were in fact almost to Los Arcos. Emily said she would've started crying if we had to go that much further and I was just thinking the sand thing! I literally would have started crying, that's how spent we were today.
The narrow streets of Los Arcos.
Because we were so tired we decided we'd stop at the first albergue we came to. When we walked in we were greeted with "Gruss Gott" by the friendly Austrian woman running the place. How fitting since I was praying and offering this day for my household sisters! (No wonder it was the hardest day so far!)
Here are some pics of the albergue.
The table and bench set up reminded me of the rectory in Benque :).
It's a cute little albergue, although the cleanliness in the kitchen left something to be desired.
Em and I had a stretch-dance party while we made our pasta for dinner. It was pretty pathetic, but hey, at least we stretched!
We were both so beat we decided to have an easy day tomorrow, in hopes our bodies will get their acts together!
At Mass the priest called the pilgrims up for a blessing afterwards. It was very nice and the church was beautiful.
Today I learned I'm not superwoman, well I already knew that, but today was a good reminder! I'm also not as young as I used to be. And, sometimes things you thought were going to be easy turn out being very very difficult!
I'm thankful for Mass and for Emily. I wonder how some people walk alone; it would be MUCH harder without someone to talk to and help pass the long days of walking and thinking about how badly your feet hurt! Also it's nice to have someone who knows exactly what you're going through because they're going through it to!