Day 8

22.5km (14miles) to Logrono today.  Most of which was paved and in the city.  Yuck. 

We left Viana at 8 this morning.  The sign at the edge if town said 11.5km to Logrono.  My feet have been taking a half hour or more to get "warmed up" so for a while each morning I limp along with my crutch, looking twice my age, as Emily patiently walks slowly with me while my feet adjust to another day of walking.    

I'm guessing halfway to Logrono is when we reached paved road.  I'm sure the good people of Logrono thought they were helping the poor pilgrims by paving the path, but really all it means is that our feet and knees will be more sore at the end if the day.  Logrono didn't seem like a huge city on the map but I think we spent at least half of our 7 hour day in it.  It was busy, big, and stressful.  There are crosswalks but no lights, so you just walk out in traffic and people stop for you.  Reminded me if Rome.  Their Camino signs for the pilgrims were hard to find.  At the intersections there we were,  looking everywhere for that yellow arrow, sometimes we found it, sometimes we took a guess.  The city just went on and on and on.  

Some good things about it?  

1. The church was actually open so we could go inside! 

2.  They had a really nice grocery store where we found salty crackers and peanut butter! 

The church of Santiago in Logrono. 

A mural of an older man with Camino stamps is being painted.

Another statue of two pilgrims.

We walked along a busy highway today.  Towards the end, about 3km from Navarrete, were these crosses all put into the chain link fence.  There were probably more than a hundred of them.

Navarrete, where we are staying tonight. 

LOOK AT THAT!  576km to Santiago!  We're a quarter of the way done!  

For dinner we made pasta with bacon, spinach, and tomato.  Quite tasty and all for $5e.  Food is so expensive here! 

On the way to Mass we passed by the tourism office (for hobbits).  

Here's the church in Navarrete:

I particularly liked this statue if St. Joseph. 

And Our Lady, gorgeous as always

And lastly, here is a photo with Alphonso.  He's the host at the albergue.  Once someone has done the Camino they can volunteer to live in and run the albergue for 15 days at a time.  He asked about my feet (in Spanish, he only speaks Spanish so we've been getting by with my Spanish and a whole lot of charades) and when I showed them to him he just shook his head.  He then told us that he's a doctor and how I should go about threading the blisters.  I am happy to report I've been doing everything right!  Even down to the type of disinfectant he told me to use.  Then he offered to thread my pinky toe for me :). So nice!  

He asked how many days we have walked and shook his head again when we said 8 and he looked at my feet.  He asked if we were going all the way to Santiago and when we said yes he nodded with a solemn kind of approval.  He said we will need to be strong in our heads and in our hearts.  We should eat well and get enough sleep and I need to keep taking care of my feet (and some other advice I couldn't translate!). Later I asked to take a picture with him and told him it is for my mother.  Mom, I just knew you'd be so happy that I had a doctor look at my miserable little feet!  Here's Alfonso

Today I learned I'm not a city girl.  I knew this already, but it was reiterated that not much about the city appeals to me.  

I'm thankful for a yummy donut we bought on a whim, that 2 of my blisters are healing, for Alfonso, and that we get to go to Mass today. 

Quotes

"God made a hole!" -Emily

"We shouldn't have stopped." -Betsy

"It's good we did." -Emily

"I can't move my right foot!" -Betsy

Day 7

*WARNING: there are photos of my feet below.  It's part of the facts of life on the Camino.  Those of you disgusted by my feet should consider yourself warned.

ONE WEEK DOWN!  Woo hoo!

We set out this morning thinking we'd only go half the distance we originally planned because we were in such awful shape at the end of yesterday.  But halfway to Viana we felt pretty good and decided we could make it the whole way, it was a short day anyway, only 12 miles.  

Here's the photos and captions from today: 

Emily with the olive trees, our sign of hope that today would be a better day than yesterday!

By 9am the sun was out and it was warm.  We were both so happy about the good weather! 

Some of the views along the way.

A random cluster of pine trees we walked through.  It smelled great and it was a welcome change from the wind. The wind today was about 30mph with gusts up to 50 probably.  Most of the day it was blowing directly on our faces.  Thank God it was warm and sunny and not raining like yesterday! 

Here Emily is talking to a guy who sells cold drinks and baked goods on the side of the trail (for whatever price you'd like to give). I got a "freeway cola" generic coke and Em got some homemade bread with jam.  He gave us two sugar cookies for free :) 

Here are the rows of bushes some wonderful person planted to help block the strong winds for the poor pilgrims.  Thank you wonderful person; it's much appreciated!

The city up ahead is Viana, our stay for tonight.  

The city in the distance is Logrono, we will pass through it tomorrow.  Neither if us are looking forward to walking through a city again. 

Here's the newest blister.  It was very small yesterday, one if the new ones.  I thought I could wait and see... Well, this is what it is at the end if today.  Also you can see how my ankle is just a little swollen, which is fine because I can still walk on it!  I've already threaded the blister.   Hopefully will start the callousing  tomorrow!  Oh, and Emily got her first blister today!  She asked me for advice since I'm an "expert" and I told her we should wait till mine are healed before calling me an expert!  

Look!  See, the one on the bottom is dried out and callousing; it doesn't hurt anymore!  Now, the two on the toe, so weird... I've had the dark colored one from the beginning.  It seems to be healing.  Then today that little one above it popped up.  Two tiny little blisters right next to each other.  Weird.  I guess everybody likes to have a friend!  

The church where we went for Mass.  This is a side room which appeared to originally be the sacristy.  The crucifix was very old and quite nice.  

The priest was very friendly.  He called the pilgrims up for a blessing after Mass. There were only four of us and he chatted with each us before blessing us individually.  

These books were in the chapel where Mass was with signs asking people not to touch.  Unfortunately there was no info about how old they are.  They were huge, about 2'x2.5' when closed!

This is the sign outside the church telling pilgrims how to dress.  It cracks me up because it's totally necessary!  Before the Camino I wouldn't have thought pilgrims would go in the church like that, but now I know!

Emily and I having our nightly glass of wine.  It's not the best wine in the world, but for .99e for a liter, what do you expect?  

Here's a map of where I'll be going in the next week of so.  Longrono, where we'll be tomorrow, is on the far right.

My new socks!  I'm pretty pumped about trying them out tomorrow!  They have a thicker different weave over the heal and toe, which sounds perfect for me!  It's the little things ;)

Today I'm thankful for beautiful sunny weather, my clothes drying fully on the line, my nap, a quiet albergue, and the Mass.  

I learned that without something to pray and sacrifice for each day I could not be doing this.  What would be the point of continuing to walk each day when I'm in pain?  It helps sooo much to have someone to offer it for!  

Love to all!

Day 6

Today was the hardest day yet, including day 1.   We walked from Estella to Los Arcos, only 13 miles and 400 meter elevation, and it felt like we weren't going to make it.

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!