One last museum for the group to hit but I was still getting over jet lag and begged off. We had a train to catch that nigh and I really didn’t think that sleeping on the train was going to be that comfortable. Turned out that I was right. The bed was too small and the mattress was sloped outwards and I kept sliding out as the train moved. But, my experience was incidental. Geoff, who is an artist and who had joined us after a painting excursion to Morocco, had his iPhone stolen in the Madrid subway. The double-whammy was that all of his reference pictures for his unfinished paintings were on the iPhone. He spent over an hour with the police at the train station filling out a report, but the phone was gone and the chances of getting it back were zero to none. We all consoled him over dinner as best we could, but the excitement of the camino ahead of us kept bubbling up and his mood did lightened a bit as the time went on. Then it was back to the train station to board our 10:30 train to Sarria.
Madrid at last, Hotel Catalonia Atocha
I arrived at the airport and wound up walking the length of it looking for the subway-in retrospect it was a good test of how much stuff not to take. I had finally settled on a soft-side bag just big enough for my poles to fit in along with my backpack, Camino clothes plus extra clothes for the shoulders of the trip. Yeah. The backpack fully loaded with my carefully purchased performance wear came to just under 18 lbs, but the bag topped out at over 30lbs, as I found out at the airport. Where did all that weight come from?! Street clothes can be heavy… Continue reading “Madrid at last, Hotel Catalonia Atocha”
Departure
I’ve packed and re-packed, weighed the backpack and have done everything that I could to get ready; now it’s in the hands of the gods. Dean dropped me at the airport and wished me well. I wished that he would have been able to join us but the time away was too much. Besides, the cats needed him-well not so much, but it’s a nice rationale. My flight from Philly was uneventful-if a hyper-talkative 2 year old one seat away can be considered uneventful. I really wondered how long she could keep it up, and apparently most of the flight was the answer. The hotel in Madrid was looking better and better every minute.
Not so waterproof
Yesterday although my knee looked much better, my doc loaded it up with cortisone as a precaution. It didn’t hurt right away but within a couple of hours it started bothering me and that made for an uncomfortable night. The next day, however it felt fine so I was off for my morning walk. First day with waterproof boots-not so good. After walking through 2 inches of dewy grass for less than five minutes my toes were soaked again. Time to shop: Given my short lead I would up with a pair of all-leather hikers big enough to be comfortable from the start, which proved to do the trick, so I picked ones in a wide width. After my first 6-mile walk in them they actually felt much better than the ones that they had replaced. Good move.
Walking in the rain
Ahhh… the rains come. Today is a messy day and while I will have to deal with any rain on the Camino, not today. My “waterproof” boots turned out not to be so, as I discovered. With only eight days to go, there is no getting new ones. So, out came the can of Scotch Guard. I laid down several nice coats both inside and out plus I did my baseball cap, my back pack and for good measure my old North Face Gore-Tex jacket with hood. I bought rain gear but this jacket has always been comfortable and I just like it, so it is going with me. At this point I’ve been doing 6 miles with the back pack for over a week, now and it’s easy-peasy, other than the knee, so I think that I should give the knee a bit of a break. Know thy body! Continue reading “Walking in the rain”