adventures in spain

the last two days of the camino were tough! we were a bit physically and mentally exhausted but you just keep getting up every morning and pushing on. the last day we did 38 km to get to santiago on time. we got our official compostela to prove we did the walk and then we had some santiago cake to celebrate! we bumped into a lot of our camino friends in santiago and it was a great way to end the experience. we then got on our sleeper train and headed back to madrid – wow those spanish trains are rickety! saturday was a day to celebrate our accomplishments with a relaxing morning at the pool and then a kebab! we met some friends out for drinks and dancing for our last nite out in madrid – we came home late to find a burning smell in the apartment. after sniffing everything for a half hour we discovered the plant on the patio was smoldering. don’t really know what happened there but it gave us a chuckle as we headed off to bed. today was a relaxing day shopping at el rastro a huge flea market thing in the streets. we are now getting sad and sentimental about our departure to chicago tomorrow morning. . . the adventures in spain come to a close . . . see you back in the states!

hope you are all enjoying our tales from the camino. here´s another good one: yesterday afternoon after a tough day of walking we arrived at the albergue at 2:30 p.m. a totally respectable time. we walked in to find the place full already and were told we could have a space on the floor. being the weary pilgrims we were, we accepted. we spent a lovely evening on the cold tile floor laying right in front of the washrooms – needless to say we are a bit tired today. and yet we soldier on. . . we have only three days left, but due to some early mileage miscalculations we now have 90 km left to finish in that time – definately something we can do, but a bit more than we bargained for at the end of the road!
life on the camino has been a new experience every day – here are a few of the highlights:
* we were at a fork in the road a few days back and could not make a decision due to inaccurate maps and signs. along comes a brown cow wandering down the road. he takes the fork to the left, pauses for a second, looks at us and lets out a big moooooooooooo. then keeps walking. we took that as a sure sign he was telling us to follow him – so we did and the cow was right!
* there are definate signs we could be losing our minds on this trip – a few examples: singing christmas carols to keep our minds occupied while struggling up a big hill, stocking up on toilet paper any time we find a bathroom that has some, being willing to accept the fact that there are flies on our food and bodies at all times, eating doritos off the ground because they are a precious commodity, thinking we are clean after taking a two minute cold shower and then putting the same shirt back on!
*we have started some friendships here with people from a variety of places: france, italy, austria, canada, spain, iceland, belgium, germany, the u.s. we love bumping into our friends on the trail and at the albergues – it´s kind of like our family away from home. there is a retired french couple who are kind of like our grandparents, and a spanish woman who is like our mom – she even tucked us in last night and gave us a hug when we had to sleep on the floor!
*a few funny tidbits: janet sometimes swings her walking stick by her side and looks remarkably like a marching band director. . .judy randomly fell on a smooth stretch of path and looked so stupid doing it that a car stopped by and asked if she was o.k…due to a leg injury janet walks down hills backward. . . we have never spent more than 12 euro in one day – meals and lodging included. . . we went to a mass on sunday and they said it in five different languages, but of course not english!!!!!
hopefully the next time we write we will be certified pilgrims who have completed the camino! (by the way the total mileage is 312 km – we originally thought we were only doing 200) oh one last thing – in the last blog i said the mountain was 1400 km high- oops it´s not that big!! hope everyone out there is well!

p.s. jay, if you are reading this, janet´s band bracelet fell off. does that mean the band has to break up? we´ll get some new ones for everyone from spain!

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