Day 14

Here I am, still in Burgos.  Last night the hospitaller was quite concerned that I was walking around in barefeet.  I think it is just short of rude in Europe as everyone looks surprised but I find it so much more comfortable than shoes when my feet are so tired and sore.  I was really struggling to walk at all by last night and just did a shuffle - Marion calls it the John Wayne walk. It´s the walk you do when you really don´t want your feet to touch the ground! Anyway, I showed the hospitallero, Sr Marie-Helene, my blisters with the result that I was firmly told that I would be seeing the doctor in the morning! 

There were two men, Salvador and Javier, who had just finished their Camino and were planning on catching the bus home to Barcelona, agreed to take me to the health centre to see a doctor and translate for me if necessary. Salvador tells me his name means Saviour but his middle name should be ¨not on any day¨.  He spoke excellent English, appeared to be in his early 40s, and strode ahead most of the time while I limped behind, while Javier was much quieter, a bit younger, spoke little English and slowed his pace to mine while reminding me to be careful whenever there was a bump and winced with me when I hurt my foot.  Two lovely men who plan to be volunteer hospitaleros for two weeks later in the year.   They had done the first part of the Camino earlier this year, Burgos to Santiago de Compostela, and then come back to do St Jean Pied de Port to Burgos.

They took me to the health centre, I saw the almost English-speaking doctor and he prescribed anti-inflammatories and a particular kind of bandage.  At the apotek (chemist) the bandages turned out to be a fancy type of bandaid and I wasn´t impressed.  I had to mentally apologise once I tried them though as they are very adhesive and flexible and fit my heels and actually stay on without cutting circulation or strapping micropore around the whole foot. 

The disaster though is that I am instructed not to walk for three days.  Several people have warned me not to ignore these instructions.  I am given to understand that this could result in septicaemia, gangrene and not being able to complete the Camino.  I´m not too worried about the first two but the last would be a problem.  This, of course, creates difficulties about timing.  It looks like I will have to catch the bus to Leon in order to keep up with my timetable and miss the Meseta.  Drat.  But unlike the Europeans it will cost more than a few hours flight at EU40 to get here again so I have to make sure I finish.  C´est la vie.

One of the odd issues I have is that I have a smattering of French, Spanish, Italian and German, and I tend to mash it all together and respond in the wrong language to the wrong person.  I use all of them to communicate with other pilgrims who are supremely poly-national but then start getting them mixed up.  I told the man in the cafe today that my omelette was ´muy bono´ instead of ´muy buen´ he laughed fortunately but clearly thought I was a bit of a nut!

Marion left this morning for Bilbao so I hope all goes well with her.  We have walked together, sort of, for several days and I hope she enjoyed the company as much as I did.  I wonder whether my future walking will be alone or whether there will be new companions? So far I have had three walking companion stages; Carina for a few days, Nancy and Tom for a few days and then Marion.  Three really different types of people from wildly different backgrounds who really brought special times to me.  I´m very grateful.

Yesterday on our way into Burgos, as I was trailling behind striding Marion, a woman approached me and told me (I think) that if I went into the local church they would give me information and maps to Burgos.  I thanked her profusely and then caught up to Marion across a busy intersection and 100m up the road.  Without thinking it through we decided not to go backwards so of course we ended up getting lost and adding an extra 2km to our day!  Twice we asked for help and both times people stopped what they were doing, literally took us by the hand, and walked us in the right the direction.  People can be wonderful and amazing, can´t they?  I think I expected to find resentment of tourists, and no doubt it is there somewhere, but mostly people say Buen Camino (Have a good Camino) to us as we pass.  Amongst the continual exhaustion and the aches and pains, I do feel very blessed.  I write that and realise it sounds a lot like parenthood!

Having to sit around for a few days should mean that I can sight see but I´m not supposed to be walking so I won´t be able to.  Drat.  This city is full of sculptures and has 10 famous churches of national cultural significance plus a fabulous museum of humanity.  Maybe I will hang here after all and see if I can see bits of it!  In the meantime I can catch up on my notes and maybe get more stuff safely on the net!  I´ll try sending post cards but am not at all sure about sending them from the post office!

Buen Camino!  Ultreya!