good morning my friends,
i forgot to read my last blog to know where we left off. but i think we were in caceres, saying goodbye to michael and paul and waiting for our bus to salamanca. we decided that with barb´s sore toes, we couldn´t walk long distances and so we would jump a bus to cut out a lot of km´s. that way we could walk easily to santiago. we arrived in salamanca, found a lovely hotel with a jacuzi,free laundry, and a very helpful man behind the desk.all for 40 euros. we walked around the town. it is really too big for a pilgrim, if you can call us that, and we wanted to start walking in the morning. so we didn´t see much of the town.
that night i talked with a man in the hotel who was living in the hotel for a year so he could study spanish. he was from canada and wanted to talk. he told me that he had wanted to walk the camino but had a bad accident while living in south america. he showed me his scars- on top of his head, his arm, his leg. he said his arm hurt so much he wanted the doctor to cut ift off. he asked if we were pilgris, why were we in a hotel. i said my sisters foot hurt. he said -why didn´t she train? i said well she did, but sometimes, things happen that are out of our control. then he said, did you know the americans killed osama bin laden and buried him in the north sea. the navy killed him. the whole conversation seemed from another reality. he was living in a hotel for a year? what, you have to show me your scars? what? osama bin laden was killed by the navy and buried in the north sea? i went back to our room. barb was in bed.the room was dark. i said osama bin laden was killed and buried in the north sea. we just laughed. ( not as much as we did the next day when we saw the cbs animation of his body falling into sea, during a break in a soccer match on tv in a bar) it was all too weird.
the next day we walked to the cathedral, got our stamp, and out of salamanca. (the photo is of the salamanca cathedral. it was huge and beautiful. how did they build these buildings?)
we walked 15km across the meseta. the meseta is awesome to me. you can see forever, but there is nothing to see but green grasses and blue sky. the temperature was 65 or so and there was a light breeze. what a grand day for walking.
we arrived in a dusty, low town. the albergue was full ( 15 places) so we were forced to the hotel bar at the end of twon. a pouty man showed us the room. it was 3\4 the size of a cigar box. it was orange. he said it was 40 euros, the same as the nice room in salamanca. i tried to say -you have to be kidding? or you can´t be serious? but i didn´t know the spanish words for serious or kidding, so i said ok.
barb took a shower and a seiesta, i left and sat on the plaza in the sun. later, barb came up, said she had stopped at an emergency medical clinic, and the doctors their told her she had to stop walking. i was shocked, but not shocked.
we talked about our options. decided to take another bus, here, to zamora, and get a second opinion. we are doing that this afternoon. we will tell you the answer later.
but, here we are in one of the most beautiful, friendly, easy towns i have ever been in. we walked into the plaza yesterday, and stood as we always do, with a map and a quizical look on our faces. a very small lady, 4 foot 8 or so, came up and started talking. she had white hair and looked like one of my deceased aunts. she asked, were we french, no we said. we couldn´t hear her well because there was a very loud demonstration on the plaza. the bomberos want more equipment and clothes and they were banging drums, blowing whistles and blowing a siren to get attention. anyway, finially the lady said, i have a hostel. we followed her to the hostel la reina, to a tastefully decorated quiet room. and there we are. barb says we should just stay here a month and write a bogus blog, but no we can´t. we will go to the clinic, and see if we can walk. if not, we will come home early.
i,ll let you know.
love,
mary mom nonna.