After a short while at the hostel in Logroño, I walked over to a sports shop and a pharmacy, and there I got the main piece of advice: “Rest!” This was mostly what I was doing anyway, apart from walking for a short while along the main street after a brief shower outside. Logroño is a very pretty town and although I did not have too much desire to go around and do the sightseeing, I also could not resist going along a couple of hundred metres one way and the other from the hostel. After all, as a mere coincidence, I had chosen a hostel right in the walking street, which made my stroll around much easier.
Cathedral (Concatedral de Sta María de La Redonda)
Walking street after the rain
In the morning I did not wake up too early, but sufficiently enough that not everybody had left the hostel. I got up and went to the common dining room and kitchen, and while I had my breakfast there I watched some of the pilgrims getting ready to start with their daily walking and I felt a great desire to continue myself. It was quite plain to me that this was physically not possible at this moment, but the desire in me was completely clear and strong. I was almost jealous of the people who were continuing moving forward on foot.
There I met Felix, a wonderful gentleman who had slept in a bed parallel to mine and with whom I had had a very nice chat the evening before. There were also Miriam and Ana, who were staying at the same hostel as I. After the nice morning chat first with Felix and then with Miriam and Ana, and all three of them were finishing their walking precisely there and precisely this day, I took my things and waddled to the bus station. There I bought a ticket for the first coach going to Santo Domingo de la Calzada. While I was waiting for my coach, I started to talk with one “beaten down” pilgrim. She was interrupting her walking since she had a swollen knee. I told her that I had expected precisely to have problems with my knees and/or the upper part of my skeleton, and yet I was having problems with my feet, while she told me it was completely opposite in her case. She was ready for the feet problems, but not for the rest of it. Then my ride arrived and I wished this woman all the best before boarding the coach.
As soon as I settled at the hotel, I posted a text on my Facebook account. Here it is:
Day 13: “A million-dollar idea”
Yesterday I was down again. My left ankle was hurting and was swollen so that each step caused a huge problem although nothing was hitting directly on this part of my leg. After settling down at the hostel, I had a shower and lay in bed for a while in order to recuperate and see what to do next. Logroño is a proper city and the hostel I was at was in the central street, so very soon I was sitting in a bar-restaurant where I was refreshing myself with food and drinks.
To start with I decided that there was no way I would remain in the room they had originally put me in, since only upper berths were available when I first got there. As it turned out, there was another room where there were free lower berths, so I chose one which turned out to be right by the bed of the male “dandelion” that gave the name to the previous day.
I thought of going to see a physiotherapist, but as it turned out they all had their time slots for the day full. I decided then to go first to a shop specialised for outdoor sports equipment. I thought that perhaps I should buy some latest type of modern socks especially for hiking. The guy who worked there was obviously an expert in his job, so I asked him for advice. It was succinct: “Rest!” And he also told me to buy some anti-inflammatory cream. Then I stopped at a pharmacy and got what I needed, but I also asked if they had some special elastic sock. In order to establish the proper size, the pharmacist had to measure the circumference of my ankle and when she bent down to do it, I felt embarrassed by the remains of the huge blister and the general rugged appearance of my leg, so I apologised, but she smiled at me and told me not to worry since they have seen it ALL!
And that’s when I realized that the main business on the Way is the pharmaceutical business. All the pharmacies one goes into, and I’ve entered many of them, are full of all sorts of preparations and aids for problems with legs, mostly with feet and knees. Certainly not all, but a large number of the people I’ve seen in the albergues limp, drag themselves, apply ointments and creams to their limbs, put bandages and band-aids, take pills, etc. Needless to say, I kept hearing in my head the completely normal and common-sense question of my mother still with no reasonable answer.
Having returned to the hostel, I decided to use a coach, but in such a way that I cover two stages in a single day. Namely, I had realised in the meantime that if I continued at this pace, with the intended breaks in larger cities, there was no way I could reach Santiago de Compostela at the time when I had planned. In addition, the weather forecast for this 13th day said it would rain. So, this was an ideal situation for resting my inflamed tendon. Namely, the conclusion of the concilium consisting of a sports gear salesman and a pharmacist was that I had tendonitis and that I had to rest.
As I was getting ready to go to bed last evening, I was looking at my feet and concluded that the situation with my toes was slowly getting under control and the large blister on my heel was almost the thing of the past. And that’s when a “million-dollar idea” dawned on me! One should buy shoes two sizes too big and then each toe as well as the entire foot should be insulated with bubble wrap! Admittedly, it would be good to invent something with natural fabrics so that the skin could breathe. The second idea (for the second million) still involves two sizes bigger footwear, but completely insulated from within with silicone, especially in the part where the toes go.
But, as I was thinking in this way about how to take advantage of this trial as a base for getting filthy rich, I started chatting with Felix (“the dandelion”). As it turned out, he is a retired nurse who is now a member of some club of the fans of the Way and thus he walks one section or another every now and then in order to be sure that the signs were good and well visible. So, I even got a present from him in the form of a badge made in the shape of a small yellow arrow. And, as he was just finishing his Way in Logroño this time around, he started handing over to me different apothecary products that he had left and that I could use. In the end he also gave me something about the specific use of which I had heard for the first time a few days earlier in Puente la Reina.
Namely, when I sat back there in a bar with my “Aragonese friends” giving Francesco advice on blisters, a Spanish guy came to us and told us it was all solved with – sanitary napkins! And not just any, but those overnight ones! Namely, they are put on the soles of the feet, or around the heel, or around the front part of the foot where the toes are, and then they first start to absorb sweat (the overnight ones are the most absorbent), after which they turn the sweat into gel which creates a comfortable feeling while walking. Afterwards I helped Francesco in a supermarket choose the pads and later over dinner we doubled with laughter imagining his wife or his friends seeing him with sanitary pads.
Be as it may, Felix had a few sanitary napkins left, so he gave them to me showing me exactly how they should be positioned. Great idea!
This morning I spoke some more with Felix and during my breakfast there were also Ana and Miriam there (of course) who were finishing their Way this time around as well, and it turned out that the three of them actually knew one another (you still think these are all just coincidences?). Finally, we all parted in the best of spirits wishing one another all the best and I transferred by coach to Santo Domingo de la Calzada, a very nice place on the Way where I could be a tourist or a pilgrim with a problem if only for a day, resting my tendon.
In front of me: 580 km
Behind me: 287 km
In town Santo Domingo de la Calzada I booked a small boutique-type hotel, but as it would turn out they had not invested a lot of money into sound insulation, which is particularly problematic when there is a bar-restaurant right across a narrow street made of stone where everything echoes, while people like to greet one another and talk loudly until 3 am. But, before I got to the night, I had a couple of strolls around the centre, since this is a very pretty town and a very important one at that on account of the saint the town has been named after.
Tower belonging to the Cathedral, but separated from it
At some point in his life, Domingo García had his hermitage here and at first there were only a few houses around it, but over time an entire city developed. Domingo himself is known for building a bridge over the Oja river in the first half of the 11th century, together with the bishop of Ostia, in order to help pilgrims on their way. Later, he rebuilt the originally wooden bridge into a stone one and he also built a hospital and a house that served for the accommodation of pilgrims. In the place of the original house for pilgrims even today there is a hostel and this is also the seat of the oldest religious brotherhood that helps pilgrims on their way to Santiago.
Main street and Alameda square, with the albergue and the House of the Brotherhood of the Saint (Casa de la Cofradía del Santo) on the right
By the way, Saint Dominic (Santo Domingo) had the rest of the name “de la Calzada” added because “calzada” means a causeway, since he also built a road that served as a replacement for an old Roman road used by pilgrims before. All in all, because of such dedication to public works, even today Santo Domingo is the patron saint of civil engineers in Spain.
Entrance into Casa de la Cofradía del Santo
Saint Dominic de la Calzada performed miracles even during his lifetime (he died in 1109), but the most famous legend in which he appears as the miracle worker is the one according to which in the 14th century a young German was unjustly accused of theft by a rejected local girl. The young man was hanged and his parents continued with their pilgrimage to Santiago. On their way back they found the body of their son still hanging on the gallows and as it turned out, even after a couple of months, the young man was still alive thanks to Saint Dominic. The parents raced to a judge who was about to have roasted cock and hen for dinner. At the news brought by the parents, he told them that their son was as alive as the cock and the hen on the table in front of him. That very moment, the birds jumped up and fluttered away, and for this reason to this very day a cock and a hen (alive, not roasted) are kept at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
As I was strolling around the centre of the town, using the reduction of stress as a pretext, I went to a very nice local restaurant where I had a lovely meal, including a piece of an excellent fish, as well as a glass of very tasty wine. I even took an afternoon nap that day during a brief rain and that felt very good, but I was woken up by some visitors of the nearby bar-restaurant who started chatting as soon as the rain shower was over.
I spent the rest of the day very quietly. By the evening, my leg seemed much better, although I still felt pain from time to time, but I was hoping that during the night and with assistance of good sleep it would recuperate even more, so I was ready to continue with my walking early the next morning.
I had no problems waking up very early the next day, very much content with my decision to continue with my pilgrimage, so I left the hotel before the sun was up. I passed through the sleeping town and then across the bridge made by the saint after whom the town had been named, but I did not stop there. Although it was quite cloudy, as the morning was progressing, the sun managed to get through them from time to time.
The sun is rising above La Rioja
At first I didn’t see anyone, but soon other pilgrims started to catch up with me and pass me. The main reason? My leg started to hurt again and that not only physically limited me and made me walk more slowly, but it also put me in a foul mood. I was looking at the flat path in front of me, only with some occasional, very mild ascents, in other words nothing important, but I still walked slowly because I could not walk any other way. Then I came across a rest point, the Cross of the Valiant (Cruz de los Valientes) and two benches, so I stopped there in order to take some water, as well as a medicine, with a hope I would feel better afterwards.
Cruz de los Valientes and the rest stop on the way to Grañón
Despite the pain in my ankle, I was amazed by the beauty of the landscapes around me. For me, these simple sceneries, with mildly waving huge grain fields, were incredibly beautiful.
Fields around the Way
The section to Grañón is only 6.5 km long, but it seemed to me there was no end to this arduous and slow walking. I realised the only thing that mattered was to reach Grañón, for it was the first settlement I was coming across.
Grañón, so close and yet so far away
The place is entered by a completely straight street going uphill. The clouds were still not giving up and as I was approaching they were pressing on the top of the village, but the sun was shedding light from behind my back, accentuating the red colour of the common poppies.
Entering Grañón
In Grañón I went to the first bar I came across and there I immediately asked the bartender if I could take a bus here to get to the town of Belorado, she said I could and then very kindly she looked up the times and explained to me how I could get to the bus stop. Still, I was in no hurry, so I sat there and had my breakfast. There I met Sofía and Alisia. After our chatting and their break, they continued with their walking, while I kept sitting there for a while enjoying some great jazz music. Then I walked to the bus stop that is about 1 km away from the centre of the village, which meant that indeed I walked quite a lot this day considering the circumstances.
The Way goes through Grañón
The local bus stop is located near the motorway, but there were some beautiful landscapes there, too, so I could still enjoy the stunning scenery.
Area around Grañón
At first, there was nobody else around, but then four Italians came, three adults and a boy. The woman and the boy had cold, while the two men had blisters. They told me their plan was to go directly to Burgos (a couple of stages farther) and have good rest for a few days in order to get better. This really seemed like an epidemics or perhaps it only appeared like that to me because I was “attracting” that kind of people and energy.
Be as it may, I got off the coach in Belorado town and there I went to the main square in order to take coffee and relax a bit. I also wrote a brief text about the latest developments to post for my friends.
Day 14: “Whew!”
Last night I felt just a little pain in my leg and as I watched football (boredom works wonders!), I thought: “Well, if Cavani can have moments of weakness after scoring two goals and leave the game to have a rest, while his leg is being wrapped in cling film foil, so can I (without the cling film foil).” (This concerns the 2018 Football World Cup held in Russia.) Thus, I interpreted this as a message from the Universe that it was quite ok for me to have rest.
But, the desire to move on also did its magic and this morning I got up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I left the hotel at 6 am, but already after some 20 minutes, the pain in my ankle started to grow and I could only realise it was good that the first settlement was only 6.5 km away.
The landscapes were wonderful, the clouds lingered above the horizon and the sun seemed lazy, as if it was in no hurry to come up. I stopped occasionally to take photos, but that did not help me much as far as my tendon was concerned. In one rest stop, near a monument in the shape of a cross, I made a break to eat something and take a mild pain killer, hoping it would help me reach Grañón.
I was exceptionally sorry that I felt so out of sorts. This part of the Way is EXTREMELY easy – the terrain around me was just mildly wavy, the wide dirt road was covered in small gravel which did not disturb the walking and the ground did not seem too hard on account of the rain the previous afternoon and night inundating the soil. Under any normal circumstances, one could almost run along this stretch without feeling any difficulty.
As I was walking, mostly looking down, I was aware that I must have had an expression of a martyr on my face. Most of the people passing by me seemed more content or at least not so tortured this early in the morning. I wondered where this feeling of contentment was inside of me. Whew! No wish to give myself some encouragement and pump myself up worked. My will had also started to abandon me and I was thinking that perhaps the best thing for me to do was to pack up my things and first go to Santiago, simply because I had that box with 4.5 kg waiting for me there, and then to go back home. I still dragged myself with pain in my soul and in my left ankle. And then suddenly I realised that there was a wish that was passing through my being, almost like a little snake made of light that twisted itself around my body trying to lit it from within, and that was the wish to keep going, with breaks, with prolonged lying in bed, by coaches… no matter which way, but just to keep going.
Finally, I reached Grañón and there I went to a café, saying hello to two Spanish ladies I had encountered a couple of times the previous day. At the bar, I first asked the bartender if there was a coach to Belorado which was my destination for the day. She said there was, gave me the times and explained where I had to catch the bus. One of the two Spanish women heard this and invited me to sit down with them. This was Sofía and her friend was Alisia, a physician, so I told her what this was about and what I had been through in the last two weeks – just problems and pains, with very little pleasure. Then Alisia first told me that once her son, aged 22, who walked the Way had a blister all over the sole of one his feet and simply had to give up. And she, when she did pilgrimage during the Holy Week, had six toe nails later fall off! Apart from the fact that the stories like this console me for a while meaning I’m not the only wimp around, on the other hand they really worry me because of the mental state of the pilgrims. Apparently, we are all insane here!
In front of me: 556 km
Behind me: 311 km