Day 2.1: April 28, 2017: Madrid

 April 28, 2017

Madrid Spain

Dixie, my mother-in-law puts a jigsaw puzzle out for holiday gatherings. I suspect she does this for me, because she thinks I enjoy them.

This is a fair assumption, based on the hours I will spend piecing together some absurd image. But, it's really just a sad manifestation of my compulsive personality disorder. Once I start something, I find it painful not to finish. So, whether I enjoy it or not, I am going to finish the puzzle, and I'll stay up late or get up early to do it- like I said, it's a personality disorder. The upside is that puzzles encourage groups to gather around the table and talk, at least more than a football game. Perhaps, Dixie is on to something and the United Nations should put out some jigsaw puzzles for constituent nations to complete. It would force delegates to talk in a non-threatening arena, and the sense of accomplishment when finished is addictive... at least to some personality types, like mine.

Now, once again I find myself in Spain, heading to the Camino. I came to Spain last May to walk the Camino Frances, an ancient pilgrimage route from St Jean Pied de Port on the border between France and Spain, to Finisterre on the far western coast of Spain: the end of the earth (at least the end of the civilized world now that Trump has been elected). That was the plan, but things came up, and fate had other plans. In order to finish in Finisterre, I was forced to skip a several day segment of the Meseta, the middle portion of the Camino: in my heart, this was unfinished business.

For those who followed this blog previously, you will recall that this was a difficult decision for me, at the time, It ended up being a trade-off between walking every step to Santiago, or skipping ahead and continuing on to the coast from Santiago. My reasoning for deciding to skip ahead was that the middle section of the Camino is flat and boring. I thought that I could come back and finish the middle segment, if I ever wanted. At the time, I posed the question: "but why would I?"  But, I just couldn't let it rest... So, I'm back.

But this time it's different.

On the original Camino adventure I walked alone, but this time I will be walking with my good friend Lisa, who many of you know personally, and who has been referenced previously. In order to get her to join me, I made two promises. First, we would not sleep in albergues (pilgrim hostels). These often involve sleeping in bunk beds with 50+ snoring tuberculous-ridden pilgrims. The second promise was that we would have the packs shipped to our daily destination. There are services that do this; so, it's easy to plan.

She agreed, and here we are! We plan to walk from Sahagun (where I got on the train last year) to Ponferrada, a little further than where I re-started the walk last year. The distance is a little over a hundred miles.

My pack is slightly heavier that last year, coming in at just over 6Kg. I kept a detailed list of everything that went into my pack last year and how much it weighed. I am taking mostly identical items (different shoes). Some of the same items were heavier this year.... How can that be? But to my credit, I am bringing less. Of course the current pack is heavier by the addition of a day pack.

It should be interesting, because I have done no preparation. I simply haven't made the time.  Can I walk over a hundred miles without training? What details or items have I forgotten? It's been a complicated challenge to plan with the hotel and hostel reservations (thanks Google translate for making this easier),luggage delivery service, flights and trains. And so far, it has not been a smooth beginning. The flight was late and I almost missed the last-minute send-off dinner with Ara and his lovely wife Yolanda. Getting everything to connect and fit is like working a puzzle... but I like puzzles.