I don´t know much about Spanish topology, but the little I know tells me we are not in the mountains. However, if you told me that 40 minutes into the climb today, I would not have believed you. The road turned upwards today. Fortunately, the previous days with headwinds prepared me to just resign myself to slow speeds and to enjoy the scenery for what it was. Today the actual Camino ran along side the road I was biking on, so there were lots of pilgrims to say hello to, or more. Since I was only going 5 mph, I was able sometimes to hold a little longer conversation. I even was able to have a long exchange with a German guy, only to realize he had no idea what I was saying. I gave him the thumbs up.
My knees started aching a little on the climb. I had not been able to put in my usual 10 miles of spinning to get the knees nice and juicy. Also, because I realize that I have no been warming up properly, I decided to keep the day short, and aim for the little town of Villafranca del Bierzo. At my slow pace that started to seem unrealistic as I was going uphill, but after the corresponding long downhill at outrageous speeds, I was back on pace. Given the hills and a little detour to see some ruins, that was 65 good miles.
One though of today was about the industry of El Camino. Like railroads in the US, I imagine there are many towns along this long path whose only real purpose and reason for existing is for supporting pilgrims walking along. It really requires quite a bit of infrastructure and generosity to allow people to walk 1000+ miles. Both of those things seem now to just be part and parcel of the towns along the way. If you live in a town on El Camino, then you grow up knowing that there are many people just walking through, and you learn to smile and wish well.
El Camino turns out to be many Caminos. The one I´m on is the most traditional, the so called French Route which starts in Roncesvalles and goes to Santiago. There are longer routes, and the original pilgrims would come from as far as Eastern Europe. Thinking of that also got me thinking of what it must have been like for 9th century pilgrims to do such an epic journey on foot, and without infrastructure. What I gather is that while it must have been longer and harder, the concept of time must have been different, and taking 2 months off your regular life to do this pilgrimmage was not quite the logistical nightmare that it is for most people today to take 3 weeks off.
I am happy to have the time off now to be able to do both this pilgrimmage, and also all the traveling that is yet to come. I don´t think, and I don´t want to think, that I´m taking time off from my life, although sometimes it feels that way. I have met a fellow biker that has made the same last few stops that I have, and we have kicked off a friendship. He asked me today if I missed Boston, and I obviously do. I am constantly thinking about what it will be like to return to Boston, same old familiar and lovely Boston, but a totally different me. I look forward to that.
No comments:
Post a Comment