Today is a travel day. I got up early and fixed breakfast at the alburgue. I then showered and finished packing and walked down to the bus stop to catch the bus to the airport. Marco went with me to the airport as he had to talk to RyanAir about his flight back to Italy 🇮🇹. We sat around the airport coffee shop for a while laughing about our misadventures on the Camino. Walking with Marco and getting to know him was one of the highlights of my Camino.
I am taking a very roundabout route to get to Bordeaux. I am flying RyanAir from Santiago to Majorca and then flying to Bordeaux.
I departed Santiago at about 11:00 AM and landed in Majorca at about 12:30. Unfortunately I have a 7 hour layover in Majorca before I depart for Bordeaux. I am trying to find a comfortable spot in the airport to relax and work on this blog post.
Many of you have asked how my feet have been holding up as I walked the Camino. I added up the steps that my Fitbit recorded for the 41 days I was on the Camino and it added up to over two million steps. That is a lot of steps and missteps in 41 days. They say that when you finally walk into Cathedral Square in Santiago you experience the thrill of victory and the agony of da feet. This statue greets you in Cathedral Square to remind you that your feet got you to the finish line in Santiago.
I was very lucky on my Camino. I did not have one blister. Heck, I did not even have a hot spot. I do have a stone bruise on the ball of my left foot from stepping on the innumerable rocks and stones on the Way.
I wore light weight shoes and I am generally glad I did. They say that a pound on your feet equals 5 pounds in your backpack 🎒. Heavy shoes or boots also tend to trap heat and make your feet sweat and swell. And that makes your feet prone to blisters. REI has a one year no questions asked return policy. I tried almost a dozen pairs of shoes, and returned the shoes that didn’t fit perfectly, until I found two pairs of shoes that I thought would work on the Camino, a pair of Altra trail runners and a pair of Asolo Goretex walking shoes.
I also spent a great deal of time picking out the socks 🧦 I would wear on my Camino. I finally decided to take two pairs of Injinji padded toe socks and two pairs of SmartWool Ph.D padded hiking socks. When we hit Leon I realized that I had worn a hole 🕳 in the ball of the left foot on both pairs of the Injinji toe socks. I love these socks but I think I should have gotten more miles from them before they crapped out. They were not cheap socks and when I get back I plan to call Injinji and lodge a complaint.
Talking about my feet reminds me of the bedtime routine I used to go through with my daughter Dana when she was a toddler.
This is Dana all grown up and as beautiful as any sunrise on the Camino.
When Dana was a toddler she liked to wear tennis shoes with socks. She was always very active and, especially in the summer, her favorite tennis shoes would get a little ripe.
At the end of the day it would be bath time. Dana always wanted me to help her get ready for her bath by taking off her shoes and socks. One evening, as I was taking off her shoes and socks, she asked me if I loved her. I replied as I always did to this inquiry: “Yes Dana I love you much and much.” Then she asked me: “How much do you love me Daddy?” I replied: “Dana, I love you more than than there are stars in the sky and fish in the sea.” Not satisfied with this profession of unbounded love, Dana said that she doubted my love for her and only by smelling her feet would I prove to her that I loved her more than there are stars in the sky and fish 🐠 in the sea. Now I am in a real jam. I had helped Dana remove her shoes and socks and the pungent cloying odor of overripe kid’s tennis shoes, socks and sweaty feet hung in her bedroom like the miasma from a garbage scow. You have seen the cartoon where two buzzards are standing next to a carcass? One turns to the other and says: “OMG, this one smells really bad. Better get more ketchup.” That’s the kind of overripe garbage truck smell I’m talking about. I tried to convince Dana that I loved her so much that smelling her feet was unnecessary. She wasn’t buying that and I knew that the only way to get her into the tub and get her into bed at a reasonable hour was to smell her feet and declare them the best smelling feet ever. So I grabbed her right foot, raised it up to my nose, and took a long deep and loud inhale. I declared her right foot to be the best smelling foot ever. Not satisfied she asked me: “What does it smell like Daddy?” I couldn’t very well tell her that her right foot smelled like an animal carcass that has been on the side of the road for two weeks in the middle of the summer, so I lied. I told her that her right foot smelled like roses🌹. She giggled, apparently pleased by my prevarication, and asked me to smell her left foot. As you can imagine, Dana’s left foot smelled just as bad as her right foot. Trying not to upchuck 🤮 my dinner, I told Dana that her left foot was the best smelling foot ever. Dana was on to my little game now and asked me: “But what does my left foot smell like, Daddy.” I couldn’t very well tell her that her left foot smelled like a Porta Potty at the Illinois State Fair that hasn’t been pumped out for days, so I lied, again. I told Dana that her left foot smelled like perfume. She giggled and seemed pleased with this little white lie. The remainder of her bedtime routine went off without a hitch. I, on the other hand, had her foot odor indelibly imprinted on my brain 🧠. This made it impossible for me to fall asleep. This foot smelling part of Dana’s bedtime routine lasted for the rest of the summer.
In honor of Dana I have named my right foot Roses and my left Perfume. Both Roses and Perfume carried me along the Camino without too much complaining and for that I will be forever grateful.
Speaking of Dana, this is a Wishing Tree 🌳 that I encountered along the Way.
This is what I wrote as my wish.
I then rolled up this piece of paper and attached it to the wishing tree. I sincerely hope that one day the wish that I wrote out and attached to the Camino Wishing Tree comes true.
This is a restaurant at the airport in Majorca.
I found Abe’s picture in this restaurant.
Abe really is a world wide phenomenon.
That’s it for today.
I hope everyone is having a relaxing Saturday.
Good evening from the airport in Majorca, Spain.
AbeAndMarkontheCamino 