Footnote 3: Security;
Wow, these people are security concious, the deadbolts are not just one, there are four where we have the one, plus one on the top and bottoms of the door. Every window has a shutter sliding up, usually steel, plus bars, plus locks. In my quest for wireless access to post these musings, I've found three unlocked ones, out of about 50. In the U.S., that statistic would be flipped. One of the unlocked ones would not give me an IP, but I got around that.....every computer available for internet access was like a video game console, a keyboard, a mouse, a screen, and a place to feed euros, no usb ports, no floppies, no way to infect them, other than the internet, that is. Also, no way to post photos. I did not want to inflict two meg photos to you via this blog, all of these have been written and posted with the palmpilot. I have about two gigs of pictures, between Ann, Tom, and I.

David Russell

Footnote 2: Bathrooms, continued;
Spain does have cool toilets, most flush with a button on the tank lid. The button is divided into two parts, about 2/3-1/3. With much experimentation, and several lab exercises, Brian, Dad & I have determined that the smaller button is for liquids, and the larger button is for solids. Dad is not fully convinced.

David Russell

Footnote: Spanish observations;
Be very afraid in the bathrooms!
All the light switches are outside the door, and I think they all are on 15 second timers. This can get messy.
The water pressure here has to be 80lbs or more, combine this with the fact that ALL the showerheads are those flexy handheld thingies, (Carmens was the only properly functioning one)and the curtains are half-size, not fully around the tub/stall, this gets exciting. One showerhead launched itself out of the holder and started whipping around the tub like a very angry steel snake. Oh yes, the hot water is also about a billion degrees. Now...the lights go out....guess where the switch is?
I do like that pressure, however.
Just get your towel, your whip, and your chair, tape that light switch down, and enter. You might want a mop too.


David Russell

Madrid
Well, here we are back at Carmen's place in Madrid. The bikes are boxed up, we did a tour of the Prado museum and old town Madrid yesterday. The last Camino day was Monday, we rode from Burgos, mudville, to Castroguerriz on Sunday, with Carmen along, then to Fromista, approximately midway on the trip to Santiago. Never fear, or, for Spain, be very afraid...The Russell's will return! Monday we rode about 25 miles south towards Madrid along the old Spanish canal system. This sounds more interesting than it turned out...very flat, yes, this was nice, but almost no wildlife could be seen, we did hear some raucous bird, but never saw it. The canal system was built between the 1750's & 1850's, and was finished just in time for the train systems to roll in. All the old neglected buildings, locks, decrepid canals, I found it sad and depressing. All that energy, talent, money, time.....unused.
That's Progress!
About 3pm on Tuesday Brian met us with Carmens car, he went to Burgos on the bus from Fromista to pick it up. We schtuffed 4 bikes and 3 people into it, Carmen, Ann, & Tom. They headed off to Madrid, while Dad, Brian, and I caught a train. I love trains! It was quite fun, but Dad and I had to jump up and move bikes from in front of one door to the other, depending on what side the station's exits were on. We will be taking the train up to Fromista instead of renting cars on our return. Tomorrow we get the bikes to the airport, our departure is 7am Saturday. Madrid is a fun city, but still a city. Today is Columbus Day, a Big Deal here, everything is closed, and thousands of people walking about in the parks. One of the wonderful things about Spain is the obvious love and care for the children. The streets explode with people about 8pm, before then it is dead. There are kids running around everywhere, most attended, but lots just playing with each other. You can really tell the Spanish influence on Mexico in lots of ways, but this was a very pleasant sight.
Thanks for reading my ramblings!
David

David Russell

Tombo
I must say, however much bellyaching, he is a tough trouper. All that mud today would gag a maggot, and Alto de Perdon was a hill to kill, we were all bitching about that one, for days. This is a tough ride, and Tom has done pretty phenTomenally well. He will likely not know for a few years yet what he's actually achieved doing this.

Here he is, on a descent the rest of us walked!

Granon
Today was pretty fun, nice climb out of Najera, and a bit of a fun downhill, but Dad ditched us in Ciruena, which had two Camino paths out. Our plan for losing one another was to meet outside of town...in a nutshell, he rode on to Santo Domingo, which had a famous church we wanted to see, the Cock and the Hen church. I said we should ride to the town square, and I did, and there was his bike..Ann, however, stopped outside of town and called the Gardia on him...she was worried. After lunch, we cycled on 7 more kilometers to Granon, where the alberge was in the church. Just pads on the floor, but a very special place. Dinner was in the main room, table set for 24, but only 22 were there. A great salad, garlic soup with chorizo, bread, and the omnipresent vino tinto. Afterwards, the woman running the place had a little ceremony for us peregrinos, we had a pamphlet with different prayers and psalms, we english speaking peregrinos read one aloud, the spanish another, the italians another, and the germans too. Then she turned out the lights, and passed a lighted candle to the first in line, and we all in turn said something about our pilgrimage. Very Special.

David Russell

Ages
After Granon we pedalled on, bit of a headwind, the rolling hills of La Rioja province crunching beneath the tires. The Camino runs right along a busy highway a lot of the way today, which sucks a little, but the surface is pretty good, and we make the kilos roll behind. The book we have said there were 3 hills to climb, and each bigger than the rest. We didn't want to wake up with those ahead of us, so at 2pm we start up the first. Yes, it is steep, and long, but it seems to be newly bladed. We zoom down the far side, abruptly stopping because the far side was another creekbed...lovely. Pushing a loaded bicycle up a creekbed is a great way to get exercise! NOT
However, after resting a bit in preparation for the last hill, we start off, and it is a no-show! Jota and I race ahead, wide dirt road ripping by, dodging puddles and peregrinos...zoooooooom! At least a halfhour at 15-20mph, we were 2 beers ahead at the next bar by the the time Dad got there, and ready for a nap by the time the lowpokes showed up. Tom seems to get a tummyache when hills show up, but has no problem tossing down icecream and cokes at the stops. We heard Camino gossip about headlice and fleas at this towns alberge, so we push on to the next, in Ages. This one was brand new, new oak bunkbeds, 3 showers... dinner, bed, breakfast - 15 euros! Dinner was a fantastic wine, salad, and a paella made in a pan about 3' across, with matching gas burner. Yumm! I had high hopes for breakfast after that, but the spanish don't believe in a big breakfast, it was cold microwaved coffee, toast, and jam. It had rained pretty hard during the night, and we have heard a lot of horror stories about the mud here, so we set off for Burgos with a little trepidation.

David Russell

Najera
Lovely little town nestled in red, cave speckled rocks, almost southwest feeling. It is a very old town, at least a thousand years. We got the top floor of a tiny hotel, 8 beds, one bath, one room. Tons of dormer windows, at least 6, with views out on ancient rooftops, the kind that great, great, great, great, great, great-granpappy put up hisself. We picked up a hitch-hiker, Jota, who is travelling for a week or so on the Camino for vacation. He has a mountain bike too, but the first day he tried the trail, he got two flats, so was hesitant to travel alone. He is pretty great, and a real help to Ann with all the communication help we are. I must learn more Spanish! On the road a week, and we've done about 138 miles. Should be able to get about halfway at this rate before we have to head back. We are thinking of a spring return for the finale, but we will see.

David Russell

Burgos
A big city, and you all know how much I love them. One big foggy pass to climb, not too bad when you can barely see where you're going, and lots of rocks, so mud is not a problem...until the descent. My bike handles it pretty well, yes it packs up in the gears, etc...but the wheels can turn. Dad and Brian have it the worst, Dad has to carry his, wheels packed so solid with mud they will not turn at all...it takes twenty minutes of scraping to get rotation. We pedal off, onto gravel, then paved roads, mud flying everywhere, like one of those pinwheel sparklers. We stop at the next bar and have some decent coffee and cake. I treat myself to a glug of brandy in my hot chocolate, this turned out to be a damned good idea, because the mud had not made it's final appearance for the day...outside of Burgos, the camino routes itself around the local land fill...lovely. Chewed up road, mud, rocks, our feet looked like blobs, the wheels had so much mud on them small rocks were getting rotated into the mudjams, plastic bags, sticks, you name it. There was a cyclone fence around the perimeter that the camino followed, so I lifted the bike onto the concrete pad it was set in, about a foot wide, with the fence in the middle. Not perfect, the bike had to lean over pretty far so the panniers cleared the fence, but not muddy, either...except the huge blobs called shoes. This went on for about an hour, Dad and Brian ended up taking off their panniers and carrying the mud-packed bikes out. It took another hour at a gas station to hose all the bikes clean. Jota is leaving us here, and Carmen joining us for the last week. Tonight we have a big dinner, and meet Jota's wife, Carmen gets to meet them too, and then tomorrow get out of this noisy place. There is a pretty stupendous cathedral, though!

David Russell

Now we are in Puente la Reina, a rest day. We rode a massive 5 miles today, 22 miles yesterday. We stayed in Uterga last night, a tiny town the other side of Alto del Perdon, a yucky 2590' pass, with no downhill reward after, just steep riverbed, basically, more baseball rocks. We took a detour out to see a 12th century monastery, very beautiful and serene. I can really see why the peasants with barely two sticks to call their own would be so awed by the churches. We are in a running (haha)battle trying to stay ahead of the walkers, Carlos, Frida, the three gorgeous German girls, etc. We zoom past, they catch up, on & on. We are averaging about 25-30 kilometers a day, mostly due to the extreme variety of road! surfaces. The plan is to stick with the old pilgrim trail, and not zip down the highway, even if we don't make it to Santiago. If we hauled ass down the paved road, we miss a lot of history. Let me tell you, Roman roads are great and all, but going very fast is not an option. The little towns are quite lovely, lots of colors, wrought iron railings in front of the windows, covered with drying laundry. Almost all the windows just have massive shutters, no glass, and the doors are huge...it would take quite a few blows with a sword to open them, if you could. Almost everything has defense in mind, where a town is, where doors & windows are, you name it. We are in Irache this Monday morning, where the fountain of vino is. We stayed in a KOA type cabin, couldn't face the next 7 kilos last afternoon. I am finally feeling as if this is survivable, fun, even. There is a lovely sunrise coming up, time to pack the bike!

David Russell