Oh the way to O Cavado

Today began in the crisp, cool air and ended in the pits of eternal fire. 

The start of the day was quite delightful, and I had the realization that I can finally stop obsessing about my physical health - i.e. my feet, and think about the social aspects of being on the trail. 

We hiked above the clouds for a bit this morning and step after step there was another amazing view. 

Back in Oviedo, as we started this journey, MJ shared how excited she was for the windmills, because she read somewhere that we'd be able to walk amongst them. That is the truth, but what the information that she read didn't say is that not only do we get to hike along side them, that we'd be hiking up to the top, down again, and then up to the top, several times. Now the windmills are part of our "el Camino de Santiago - The Musical" play that we have been writing. A quite good strategy for getting through the tough parts. 

Oh windmills, you are so far away, and then we climb to find you, just to go down again. (Repeat)

Each day we walk through many different paths. My most favorite are the forest walks where you expect Robin Hood and his merry men to jump out at any moment. 

Then, there are the town walks, which are super short and steep since the towns usually have 1 church, and maybe 3 houses. 

We do like to stop at the churches, even though they are still locked. 

My least favorite part of the walk is when we are on the road. Hiking boots are not made for pavement.

We left Fonsagrada so early that no one was open for breakfast. Probably because the locals are still digesting their dinner that they finished around midnight, which I'm finding isn't that hard to do since it doesn't get dark here until after 10 pm. 

Anyway, 15 km into our walk we came across a little restaurant where several other peligrinos were stopped, and bought a ham sandwich served on an entire baguette.

I've been itchy all day, and I suspected that it may have something to do with the fact that we actually got to do laundry last night, but we didn't have any soap, so I just found a box of powder and used that. When I arrived in O Cadavo I realized that my skin, that had been touching the "clean" clothes, was red, bumpy, and inflamed. Going to a pharmacy in a different country is always an interesting experience, but luckily I had MJ and her mom to help find medicine for me to try. I got 20 sort of antihistamines for 2 Euros. I'll let you know how it turns out.