Friday, October 2, 2015

Condom: Sunny, 27 Thursday Sept 10, 2015

Stuck in Condom...

Do you know how hard it was to write such a neutral title with such good material? But my Mother reads the blog, so I must behave. A lost opportunity!
Up this morning as usual to a less than brilliant breakfast, but as always, we were happy to receive
something to get us started. How do the French walk on a piece of bread and a cup of tea or coffee? Late last night we sort of made the decision to stay here and to try and see a doctor because I suspected that I might have a hairline fracture on my lower left leg. Annemarie googled the subject, and sure enough, my situation matched the description. So we started our day at the hospital. I received great service and was able to communicate pretty well in my limited French and they in their even more limited English! The doctors told me that they too thought that I had broken the shin bone...did I tell you about all the road walking? However, several X-rays later and they pronounced no break, but a badly inflamed something or rather in the leg. So now a round of anti inflammatories and some rest.

We have moved from the convent...

To here...
Yes, we are pilgrims, but no one said you can't have a pool! Therapy of course! All the TV channels are in French...I checked. The convent was fine and the people running it were very nice to us. But here we have a room with our own shower much closer to the centre of town and if we are going to hang out for three days then this will be a bit more tolerable and easier to get around. Also we can have wine here:-) It was a dry dinner last night.

We said goodbye to our new French pals today as they completed their walk and will return home today. They will walk to St. John Pied de Port next year and I have promised to send them information about the Frances for their next effort. Very nice folks and very inclusive of us English types.
We have had a look around this nice town and here are a few of our discoveries. The main gothic church. It was very beautiful inside and I posted a photo of the outside yesterday, but here is a side door facade.
Now for the main event...


You might recall that almost all the churches so far have been much older, heavier Romanesque structures. You can see the difference. Much lighter and more open.
And yes, the spectrum images were here too. Glad you asked;-)

Many friends have passed by today...some who I won't have the opportunity to exchange email addresses with. Such is life.
But no doubt we will make new friends. Many more people seem to come and go on this route than the others I have walked. These four look familiar?
I will post a photo essay of this town tomorrow. Otherwise I'll likely run out of material! Thanks for your nice comment Wendy. Don't worry, I haven't given up yet. You were quite correct, this is a very beautiful part of the route. Now that I've seen the Pyrenees, I'm pretty motivated and you can imagine how difficult it was not to proceed onwards today. However, the correct decision. 

500 kilometres lay behind me and the road ahead continues to beckon me onwards. I'm very sorry to be missing a part of this perfect weather window. Hopefully it will wait for us. I've heard from Germany that it's chilled off up there. I want to be over the Pyrenees before that happens here. 10 more stages to St John and then three days to hop over the mountains and into Pamplona. How fast the journey passes.

Bon Chemin!

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