Burgos

Lots of walking today, some ten kilometers worth between our overnight stop in Puenta la Reina and the lunchbreak. Mostly on the flat, fortunately, as it's too warm for uphill and downhill hurts my toes (pressing against the shoes' toecaps, I'm bruising rather than blistering). There was a moment of excitement at the coffee pause halfway, when we caught up with the bus and found out that my parents had disappeared without trace (they were going to do the final four kilometers, 2 km after the break, but went walkabout from there without informing the driver).

My mother bought a dual-band cellphone before the trip, specifically in order to be able to call me or the emergency services while on the trail; unfortunately the company sold her a phone which was restricted to their own cards, so the Spanish cheapie we tried to use wouldn't work. So we bought a brand-new phone for 40 Euros, damn the expense. We shall give it to the deserving poor at the end of the trip. Mom is confused by the technology: she switches the phone off to save the battery, then switches it back on again and thinks that the "enter your PIN number" prompt means "don't bother with the PIN, everything is fine." so I could not call her after they disappeared. Sigh. (Sis, you don't know any of this! If and when they tell you, act surprised.)

Weather good (cool, sunny with broken cloud, gentle breeze), landscape beautiful (often no sound at all but wind, birdsong and the clicking of walking sticks on stone), food good (mostly fish, what a surprise). I'm enjoying this and might just do some serious walking again sometime.

Internet access is a great problem. Four of our hotels have boasted of WLAN in the rooms; it has never worked except in the two-star Jardines in Bilbao on the first night. This is written on the (singular) public computer in the hotel here, there are four other treckers waiting in line behind me so this will have to do.

Take care, be good.

Definitely winter

I've been under the weather (literally) for a week, and it's getting boring—but also getting slowly better. Winter is definitely back, it has snowed since Tuesday but until this morning the temperature at ground level has been too high for the snow to settle. There is snow on the rooftops down here in the valley and on the hillsides up above.

I have worn my new boots every day, on every occasion that I've left the house. I am pleased and surprised to say that they fit better, and have required less breaking-in, than any pair of shoes that I've ever bought; and am thereby reminded of a comment Zhoen made some months back:

Let's see, you hate shoes, but take no time to make sure they fit properly, take the first pair that seems close and wear it to death, then replace it with an identical crappy pair... Try a running shop, if they have such things there, get your gait examined, proper shoe suggested and fit, and you will have much less trouble later.

You were so right (although my Clarks really are quite good).

In other news today's Friday Favourite is a song from this wonderfully odd album. The mark of its greatness is that it gets both five-star raves and one-star rejections in the customer reviews. If you don't run screaming from this sample, you will greatly enjoy the rest.

Shabbat shalom, my dears.

Progress report #1

I walked for three hours in my new boots today, and so far I'd say that they are fine. There is of course a certain amount of adjusting to be done: I have the impression that I use my toes much more than when wearing normal street shoes, perhaps because of the upwards tilt at the very front of the shoe. The soles are nearly an inch thick, which makes a tremendous difference if one is used to relatively flat, thin soles as most men are, I stumbled four times going up or down stairs which is about three-and-a-half times more than in 2006.

In other news this morning's putative migraine has retreated slightly and is now just a sick headache, hence the walking. It occurs to me that the constant swallowing of vile, bile-like stuff may in fact be due to leakage from my sinuses which I have only just noticed. (There, aren't you glad you read that just before lunch?)

In other, other news a little note to the customer who phoned me to report an urgent! crisis! work-impeding! problem with the database: If this alleged crisis is not worth three minutes of your time to tell me in detail what went wrong where, nor even half a minute of your time to make a screenshot and send it to me via e-mail, then it is sure as Hell not worth me spoiling my weekend trying to find the problem. Call me again on Monday.

On having peculiar feet

Not that I'd ever known that they were peculiar, mind you. They have the right number of toes, and are located one at the end of each leg as is customary; they even both face forwards—more or less.

And that "more or less" is the problem. My toes point outwards, away from the centreline of true forwards, and my ankles bend inwards. I also stand with my feet relatively wide apart, which encourages the inward-leaningness of my ankles.

It was absolutely fascinating to see this demonstrated on-screen as I walked on the treadmill. A little lightbulb went on in my head as the orthopedist said that this posture puts an extra stress on the knees: my knees hurt like Hell after the stair-climbing this morning.

So. I have a set of exercises to perform (psychological: keep your feet straight in the direction of travel by imagining that you are wearing four-metre-long skis, and practical to strengthen and stretch the barely-used outside tendons of my knees (Lioness or Zhoen will tell us the name :-)) and a pair of shoe inlays to force encourage my ankles nearer to upright.

And I have a pair of walking boots. It's early days yet, of course, I haven't yet worn them outside or for more than a few minutes, but they were by far the most comfortable shoes in the shop: only mildly ugly, light, firm but not inflexible, good rolling motion, roomy around the toes without being loose, well padded around the ankle and Achilles tendon.

I would strongly encourage any German readers (of whom there are none, but you never know who might be arriving via Google) to patronise SportScheck: great service, the right goods at the right price, excellent advice.

Watch this space for updates, perhaps I'll put up a "kilometres walked" ticker.