Some gear and weight odds and ends

Here are some things I may not have mentioned in previous posts:

I wore New Balance 481 All Terrain running shoes for the actual point to point hiking (see photo below). Even with a moderately heavy pack I had no blisters or other foot problems. These are the most comfortable ligh hiking shoes I've ever worn for smooth trail hiking, like most of the El Camino.

I did not take my eTrex GPS receiver, and largely did not miss it. With the two alternatives available, the iPhone using citymaps2go and the WalMart Hisense android tablet with OSMAND Spain maps, I really had plenty of gps mapping with off-line maps not requiring an internet connection (like google maps requires). If I had decided to really map the el Camino in detail (in 3D for instance) I might have needed the eTrex, but that was not my goal.

I never used my sleeping bag since I had a silk sheet and there were plenty of blankets in Albergues. I could have saved about 1.5 pounds.

For walking around town after long hikes I could have gotten along fine (in fact better) with lighter Crocs instead of Tevas, which I took in case I had shoe problems. Savings of maybe .5 pounds and much more practical since no straps needed for taking off and putting on.

I used both the iPhone and tablet a lot, so they were not wasted weight.

I could have saved a couple of pounds on clothes by taking rain pants and leaving out my extra pair of zip-offs, by leaving behind a couple of T shirts, socks, and underwear since I could wash these most stops.

I threw out my battery-powered clippers and a larger writing pad after a few days to save weight (maybe .5 pound).

All-in-all I could have saved  maybe 3-4 pounds by cutting back on unused stuff.

Some other photos

Where is everyone? Is it my breath? Couldn't be my doctrine. (Pope in 1534)

Tired peregrino at cathedral in Santiago (not me though)

Trip back to USA on USAir: how many checkpoints do they need?

So far we have been through four checkpoints, each with a waiting line, just in the Madrid airport requiring passports or searches:

initial airline check in to check luggage,
security to check our carryons,
passport control to leave Spain,
and most inexplicably, a checkpoint to get into the gate waiting area.

Of course we still have the one we will have to go through to get from the waiting area onto the plane. That will be 5 just in the airport, four requiring a passport.

Add another two in Philadelphia  for US passport control and customs and we will have been through seven lines altogether.

Does this make things more secure or just add jobs?

Day at the Prado: Christian Symbolism Gone Wild

Went to the Prado today and saw lots of art, mostly by artists commissioned to paint religious themes. Bosch, Rubens, El Greco, Titian (Tiziano), Raphael, etc. in the 1500-1700 period. Lots of wild graphic interpretations of christian myths obsessing on the evils of sex (see Bosch's Triptych "garden of earthly delights"), where it started (the garden of eden), and where transgressors would wind up (hell.) Also many paintings of the temptations of various saints, adorations of Jesus by magi and shepherds and crucification depictions.

Train from Santiago de Compestella to Madrid

We are now on high speed Alvia train number 4284, coach 3 from Santiago to Madrid-Chamartin station. Same scheduled route where a train that was driven too fast some months ago crashed. Prudence is in coach 2, which is different from ours due to the vaguerities of Renfe ticketing when tickets are bought separately. We purchased the first-class tickets at the Renfe ticket office located conveniently right by the peregrine compestella-issuing office near the cathedral in Santiago, right after getting our compostellas.

We took a taxi  from the Pombal Hotel at 8:15 AM, for a 10  minute ride to the station and after a cup of coffee boarded at precisely 9:03. Two minutes later, exactly at the published time of 9:05 the train departed the station. The trains still run on time here, in spite of the Spanish budget woes. We are due to arrive in Madrid Chamartin station at 2:50 PM, after a few interim stops, and I have little doubt we will be on time.

7:30 PM Mass in the Cathedral de Santiago

We attended the mass last evening in the great cathedral along with 100's of other peregrinos. Being nonreligious my expectations were low, especially since it was to be conducted in Spanish. But when the sister began to sing with a hauntingly beautiful voice, accompanied at first only by the overhead organ, filling the cavernous space with music I was moved. In spite of C. S. Lewis' admonition that I may have felt "only" mere sentimentality I was quite happy I could understand little of the spoken service, since my objections to religion are at a conscious level, with what the religious texts and dogma say, and not understanding them takes away these concerns. Maybe it's better to have services in Latin after all.

What a Compstella looks like

Here's the net result of 3+ weeks hiking: