Gijón to Avilés

This was an interesting day. Our 15 mile walk turned into 17.3 miles. That was more than I was determined to do again, plus Moriah is still not feeling well. We crashed when we got here and then we went out to eat. After that we stopped at a podiatrist to look at my feet. No, it's not the plantar fasciitis, it's my toenails that are really ugly. I showed him my feet and told him I was on the Camino and we never even sat down. He just took us back to take care of them. They are damaged and infected and if I were not on the Camino he would remove the toenails. Instead, he took a little more conservative approach. Just before leaving, I mentioned in passing that I also had PF! 🤪 Then we went and I bought some shoes.

Moriah finally found a Camino shell for her backpack in Gijón. In the middle ages people would return home with a shell to prove they had completed their pilgrimage (at least, that's one story.) Now, it is traditional to carry one on the walk. I bought one in Bilbao, but she waited to find a smaller one, and we haven't seen them since... until now.

Pilgrims greet one another with "Buen Camino" (good walk/way) but it's especially nice when townspeople greet us that way. One older man went on and on in Spanish even after we told him several times we didn't speak Spanish. Then he indicated with gestures that he was praying for us. That communicated!Read more