Regroup and Rethink: Reminder that Life is Lived.
Today was an interesting day of reflection. I awoke in the albergue early enough to see some of my friends depart and in some cases get their bags ready to be sent on ahead of them. As they left, the motion sensor activated lights left the arburgue in strange quiet. I posted my last posts and ordered the taxi to the Logroño bus station. Once there I got a ticket to Madrid, not sure of what my next move would be. As I stepped off the 3 1/2 hour bus ride to Madrid into the bussling city, I still didn't have a plan. but the Camino did teach me one thing. Take everything one step at a time and grab food when you can. So I sat for a time and had a baked fish platter while I contemplated my next move. I decided to get a hotel nearby and call the airline to figure out what options I had. The hotel was only a few blocks away and this trip was still giving me new experiences as the hotel lights were operated by the hotel key, for which I couldn't figure exactly how to turn on the electricity in the room except to put the hotel key into a slot in the wall, like some Indiana Jones puzzle. I guess that forces you not to leave the lights on when you leave. I thought long and hard about whether to try to go to Santiago and see the city and the church. Was going to the end cheating? Would it devalue any future attempts at the Camino? I decided to seize the day and experience all that my Camino adventure had to offer, even if it's not in the right order. I scheduled a train for 8:00 a.m. in the morning to take me to Santiago. I'll stay in an Albergue tomorrow and return on Thursday to Madrid before departing for Boston on Friday.
