15 apr

Walked from Salamanca to Villanueva de Campean, 50 kilometres. The first big difference between the Via de la Plata and the ‘Real’ Camino, as I will call it, is there are much less signs on this path. It’s only because I bought this excellent German guide that I was able to find my way.
Left the albergue at about 7 o’clock, which made it possible to finally hit the 50 kilometres mark. Wasn’t easy though. I somehow brought only one 50 cl water bottle and it was hot today. I tried to buy some water in a town called Calzada, but there were no stores. Come to think of it, it was probably a village.
And then there was a long stretch of 20 kilometres without any villages or fountains and after 13 kilometres of this bloody hot road, I was desperate. I passed a jail and was thinking of committing a crime just to get into jail to get some water. I couldn’t think of the crime, and then it would probably have delayed getting water in the first place, the whole business with police and everything.
Last night I came back from having dinner and thought I felt something at my left small toe. When I looked at it, there was a big blister. That is just the way things go. You walk for hundreds of kilometres without blisters, and then you stroll through Madrid for a few hours and then there it is again, the blister. Just left it though, because the NHS website says it’s the best thing to do. Didn’t bother me too much, but there were quite a few little stones on the road that would hurt me.
In Calzada the church was open, only because people were preparing for the procession during the Santa Semana. The woman who was walking around looked like I didn’t belong in the church, but I happily took this opportunity to see a lovely old Spanish church. They were just loading Jesus on the cross up on a cart, for the procession. ‘Ah, Semana Santa’, I said. The woman said ‘importas’.
That made me think for quite a while. Why would a procession be important. For worshipping Jesus, for valuing something that we can hardly grasp, for valuing suffering, for acknowledging our own failings.
And then, what are we – not procession people- gloryfying these days. Shareholder value? It somehow got me to think about a column my colleague Pieter Couwenbergh wrote. Marcel Smits, the cfo of Sara Lee, now maybe something else, had suggested to get alcohol tests done on ceo’s of company’s. Probably a popular idea. I had to think of the reaction of one democratic senator after some hearings in which republicans opposed a certain nominee for secretary of Defence in the US. This guy had had a drinking problem in the past. He summed up the drinking habit of a certain person: champagne for breakfast, whiskey all they long, good quantities of (good) wine for lunch and dinner, brandy to end the evening with and some alcohol in between. ‘Would we trust this person to guide our country?, he asked. He was talking about Churchill, of course, the closest the world has gotten to an inspired leader in the past century.
And then I thought that it would be much better to have ceo’s pass tests on pride, on jealousy, on Vanity, maybe even on something stupid as greed.
Well, I’m tired now. Won’t walk so much again and will bring more water.