Day 21 : paparazzi

Day 21 : paparazzi, originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

After just one single day of rest we were no longer used to a life of fame, but as soon as we walked out of our hotel this morning we were immediately confronted again with our existence as celebrities. The paparazzi were already waiting. I hadn't yet turned on my GPS and a woman wanted her husband to make a picture of us and our tandem. While finding our way out of Leon, a guy jumped on his bike, drove ahead of us and at the next stop light started to make pictures of us... He must have noticed the amazed look in our eyes and shouted: "It is simply great what you guys are doing! Are you biking all the way to Santiago?" Still surprised we nodded. "Wow, then I have to make a few more pictures" and jumped on his bike again, raced ahead of us - indeed - to take some extra shots. On our first Isostar stop of the day two young German backpackers came to ask very politely whether they were allowed to make some pictures. We even had a freight train driver waving at us and giving us two long blasts on the horn of his slow moving train. Being this popular is putting our mental integrity to the test, but after being for 20 days on this in-all-aspects challenging venture, it seems as if we start to finally grasp the relativity of continuously being the focus of attention. Sure we have an appealing high-tech tandem, but to paraphrase the Greek-Roman philosopher Epictetus, we have a tandem but we are not our tandem, so we should not confuse being with having. Similarly, we do what we do but we do it for ourselves and not to impress other people, so we should neither confuse image with essence. To be or not to be... is indeed the question. On the other hand, isn't it the contact with people that make you feel alive? Would you still feel that you exist if you were all alone in the world or not noticed at all?



Leaving the high plateau we softly start climbing again. This transition is distinctly marked by the Puente de Orbigo bridge. Several of its 19 Romanesque arches still date from the 10th/11th century. It is the longest and most impressive medieval bridge on the Camino Frances. We pedaled over it three times in order to better absorb the history that emanates from this wonderful bridge.

Destination of today is Astorga, a 2020 years old Roman city also boasting the bishop's palace, designed by the famous Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi.



The next three of the four remaining days will be tough ones - we'll be reaching the highest point of our entire trip. A few days ago we met a retired Swedish sailor who biked all the way from Sweden to Santiago and is now on his way back home. He thought that we were out of the normal to do this on a tandem, but we argued with him that he was the most so-called crazy (or should we say motivated) of all those others whom we met so far. He seemed to understand quite well how tough it is to ride a tandem uphill, so he warned us not to be too euphoric yet: "you're not done with climbing, you'll sweat on your way to the Cruz de Ferro" he predicted. The Cruz de Ferro will be on our program tomorrow. We'll find out whether retired Swedish sailors are also good fortune tellers...