THE EASTER BUNNY IS REAL

The Easter Bunny is real; at least in the mind of my always creative neighbour.  He was the most extraordinary sight on my walk to virtual Ciruena yesterday.  In the real world, I know this particular walk so well, that it's easy to be blasé about it.  I spent my time shooing away early blackflies, thankful for the swooping swallows intent upon receiving them into their open mouths.  There were other pilgrims out there on the road trying to keep from going stir-crazy in this time of self-isolation and social distancing, I spent my time crossing the road to avoid on-comers and, when overtaken, crossing the road to remove my self from the slipstream of  potentially infected, though clearly asymptomatic breath.  Crazy.

I worked diligently on my gait, still trying to rehab my injured leg.  It's been nearly four years since I fell out of the front door, trying to carry the front end of my dying, 100 lb German Shepherd, and pulled about every attachment in my left leg from the hamstring on down.  Since then, my steps have become much shorter than they should be, and I tend to stump along, bending my knees less than I should.  So yesterday, I did a kind of Scout's Pace between roadside features.  Long steps from the mailbox to the next driveway, short steps from there to the stop sign, and so on.

By the time I made it to Virtual Ciruena, my whole body was feeling the strain.  And today, I've had to resort to an anti-inflammatory cream.  I don't think I'll make it the next five plus km to Virtual Santo Domingo today.

I took a Google Street View walk around Ciruena; it is the quintessential sleepy village.  The main road passes sheds and houses of mixed orange brick and grey river cobbles, with the odd bit of timber framing showing through on adobe upper storeys.  There's a church, the ayuntamiento, a health centre and not much more.  The map shows three albergues, testifying to the extreme popularity of the Camino in the days before Covid-19, but it took me a long while to find the only bar in town.  That virtual coffee was mighty good though.

Another 5.5  km to Virtual Santo Domingo de la Calzada along rural tracks....art imitating life.  Hasta la vista!