A Day of Complete Rest
I had a great night's sleep between clean white sheets. I was determined (resigned) to a day of complete rest. So I walked about to the elevator, took it down to the basement, and had the hotel's buffet breakfast. The breakfast was very complete for 6€. While I was eating, Marilyn and her friend Michael came into eat. He is from London and is older and partially blind. He has traveled the world, done many pilgrimages, and is an interesting chap. While we were chatting another Pilgrim, Lionel from Brittany somewhere, came in. He was chatting with us and said he was going to the museum of the Civil War. Marilyn asked Michael if he wanted to go there. I said to Marilyn that I had been to the Museum when I was living here and was disappointed. I was very interested in the Spanish Civil War, but found the museum had very little information about the war. It mostly contained displays and information about the Masons, casting them in a bad light, probably because Franco hated the Masons. Suddenly Lionel gets very angry and says something about being a big boy and making up his own mind, and storms off. He didn't even eat breakfast! How sad.
Marilyn, Michael and I continued to chat over a leisurely breakfast. Then they went off site seeing and I went back to my bed for a forced rest, elevating my knee and icing every two hours. The Gentleman Austrian left me his "Cold Paste" which, from what I can translate, is an ibuprofen cream with some extra things thrown in. He said it healed his knee, and they were going to Barcelona and Madrid and then home, so he didn't need it. The woman in Team Austria, Giselle, have Marilyn some Compeed and tape for her blisters. Team Austria were really nice, generous, and kind people.
I was a good patient today. I went out once, just a few doors down the block to see if I could get a compression sleeve for my knee and leg. No dice, you need to get that from an ortho store and there are none in the old part of Salamanca. The closest is about a thirty minute walk. I decided the knee brace I brought provided compression to the sorest spots and didn't want to risk walking for thirty minutes. I went out again to have dinner with Michael and Marilyn, then back to my room. Pretty good, huh.
After dinner Marilyn came to my room so I could help her get the app that I am using as a guide. The English guides are awful. I had Gerald Kelly's guide and she had Alison Raju's guide and they both sucked. I don't know if the Irish are always taciturn, I always thought they were verbose, but Gerald Kelly's descriptions were sorely lacking in accuracy and detail. Anyway, it took me a while to get the app for her because some else had programmed her phone with her husband's iCloud account. So had to figure out how to undo that, because she didn't have his password. And then it needed to verify her credit card because we had changed the iCloud account. Lots of little technical things I had to figure out because I always program my own iPhone and have never had to do this.
But we got it all sorted. And she gave me a bracelet made by tribal people in South Africa, to add to my collection. She is a dear and it has been fun spending time with her. I may see her again and I may not. She is on a fast pace to Santiago. If my knee doesn't get better, I may be there before her by bus or train. If it does get better and I walk, I probably won't see her again this trip. We exchanged emails earlier in the trip and agreed to stay in touch. Alison, whom I met last year and is also from Cape Town, suggested I needed to come to Cape Town so I could introduce them to each other. Sounds like a good reason for a trip.r Burple wants to see the elephants. ; )
I spent most of the day organizing my photos and resting. Now it's time for sleep. The photos may not be too interesting, since I spent the day in my room. 
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