Today, during the more than a hundred sunny kilometers to Morlaas, it was the first time I noticed it. I mean going back sooner. Two more days, then we cross the Spanish border, hug each other and then… I have to (and want) to return home as soon as possible. We’ve known it for a little over a week now, but so far not much has changed. We were still planning together, we studied the map together, we assessed together the possible accommodations to be booked. In short, we were a team. But today I felt a little different for the first time. Henk and Luuk talk about Spain, about their compostella to be acquired, about Finisterre. And I? I’m contributing less and less, I’m busy with the last few days. My odometer sometimes goes crazy, but I don’t care. I’ll take a look at home. The bottom of my jar of Vaseline is in sight, but those last few kilometers really do work. And my gloves are worn down to the wire, but who needs gloves for two days of cycling.
It’s all a bit sad. Tomorrow the last ‘real day’, then overnight at the foot of the Pyrenees and the day after tomorrow it’s time. I’ll go along to the border and then… it’s over.
Improved camping bed
Yet it also has an unexpectedly beautiful side. As so often, our hotel room today has two real beds and one refined camping bed. Apparently, the combination of three people in their sixties who really all want their own separate standing bed is somewhat unusual and many hoteliers solve this by adding a camping bed to a double room. For us it is always a hassle to determine who is next for that camping cot, which takes up a lot of meeting time. Not only is such a bed miserable, but it is also constantly used by the other two as a kind of ‘work table’ on which bags, helmets and water bottles can be casually thrown. Furthermore, it is always right under the TV. In short, the lack of comfort goes hand in hand with a harrowing lack of privacy. No wonder all three of us are constantly pulling out all the stops to get out from under the camp bed.
But today it was different. We entered the room and I said, “I’ll take the camp bed.” It may be the last thing I can do for both my friends on this trek. Henk and Luuk never looked surprised, they understood immediately. “Two more days,” whispered one. “One hundred and fifty miles,” replied the other.