A rebel without a clue.

Feeling sick because of the awful smell produced from some incense stick. It was so artificial and woke me too often with this overwhelming odour! Hostel X. Young lovers in the room: ear plugs at the ready. She's hot, and German, he's annoying and Cayman ... They were quiet and slept separately: I think it was a little snog. Ate late, but was asleep by midnight. Awaiting the doors to open for a coffee and I'm not far from where my lift collects me at seven. But I was shattered. Arriving at the hostel around ten thirty I was driven to find a small "ración" or simply flake out: the belly won and I ate a confit of lamb and some fishy thing called Pericana, which was simply too salty for me! I polished off the first copa vino in moments and, with the assistance of the second copa, managed this Alicante speciality. *** Here we are, three Spaniards and I, heading to Madrid on the A-3. We just stopped half way for a coffee. This was so so necessary: 5 hours broken sleep ...

Time to unwind on the sofa, comfortable with our lass, before another journey to Leeds/Bradford airport! Ever since I returned from Toledo I've felt more misshapen in England than I usually am. This material way is truly redundant for me - as another British catastrophe unfolds (Christmas Election) and overwhelmingly commercial Christmas revves up - I feel insanity all around me! And I'm bound to fall foul of it again and again if I stay here! Since I walked through Leeds City Station on the 23rd November nothing seems to be heading in a wholesome direction. The crowds of "revellers" falling drunk, like a modern equivalent of the Gin Lane etching by Hogarth, welcomed me back to West Yorkshire with a shock so frigid I thought someone had thrown a bucket of ice cold water over me? Then by the following day I was stumbling along like one of the buffoons merrily staggering on ale. It just doesn't help me in anyway! Now two weeks have flashed by and I'm looking dow...

Bookies: Paddy Power, William Hill(now closed), Admiral Casino Slots, tobacconists, The Three Legs, Barclay's bank, The Money Shop and this is The Headrow. Further down, on eastgate Victoria Gate and it's a temple to nothing. Further up and it's cheap £1 pasties. This is the left side of The Headrow. Climbed onto the 52, but it must've moved 20 metres before grinding to a full stop. All up the Headrow it was buses wedged together going nowhere. Climbing back off the bus I headed home: Alfred can wait until another night. *** Remember you must be a different person. The person who you were didn't work out.  Stop trying to return up the old roads. They don't lead you anywhere good And you know this! Listen to the other voice as it is the only way you'll ever find Peace of mind. It's all up to me. It's always been up to me. *** But it happened yet again. I drive myself crazy. Another day where I've had to hide from the world which works black magic ...

The rain is falling. It's perpetual. The fields are waterlogged and everything smells of damp corruption. So Autumn is in fifth gear. Soon the season should switch into winter mode and things should be stiller, but frigid and settled. Most of the trees have reduced to leafless shadows of their former majesty. There will be no variant to the bus journey from Leeds and back again until Emma sorts out the situation with the new house: it's two weeks overdue her moving in and things are a little tense at 42. Mum went to Harrogate for a change of pattern, even on a very wet day! Emma was about to go into bitching mode about living with mother. Finley was off school with a cold and said nothing to me as he passed the time on his iPad. Lola and I picked up Dan's Lola and had a good two hours threading through the margins of the ploughed up fields, stubble and fallow. Yesterday after the way I felt coming into 42, with its attitude problems, and the on going issue at The Mews, wher...

Returned to the hostel around five. That was my 'bite' of Toledo. It is a place which seems to have more history than just about anywhere: well that's kind of true of the entire Mediterranean basin. It has the perfect ingredients for the rise and fall of civilizations. A calm warm place, with occasional disturbances. And now I sit in a side street cafeteria and I am the only fool up at seven, except for the binmen, grocers and bakers. Toledo needs to start another day for UNESCO so rushed to put on a cleaned façade. Breaking all the rules this morning as the final slice of the moon is hanging above Plaza de Zocodover: it's my third coffee and I am being distracted by Real Madrid TV in the corner with its canned laughter at 8am. It's very easy when you can buy anything you desire. What fun is football when the depths of your pockets are as deep your countries national debt? Jumpers for goal posts and kicking a deflated ball, tennis ball, golf ball or tin can around a...

Black Friday. It's a con ... Can't you see what the TV is doing to you. Dragging you around and making you a slave. Christmas a single day to celebrate Love. Love doesn't increase with the giving of "gifts". If anything giving gifts is a proxy of Love in a loveless kingdom. I popped out to the only Spanish breakfast place I saw on my travels last night. Like all UNESCO world heritage sites McDonald's are slap bang in the centre killing the tourists on the inside while they walk slowly around the museums, churches and castles and are driven blind by the nonsense they read on each stone of merit. Told a sanitised version of the truth. The huge Alcazar sits above my weary head as the rain forecast begins in earnest and I think of the many who built this monster for the few. If I really had to rate a town simply due to the number of perceived historic sites to visit then I understand why a city like Carcassonne, Toledo or York would be a destination for those seek...

Time to get confused with how long I've been on this Camino? On Thursday 7th I left Alicante, on Saturday 16th I took a rest day and today is Thursday 21st: therefore today is the 14th day of walking from Alicante. In that time the only point at which I didn't walk was when a lady in Minaya took me from the Ayuntemento to Hostal Antolín because my boots were drenched and had copious water within so walking in them was impossible. Averaging at least 28kms a day I'm definitely at 400kms already - and this was my initial target! But I'm not in Toledo (the end goal) yet which is two more days away. However tomorrow is going to be atrocious all day - according to all the info on line I've read. And I still don't know whether to leave Tembleque on the Camino del Sureste or Levante! One is longer 31kms but has a town around midway the other is shorter, but has no stopping for 25kms. If I go the shortest way I'm left with longer to Toledo tomorrow with the heavy blu...