Is it possible to die from an overdose of beauty?

Yesterday afternoon, feet hurting, I stopped at the first albergue I came to on the edge of Belorado, so until this morning I had no idea how charming the town is. I left early today under a cool grey sky and walked across the town in its early quiet and saw an amazing display of storks' nests at the top of a church. The nests are architectural wonders, massive and monumental.

I'm not of the school that believes one must experience pain to enjoy pleasure, but sometimes they're surely intertwined. Today was such a day. I kept my walk modest--only seven miles or so--for fear of doing further damage to my feet and because I wanted to be sure to have a bed; the albergues and pensions are filling up earlier in the afternoon as the season gets busier.

But what a walk. The air, the sun burning off the grayness, the rolling landscape with untold numbers of Nike swoops, the shades and hues of greens and browns and ochres, the silence and solitude, put me into a state of meditative bliss. I walked slowly--it took me four hours--but I had some of those moments of perfect melding of body and spirit and landscape and movement. The euphoria had me holding back tears.

Or were the held-back tears for my feet? I, like so many other folks, am having blister problems. I treat one blister, and because I'm favoring one part of the foot, another pops out. It's interesting though. If I stop walking and start up again it feels like there's just no way I can walk. But after a hundred yards or so I guess the adrenaline kicks in and the pain dissipates and becomes tolerable.

I scored a private room with shared bath in a very basic pension, 18 euros, in the small village of Villafranca Montes de Oca, about halfway through this stage. I'm now sitting outside--no wifi in my room--in the cool dry sun-drenched air, just having treated my feet, and feeling lucky. One thought I had today is that I have the spirit and soul of an intrepid adventurer, but I have the feet of someone who should be studying Talmud.