Day 15 Leaving Burgos
Day 15 Sept 23 Destination = Rabe de las Calzadas / 490 km to go. It will be a short 13 km day which gives me more time in Burgos and spend more time at the outdoor Prado museum display as well a little more rest and recovery before taking on ‘La Meseta’
Entering Chapter 2 tomorrow!
Thoughts on age while attending church service last night. As my mind wandered I marveled at the ceiling and thought about time . All these churches required relatively complex skills to build AND TIME. If you got a job to help build one you probably didn’t live to see its completion. You probably only had Sunday off. There probably weren’t eight hour days. Probably not a job site sign saying “118 days without an accident “
Life Expectancy in the Middle Ages What was the typical life expectancy in the Middle Ages?
That, of course, varied according to diet, climate, location, relative wealth, etc., but the answer is surely not as long as we do now. For starters, infants and children died at a horrific rate (some say up to 1/3 of all died before the age of 5) and a significant percentage of women died in association with childbirth: 5% perhaps from the birth itself, often dying with the child, and a further 15% from childbed fever–the infections that followed a poorly managed delivery (by our standards).
Following that, if a person made it out of childhood, they could be expected to live into their middle forties, provided they maintained good health and weren’t killed in war. Both those, of course, are big ‘ifs’.
Eliminating individuals who died before adulthood completely, the mean life expectancy for women was 43.6 years, with a median of 42/43; for men, it was a mean of 48.7 and a median of 48/49. (source Sarah Woodbury)
So, I’m sixty four walking my first Camino and as I looked at the 800 year old cathedral ceiling I couldn’t help but to be in amazement wondering about those involved in its construction and what their lives were like and what stories they would tell. I guess I’ll have to try to finish Ken Follett’ cathedral series after all.
So here I am in northern Spain in September 2021 in a midst of a worldwide pandemic. My conclusion is that I’m incredibly lucky to be doing this -seeing, touching, hearing, and of course walking this….privileged …no, blessed beyond what I deserve
1219-2019
Masterpiece from the Prado Museum display
Prado Museum ‘Agnus Dei’
One last walk through the plaza to say goodbye to my fellow ‘peregrinas and perigrinos’
“Man’s real home is not a house, but the Road, and that life itself is a journey to be walked on foot”
– Bruce Chatwin
