21 Chemos, No Castle

Chemo #9 is done — June 4th — which brings the grand total to 21 chemotherapy treatments.

Going into #9 I had a lot of muscle pain in my neck and back. So in a strange way, I was looking forward to it — the steroid pills come with the treatment. They felt great for about five days, then wore off the following week, right as we drove to Spain.

The Spain trip started back in January, when Soren said:

Dad, will you look up the Ludovico Einaudi concert tour?

Who?

Ludovico Einaudi. I'm learning to play his song Experience. He's coming to Lisbon — let's get tickets.

Lisbon — sold out.
Milan — sold out.
Madrid — sold out.
Barcelona — sold out.
Paris — sold out.

Who IS this guy?

Pamplona's available. And we could hit San Sebastián while we're at it.

So we planned Pamplona and San Sebastián. I'd been wanting to show San Sebastián to Tina and Soren. I first saw it two years ago, when they were visiting the States and I was waiting to start chemo season 1. That start got delayed — CUF, the private hospital I was using then, botched the submission of my insurance claim. I wasn't going to sit home alone, so I made an impromptu trip to Spain and invented the itinerary as I went. One fixed plan: hike Picos de Europa. I did — a 16-mile out-and-back on a narrow trail with 100-foot drop-offs. Five weeks earlier, fresh off the right hemicolectomy surgery, I could only walk a quarter mile.

After the hike I made it to San Sebastián, and the mountains meeting the sea blew me away. And the bay — wow. They call it La Concha, the shell, and it curls around the coast like one. Calm water, warm enough to swim. San Sebastián is also known for its food, but eating alone made it boring, so I was glad to finally share the place with Tina and Soren.

Cascais to Pamplona or San Sebastián is nine-plus hours, so we broke it up with a night in Salamanca — only five hours out. Tina and I first passed through Salamanca twenty years ago, on a trip around the world. I remembered the walled castle, and I was looking forward to seeing it again.

I was using AI to plan the trip, so I asked it for a hotel near the walled castle. It corrected me: Salamanca itself is not a castle city. Its monuments are two cathedrals and the oldest university in Spain, not a fortress.

I paused. No castle? I had a vivid memory of Tina and me walking the fortress wall.

So I checked. I'd recently relaunched our blog from that trip, and pulled up that day in Salamanca — no walled city. Then the next day, in Ávila — there it was. The walls weren't Salamanca's at all. They were Ávila's.

I said nothing to Tina. Then, a few days before we left, she asked where I'd booked the Salamanca hotel — was it near the walled city? I laughed and told her what I'd found. Both of us had carried the same wrong memory for twenty years. Salamanca came near the end of our world trip. After a year on the road, our hard drives were too full to file it correctly.

Rediscovering Salamanca was a treat. We'd stop there again. The Plaza Mayor is one of the best in Spain, and the university town has a real energy. There are tourists, but it isn't drowning in them the way Barcelona and Madrid are.

The trip was great. We did what we always do — walked and walked, on the trails around San Sebastián and through the streets of Salamanca and Pamplona. Slower this time. I needed a lot of breaks and fought the back pain the whole way.

Earlier this week I had my surgery consultation with the nurse. I asked for a date. They couldn't give me one — the surgical team sets it the week before. So all I know is this: surgery happens the week of July 13th.

I'm still fighting lower back, shoulder, and neck pain, but the days go on — cold dips in the Atlantic with my crew, walks, dinners with friends.

For the past two weeks I've been working with Sacha, a friend here in Cascais and an occupational therapist. She built me a plan for the pain, and even the simple neck stretches have already made a difference. I recommend her — All of Me.