Looking at maps of tomorrows route becomes habitual. In the evening, before the restaurants open for dinner at 8.00pm, you take yourself through some set piece moves.
Firstly, you look at the app: Buen Camino. You can pay for it and I am sure that is wonderful, however I use it to find where the trail will start and stop, for tomorrow. That bit is free! Next up is goggle maps. I copy and paste the name of my hotel, for tomorrow night, and this will guide me home, so to speak, when I get to the destination town.
Technology done, Sonya Camino put me onto two guide books. The heavier tomb talks in detail about specific areas on the walk, it does have spiritual reflections, but the maps are pants. There is good local colour about the history of the places you are visiting. However, I get overwhelmed, so this stays in my bag for most of the time. 
The second book gives a double page spread to every big stage of the walk. It is the Michelin route planner to the Camino, and it is brilliant, a definite must.
Before I came away, I bought two copies of these, tabbing every page that I was away. One copy I left for my wife and children, the other never leaves my side. Visually it tells you what to prepare for, and in a motivational way, on the walk you can see how far you have come.
As a visual for the day ahead, it gives you a quick glimpse of possible breaks and future climbs. It includes an actual map too, so you can see, in real time what is coming along.
Here is the problem. The icons used to represent cities and towns and villages, have been mixed up.
When my son was on the Camino, we joked that a work experience boy at Michelin books, called let us say, Freddie, was put in charge of the icons on each page, with no full comprehension of what he was doing. Putting icons where they were aesthetically pleasing, rather than representative.
Take last night, Ponferrada carries the Freddie icon of a small village, however in practic, it took more than an hour and a half to walk across the city. The castle, above, is worthy of its own icon.
Villafranca del Bierzo, where I am staying tonight, has the same icon as Leon, But has no cathedral or anything like it.
I just feel that the Michelin book department were against a deadline, and no-one thought to check on Freddie’s work.
The other thing about this book, that makes me laugh, is the man icon, at the top of each page. With Green, Amber and Red, you would naturally think the traffic light system, but no. Green is the hew colour of wine you drink for finishing early. Forgive me, but Amber is the colour of your per, despite drinking throughout the day, say maybe three litres. You sweat so much on these days, that you just can’t drink enough to change it.
Using the same scale, red is the colour your feet change your socks to, because you have walked so far.
Sitting on my hotel balcony as I write this, I can see I am walking two double pages tomorrow; one is green, the other red. From my art lessons that makes brown, is that a shit day?
Very much like the musicians at the start, this is all just a bit of fun.
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