Belorado to Burgos to Hornillos

Walking into a town.

Church at Belorado with giant birds nesting on top.

Walking into the big city of Burgos.

Cathedral at Burgos.

Our first rain leaving Burgos.

Entering Hornillos de Camino.

We had a good níght sleep in Belorado and barely heard our Spanish roommates.   The next day we decided to takeaway bus part way into Burgos and then walk into town.  It was one of those odd days which we didn't think we could make it 10 or 12 miles because of mountains so our only option was to skip ahead and walk as much as possible.  We still have 2 or 3 days that we will need to skip I order to finish on time.

We said goodbye to our Dutch roommates who were staying. At the same albergue.  They were only walking a few miles for the day, then taking a bus back to their RV for camping.  They hadn't planned on finishing this summer.  Our Irish friend was going to go half way, so we would be 3 days of himso who knows if we would see them down the road.

We caught the bus and explained to the driver where we wanted to be dropped off sowe could walk.  Not possible he said, we don't stop there.  It was a short bus ride of 45 minutes, but got us 1.5 days of walking ahead.  Before entering Burgos, he made a stop for one passenger and looked at us and said you walk from here.  This is El Camino.  We had thought we were taking the bus all the way to Burgos, change of plans!  We walked into town like proper pilgrims should.

There were two choices of albergues, one with 16 per room, the other modern with 150 over six rooms.  We opted for the smaller one and were the last ones admitted.  Soon, it started filling up and we were a cramped 24 with only 18 beds.  There was a family of six with very young children that came in late in the day with a guide.  There clothes and shoes were clean.  They must just be starting. They were French and didn't speak to us.  The mother was correcting them constantly and the father was not on the trip.  The youngest must have been about 8 or 9.

We exited the albergue and walked around town all day, spending a lot of time at the cathedral, that was built in the 1200's and added onto in various directions for the next 8 centuries.  El Cid, a famous general from the 1200's was buried in the center of the church.  The center dime was beautiful, but the cathedral expanded in all directions with not much symmetry.  Emi wrote the following poem about the cathedral:

The Cathedral of Burgos
The first generation wanted to build a church
They built it simply to worship God
The second generation wanted to be remembered
They spent years adding on paintings carvings and towers
The third generation wanted to look better than there ancestors and built a connecting room with a golden door depicting the life of Jesus
And towers that touched the sky
The fourth generation wanted a legacy that lasted thousands of years
They assigned artist to rooms
They made it expensively with towers ten times higher than than the last generations'
This went on for generations but in the end the only generation that was remembered was the first because they just wanted to worship God

With poems like this, I know the trip is having an impact on Emi even though she doesn't show it too much.  Burgos was a difficult city for us to walk around because of all the shopping.  The girls reverted back to vacations of old wanting to buy clothes and shoes and carry them with them.  Emi promised she would carry some pink high heels for the rest of the trip and never complain.

After the day in Burgos, I was ready to move on.  It was a difficult night for sleeping for me as various groups continued to talk throughout the night and wake up very early and make a lot of noise.  A group of six Koreans packed up around 11 pm and hit the road.  They had said they were afraid to walk during the day which seemed very strange, but to each their own.

We woke up to the sound of rain so we unpacked our rain gear.  We couldn't find Gisela's rain gear for her backpack.  Had we sent it home or did we lose it along the way?  We unpacked everything and replaced to no avail.  We hit the road with a brief pause to stop at the large albergue.  We were in luck, they had bright yellow ponchos for sale and Gisela was saved.  We loaded up and hit the road in the rain which was a nice change from the heat.  It wasn't cold and the rain stayed off of us with exception of the waist down as we had sent the rain pants home.

After about an hour, the rain let up, but not before some loud thunder and lightening far off in the distance.  We were dry within another hour and really impressed with our rain gear.  Nothing had gotten wet. We stopped for breakfast at the halfway point and everyone was feeling good.  We were making great time.  The scenery was the usual, wheat fields, grapes, sunflowers not yet in bloom.  At the 10 mile mark, Emi started to struggle.  Gisela and I took turns walking with her to keep her pace up.  We were able to make the 14 miles in about 5 hours, better than 2.5 miles per hour, almost one mile per hour faster than the first day of walking.  We are making great progress.

We found a new albergue in Hornillos and two girls from the previous night were checking in.  Julie asked them if they wanted to share the 6 person room with us and they agreed.  They were two girls who just graduated from college and were having their first day on their own as their experienced friend had to leave them in Burgos.  I guess we were good roommates.  Since town is small, we went into the usual routine of cooking lunch, washing clothes, showering and relaxing.  It was nice to get outside the big city.

It's supposed to be a nice day tomorrow in the 70's and only 12 miles.  We continue to knock out the suggested distances for the day and gaining confidence along the way.  We need to work on Emi's mental game as she is stronger than she thinks and can do it when she puts her mind to it.  For now, we rest up for tomorrow listening to the sounds of a heavy rain.