With a flight looming on 3 Oct to see Jenny and Jeff in London, the timeline for making Santiago de Compostella was getting tight. One of the key things to do on this trip was attend the mass at the cathedral in Santiago, in hopes of seeing the full ceremony shown in the movie. We needed to make up one day, but the only way to do this was to skip two stages of the walk. Something neither of us was willing to do. But because of our breakaway we were already 8 km past the typical starting point, today presented an opportunity of getting a day back by only skipping a short piece of one section. So we would walk as far as we could today, and pick up a ride through the outskirts of Burgos, cutting one night out of the walk.
The day began like the rest, with a stop for cafe and croissant at a bar about 4 km down the road. Typically we don't eat much during the day after breakfast, stopping for a rest and sharing a banana, orange or peach cut in pieces with my Swiss Army knife. In fact, hunger has never been an issue, and if it wasn't for a needed energy boost, we might eat one meal a day. But at supper, we eat like lumberjacks inhaling everything that hits the table.
One of the staples here is crusty baguettes, and you seem to get them with every meal, with every item. Both locals and pilgrims alike can be seen carrying huge loaves ready to be broken open on a moments notice, and often accompanied with a assortment of cheeses and cured meats. After about a week of this, I am starting to get sick of even the sight of a piece of white bread, though it is very hard to avoid at times.
Our walk went well today, and we carried on until the last town before Burgos, where we picked up a taxi and skipped the walk through the industrial outskirts. While waiting for it to show we sat down with Eric from Copenhagen, a retired 70 year old who was on his 6th Camino journey, this being the final one as he will now have walked all the routes. He was finishing this walk over the next month, then heading to Brazil to see his girlfriend that he met on last years Camino walk. When I said " well you old hound Eric", he said " no,no,no,..she came after me and I couldn't resist!!". Well that was a big LOL for me.
Timing was perfect for our shortcut as we managed to get a bed for 5€ at the municipal alberque just before it was " completo". Very clean facility with about 40 bunks per floor, spread over five floors. Like all alberques you will find a kitchen, shower" and bathroom facilities and common area. The size and quality varies from "tiny and rustic" to " large and modern". So far we haven't seen a spot that was not acceptable to us. Bedbugs can be a fact of life here, but so far has not been an issue on the walk, and we haven't heard of any outbreaks via the " Camino telegraph". Prices have varied from 5 to 15€ per person, many are on a donation basis, with the private generally but not always the more expensive option.
Burgos is a beautiful and busy city (except during the siesta period) When it looked like,a ghost town. Missing a few items we headed out to restock bandages, shampoo and even bought a cheap cell phone to call ahead to reserve beds in the next towns down the line. We toured the massive cathedral, but I left ML to take the self guided audio tour as I was poped out (pun intended). While waiting at a pub across the square I finally got Internet access and found out via Facebook that the Freddy girls were in town. We dropped by to see them as they were finishing dinner, and said goodbye as tomorrow they were spending an extra day in Burgos to relax and explore, while we headed on. Who knows if we will meet on the Camino again, but certainly next time we are home.
Back to the alberque and in bed before 10, we fell asleep to the loud noise of revellers in the surrounding bars. They were still going strong as we awoke at 5:30 the next morning. Now I understood the reason for the siesta.
Distance Km ( by foot and taxi)
Time 5.5 hours
Weather Periods of overcast, hot when sunny
Distance remaining
No comments:
Post a Comment