Day 13 - Atapuerca to Burgos

Last night we found out it was fiesta in Atapuerca.  Our hotel was far enough away from the "action" that we could just hear the music.  This was definitely a much lower key affair than the previous night.  There was a large stage set up with a disc jocky playing CDs.  The town's kids were dancing to the very Spanish rythyms. The older folks were sitting and talking.  There seemed to be little else going on. Surprisingly, the stage was gone when we passed where it had been this morning.

We took avantage of the free wifi in the park to deal with emails and the blog. For the first time wifi wasn't available at the hotel. The clerk said it was dead.

The hotel was beautiful, again exposed beams and old.  The supper eclipsed that we had the day before, Lynn had steak and Russ had rabbit. The owner seemed quite pleased when we went on about having green beans instead of french fried potatoes.  Two peregrino dinners, including a bottle of wine, 20 euros.  We noticed a little dog standing against the kitchen door, and finally getting the door to open enough to enter.  I asked the owner if the dog was the sous chef, or saucier.  He laughed and said, no, the boss.  Something you would never see in Canada.

Today we got up at the usual 6:30 but had a picnic breakfast the owner had set out for us the night before. Basically bread and coffee, and we were on the road at 7:45am.

The day started out very clear, the moon and an unknown planet hanging in the sky.  It was interesting to see constellations, that due to Spain being further south, Canadian's wouldn't see for several more months.  Then as soon as it started to get lighter, the fog rolled in.

Leaving Atapuerca was, of course, a climb.  The track was not overly steep but the ground was covered with large cobbles, so all your attention was directed downward rather than toward the scenery.  Which was hidden by fog anyway.

We passed two woman, one from Baie Como and one from Montreal who were also heading for Santiago.

Further along the climb, we encountered a military zone on the left of the path.  It was bordered by two rows of very unfriendly looking barbed wire and signs warning you to keep out.  It went on for kilometres, and was in sharp contrast to the path of peace we were walking.

The top of Matagrande isn't that high, only 1078 metres, but looking down into the valleys, the fog made it look as if the hill tops were sitting in a lake.  As we descended, the fog thinned and the farms and beautiful vistas peeked through.

Spain in the early morning is very unlike Canada.  The shutters on the windows are all down, windows are locked.  Most of the houses are behind tall, formidable fences, and many doors don't even have door knobs on the outside, only keyholes.  There is almost no activity, other than the one rooster crowing, a farmer gathering bails of hay, and the perigrinos.

We could tell when we were approaching Burgos.  The pace quickened, traffic increased, the track became a very hard asphalt road and markers harder to find.  We stopped at a bar for a pit stop and it was obvious the owner didn't really appreciate the peregrinos coming in only to use her bathroom, and consuming her toilet paper.  We bought two cafe con leches, quite good, which eased our guilt, made her happy, and provided the one and only much appreciated break in our walk today.

The walk to the hotel was similar to a walk through any downtown.  People ignored us, a few said buen camino.  We were struck by the lack of fellow peregrinos on the trail. We didn't see any after leaving Orbaneja all the way to Burgos, a distance of 10km. This was making Lynn nervous but we were passing Camino markers so had to be on the Way. The high point of the walk through Burgos was finding an Yves Roche, which let Lynn buy sample sizes of her favorite olive oil bath gel and familiar bath balm. The clerk threw in all sorts of extra samples and a wonderful bar of vanilla soap for the peregrina and said she hoped to visit Canada one day.

We got to our hotel at 12:15 and the clerk searched for a room that was ready to give us even though check in wasn't until 3pm and found there was only one. For the first time our bag wasn't already here which caused a little feeling of uneasiness but it arrived about 5 minutes later. Lynn thought she had left her jar of peanut butter she brought from home at the breakfast table this morning and was very happy to find it safe and sound in the suitcase.

We were both too tired, mainly a carry over from yesterday, to do much exploring.  We are here for two days so perhaps Sunday can be an exploration day.  We had hoped to go on a guided tour of the city, or some of the sights, but all tours are in Spanish and we've done one guided tour in Spanish in Roncevalles and it was a complete waste.

Our hotel room in Burgos is the nicest room we've had yet, it has a lovely bathtub and a fridge. We are here for three nights which will be wonderful (this because on day 3 we walk from Burgos to Hornilla and then bus back to Burgos because there are no hotels in Hornillos. On day 4 we bus to Hornillos and carry on walking).

We asked about a laundromat, Lynn was hoping to wash and dry everything while we were here, but there is none in the city ,so we have constructed our customary clothes line in our high class hotel room and did a ton of wash by hand that is strung all over the room. That $4 clothes line has really come in handy on this trip.

We are pretty fast in comparison to the pilgrims we are travelling along with. We tend to leave later because unless it is a very long day or there is fiesta and the hotel keeper wants to sleep in, we wait and go to the included breakfast. We then seem to eventually pass everyone on route to the next location.

What we still can't figure out is how we managed to get from St Jean Pied de Port to Roncesvalles in 6 hours. Most people we have talked to did only St Jean Pied de Port to Orisson their first day, taking 4 to 5 hours to do that (we did that in 1 and a half hours), or it took them 10 hours to get all the way to Roncevalle in one day. This will have to remain a great mystery. We followed the route Napoleon getting there and there's no shortcut we know of to do it.

Summary - although not a long day, we are exhausted and really needing our scheduled day off tomorrow.  We are really enjoying the walk. Every step of the Way (ok with the exception of possibly 30km so far that has been on major highways) has been stunningly beautiful and we are definitely getting fitter and are able to walk longer and longer distances before getting tired.  What is very clear, however, is that this is a pilgrimage, not a holiday.  You don't have the time, or the strength, for a lot of sight seeing (by this we mean wandering around interesting historic or cultural places) along the Way, and you certainly can't capture all of the spectacular views on camera.

Distance today - 21.5km
Distance total - 295km