You think of things the next day after you post the blog. While at the cathedral we noticed this rather odd looking statue way up near the ceiling. He was dressed comically, with his hand on a bell rope. We asked and were told he was 'The Flycatcher', installed in the 14th century. Flycatcher? So along with a hundred other people, we waited for the clock to strike twelve. Sure enough, his hand moved to ring his bell, and his mouth opened and closed at every ring. A flycatcher! So there we were, one hundred people, gawking at this silly thing.
Last night's perigrino supper would likely rate as OK. There was nothing special about the salad or fried haddock and fries. But after the long day of walking, rather than hiking, I don't think either of us cared.
The morning started off much later than usual as we only had 20km to hike, and we were being picked up by a cab outside a bar in Hornilla at 3pm and taken back to Burgos for the night. Hornillos is small and has few facilities for pilgrims. In fact, Jack and company, who we met there, were in the overflow alberque dorm. This allowed us to sleep in, which didn't work out well, I guess we're used to getting up at 6:30. Never the less, we left around 9am today.
The walk out of the city was very lovely. Past ancient churches, porticos, statues, and medieval briges. You know, the usual. Burgos has a lot of very recent bronze statues, many of woman, that are very interesting. We also passed the University, some affluent neighborhoods, and once in the country, a state prison. We understand they have no beds for peregrinos.
The first thing we noticed when we left was that the morning was warmer than we had become used to and it wasn't foggy. Probably because we left around the time the fog usually lifts and it warms up. The second was that we were passing perigrinos we hadn't seen before, probably because we had stayed the extra day in Burgos. We are a bit sad now that we seem to be walking with the group of perigrinos that were a day behind us, so we don't know them, and our friends have gotten ahead of us. On the positive side it provides the opportunity to make new friends.
As Lynn mentioned before, we seem to be in the upper percentile when it comes to walking speed. We aren't trying to get there in a hurry, we are just fast walkers, so we tend to get to the end either ahead of or five minutes after people who left two hours earlier.
We stopped at Tardajos for a cafe con leche and a pastry pick me up. For those unaccustomed to coffee with steamed milk, it becomes addictive very quickly. We stopped at the first place we saw when we entered the city. It was more of a store than a restaurant bar and was the size of a broom closet. The cleanliness standards left a lot to be desired, with dirty dishes sort of mixed up with clean, flies everywhere, and her filling up a bottle of tap water to pour into the expresso machine out of a sink full of dirty dishes. Oh well, the coffee con leche was good and no one got sick. As soon as we left we saw a string of classier and cleaner looking restaurants further down the street. I think she does a great business being the first you see coming into town, and her lovely tent for tables very effectively hides the competition.
Further on, in Rabe de las Calzadas we felt like we were being watched. Scanning the sky we spotted five vultures waiting for a perigrino to trip and become lunch. We made sure we had our yogurt snack under the shade, and protection, of a tree. The farmers in France are complaining that the work crews are so efficient at picking up road kill, that the vultures have resorted to carrying off small livestock.
We then entered the much dreaded mesa, mand contrary to expectation, climbed a hilll for about 7 km, with lovely, sweeping views of the valley below. Other than the hill, it was a typical prairie scene. Kilometres of grain fields, no trees, just this endless path where every time you came to a curve you thought you were at the summit, but around the bend the slope of the climb increased. We encountered several people who had just started the Camino at Burgos. We are not sure whether that was to avoid the hill climbing of previous days, but the mesa is going to be mind numbing.
There is one benefit we can see to the mesa and that is the opportunity to look inward. The Way so far has been such spectacular scenery that all your a attention is drawn to looking outward.
According to Carl Jung
Your vision will become clear
Only when you look into your heart
Who looks outside dreams
Who looks inside awakens.
The trail went along what, for us prarie people, was typical prairie. Rolling hills, recently combined grain fields, farmers out baling the straw. Lovely scenery for those used to it.
We got to Hornillos well ahead of schedule and had a well earned cerveza. Jack, et all were there, and the discussion turned to where everyone was staying today, tomorrow and so on. The path is long and paths are starting to diverge as perigrinos start to travel at different speeds and stay at different places, and of course, that means losing touch with your new Camino friends. There was a bit of sadness all around.
The taxi ride back to Burgos may have been the best cab ride I have ever taken. The young man had a good grasp of English, but it was accented with hand motions, gestures, Spanish and sound effects. He couldn't just say it was "fast", he had to sound it out, while waving down the road.
Summary - a relatively easy day, but perhaps harder after our day off.
Distance today - 20km
Distance total - 315km
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