NB: Again I´ve mixed up my days! It was on Saturday that we left Villafranca de Montes de Oca de Montes and went to Ages. Then:
On Sunday we left Ages and walked 22 km from Ages to Burgos. The first part of the walk was nice, up a high mountain where the view would have been spectacular if not for the rain and mist, then through forests and fields. Then about 10 km outside Burgos we had to schlepp along an industrial highway of factories, big box stores and office parks. Back to life, back to reality! But we made it to Burgos and - tada! - a cash machine! One thing puts Burgos on the map: It´s cathedral. Built in the 13th century, it´s one of the largest cathedrals on the planet and, many say, one of the most beautiful. It´s mind-bogglingly massive. You could easily spend a day or more visiting it, which is why most pilgrims spend an extra day in Burgos to tour the cathedral. But because of the cathedral Burgos is really more a tourist town than a pilgrim town. The area around the cathdral where the albergues are is full of hotels, souvenir shops and upscale bars and restaurants, and we could find only one place that served a 10 euro pilgrim meal, and that only after 8 pm, practically past our bedtime! Still, the meal was great. Tom and I both started with the salad, good but no tuna for the pilgrims. For our next course Tom chose the fish, which he really liked, and I had a burger that definitely goes on my best burger list. It was bunless (served with another side salad instead) but huge, juicy and rare, my ideal burger, served with those hot, delicious home-made fries that accompany almost every meal in Spain. For dessert Tom had ice cream, I had vanilla pudding with cinnamon. The food was good, so all the pigrims were happy. Which brings us to the second wonderful edifice to be found in
Burgo¨: the municipal albergue. It´s located almost across from the cathedral and had an old stone facade, but inside it´s a a modern 6-story building with elevators and in the lobby six big numbered vertical drawers that pull out like morgue drawers and contain shelves on which the pilgrims leave their boots according to their floor! This building also reminded me of a new college dorm, with a big beautiful common area where there were washers and dryers, kitchen areas and big long tables to eat at or just sit at. Our dorm was on the 6th floor in a room with 24 bunk beds. All of the beds were full, mostly with young biker dudes and dudettes (on can do the camino on foot, by bike, or on horseback). There are many young (and some not-so-young) bikers on the Camino, and although they cover many more miles each day than the walkers and the trail must demand much more exertion for them, it never ceases to amaze me how peppy they always are at the end of the day, chatting and bouncing around in their undies. In truth, pilgrims walking around in ther undies is not an uncommon sight. I think it´s just that in such tight quarters as we all have to operate in it´s just too hard to get the modesty thing going on. Still, as I´ve mentioned before, though a pilgrim might occasionally snatch a roll of TP or a few grapes, I´ve yet to see a pilgrim ever disrespect another pilgrim´s personal space. So, the next day, Monday, yesterday, we spent the morning visiting the catherdral then we ate our standard park-bench picnic lunch. On our way out of the city we came to a third awesome edifice of Burgos: a pay porta-potty, but this was no oridinary porta-potty: it was about three times as big as our American variety, a tall shiny metal cylinder, that looked like a space capsule or maybe a time machine. When you put your 30 cents in a door slide into the walll and opened with a whirring sound. Inside was a spotless bathroom with touchless sink and hand-dryer, too. When you were done you pushed the handle and the door whirred open again. It flushed itself after you left. The porta potty of dreams. We walked another 20 km to the town of Rabe de las Calzados where we seriously lucked out. There were two albergues in this tiny town and both of them were filled to the max. So the hospitaliero made a phone call and five minutes later a boy arrived and walked us through the town, up steps, through a gate and gardens until we came to his house, where his mother put us up in a little over-flow albergue she runs. For 16 euros each (for beds and dinner, but we gave her 20 euros each, we were so grateful!) We had a five-bed room and bathroom all to ourselves. So-so water pressure and no hot water, but the rest was great. She made us a delicious dinner, home-made vegetable bisque, potato quiche - I found out this ubiquitious quiche is called tortilla espaniola, so that´s what I´ll call it, too, from now on - delicious salad from her garden, and now I can´t remember what the other side was, but it was all very hot and good, I forwent the strawberry yogurt for dessert, I was so full (unusual!) but Tom had it. The only down side was that it rained all night so the clothes we washed out didn´t dry and it´s still raining this morning so today we´ll have that ultimate pilgrim experience of walking in the rain with wet clothes on our backs. We stopped at the village bar for the best breakfast we´ve had on the Camino, more tortilla espaniola, but a cut above the rest, fresh tomatoes, cheese, really fresh bread, toasted and hot, tea and coffee. And the bar owner showed me where the village public computers are and said I could use this one for free, so now´I´m all caught up and it´s time to go walk in the rain again, 20 km to the town of ...well I´m not sure the name and Tom has the guide book, so I´ll know for next time. Have a wonderful, dry day, everyone! Love, Patti 8)
On Sunday we left Ages and walked 22 km from Ages to Burgos. The first part of the walk was nice, up a high mountain where the view would have been spectacular if not for the rain and mist, then through forests and fields. Then about 10 km outside Burgos we had to schlepp along an industrial highway of factories, big box stores and office parks. Back to life, back to reality! But we made it to Burgos and - tada! - a cash machine! One thing puts Burgos on the map: It´s cathedral. Built in the 13th century, it´s one of the largest cathedrals on the planet and, many say, one of the most beautiful. It´s mind-bogglingly massive. You could easily spend a day or more visiting it, which is why most pilgrims spend an extra day in Burgos to tour the cathedral. But because of the cathedral Burgos is really more a tourist town than a pilgrim town. The area around the cathdral where the albergues are is full of hotels, souvenir shops and upscale bars and restaurants, and we could find only one place that served a 10 euro pilgrim meal, and that only after 8 pm, practically past our bedtime! Still, the meal was great. Tom and I both started with the salad, good but no tuna for the pilgrims. For our next course Tom chose the fish, which he really liked, and I had a burger that definitely goes on my best burger list. It was bunless (served with another side salad instead) but huge, juicy and rare, my ideal burger, served with those hot, delicious home-made fries that accompany almost every meal in Spain. For dessert Tom had ice cream, I had vanilla pudding with cinnamon. The food was good, so all the pigrims were happy. Which brings us to the second wonderful edifice to be found in
Burgo¨: the municipal albergue. It´s located almost across from the cathedral and had an old stone facade, but inside it´s a a modern 6-story building with elevators and in the lobby six big numbered vertical drawers that pull out like morgue drawers and contain shelves on which the pilgrims leave their boots according to their floor! This building also reminded me of a new college dorm, with a big beautiful common area where there were washers and dryers, kitchen areas and big long tables to eat at or just sit at. Our dorm was on the 6th floor in a room with 24 bunk beds. All of the beds were full, mostly with young biker dudes and dudettes (on can do the camino on foot, by bike, or on horseback). There are many young (and some not-so-young) bikers on the Camino, and although they cover many more miles each day than the walkers and the trail must demand much more exertion for them, it never ceases to amaze me how peppy they always are at the end of the day, chatting and bouncing around in their undies. In truth, pilgrims walking around in ther undies is not an uncommon sight. I think it´s just that in such tight quarters as we all have to operate in it´s just too hard to get the modesty thing going on. Still, as I´ve mentioned before, though a pilgrim might occasionally snatch a roll of TP or a few grapes, I´ve yet to see a pilgrim ever disrespect another pilgrim´s personal space. So, the next day, Monday, yesterday, we spent the morning visiting the catherdral then we ate our standard park-bench picnic lunch. On our way out of the city we came to a third awesome edifice of Burgos: a pay porta-potty, but this was no oridinary porta-potty: it was about three times as big as our American variety, a tall shiny metal cylinder, that looked like a space capsule or maybe a time machine. When you put your 30 cents in a door slide into the walll and opened with a whirring sound. Inside was a spotless bathroom with touchless sink and hand-dryer, too. When you were done you pushed the handle and the door whirred open again. It flushed itself after you left. The porta potty of dreams. We walked another 20 km to the town of Rabe de las Calzados where we seriously lucked out. There were two albergues in this tiny town and both of them were filled to the max. So the hospitaliero made a phone call and five minutes later a boy arrived and walked us through the town, up steps, through a gate and gardens until we came to his house, where his mother put us up in a little over-flow albergue she runs. For 16 euros each (for beds and dinner, but we gave her 20 euros each, we were so grateful!) We had a five-bed room and bathroom all to ourselves. So-so water pressure and no hot water, but the rest was great. She made us a delicious dinner, home-made vegetable bisque, potato quiche - I found out this ubiquitious quiche is called tortilla espaniola, so that´s what I´ll call it, too, from now on - delicious salad from her garden, and now I can´t remember what the other side was, but it was all very hot and good, I forwent the strawberry yogurt for dessert, I was so full (unusual!) but Tom had it. The only down side was that it rained all night so the clothes we washed out didn´t dry and it´s still raining this morning so today we´ll have that ultimate pilgrim experience of walking in the rain with wet clothes on our backs. We stopped at the village bar for the best breakfast we´ve had on the Camino, more tortilla espaniola, but a cut above the rest, fresh tomatoes, cheese, really fresh bread, toasted and hot, tea and coffee. And the bar owner showed me where the village public computers are and said I could use this one for free, so now´I´m all caught up and it´s time to go walk in the rain again, 20 km to the town of ...well I´m not sure the name and Tom has the guide book, so I´ll know for next time. Have a wonderful, dry day, everyone! Love, Patti 8)
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