Beautiful countryside, as usual, and the weather has been conducive to walking; temperatures in the 70’s and even some light rain. At night we’ve seen some thunderstorms, fortunately we’ve been inside.
In Atapuerca we found a wonderful restaurant that serves a gourmet 3 course meal to pilgrims for 15€. The chef is an artist; I had a goat cheese salad, curried lentils (he grows his herbs in his garden at the restaurant) and a tart lemon sorbet for dessert. Water and wine were of course included. It was a fabulous meal which we shared with our pilgrim friend Alice.
We took a rest day in Burgos. It was well received. One thing I remember about Burgos is that they seem to love to party! They don’t really even get started until midnight and go all night. Very loud all night. Didn’t sleep as well as we’d have liked, but oh well. We toured the cathedral (my second time) and it still defies description. We later hiked up to the Burgos castle (yes more hiking). It was very interesting and offered a spectacular view of the city.
We hiked on to Hornillos del Camino where we got another private 2-bed room in the hostal (we do that whenever we can. I’m old and I like my creature comforts) and discovered another wonderful restaurant! This one run by an Irish woman who walked the Camino, fell in love with a Spaniard and moved to Spain. A lovely place with homemade comfort food. Tomato lentil soup, curried vegetables, and bread and butter pudding. Well, after all, a pilgrim must suffer. We returned for breakfast and got to chatting with our host and walked off without paying! When we realized it about a kilometer later (you do NOT backtrack on the Camino) were were horrified. Thank goodness for Facebook and Paypal. We were able to contact her and send a PayPal payment. All’s well that ends well.
We have been meeting some great pilgrims. Alice is a 25 year old woman from New Jersey who is about to start medical school. We walk the better part of 3 days and the conversation helped the miles fly by. Last night we had dinner with Jill (English but lives in Northern Ireland, she spotted our hosts Dublin accent straight away), who we met in Orrison. So interesting to hear how other pilgrims journeys are unfolding. Today we walked about half the day with Jose and his son Dante. He retired from teaching 23 days ago. Came right on the Camino. He was born in Mexico and lives in Palm Springs. When I told him I was trying to learn Español he told me to have a conversation with him in Spanish and to not try and decode everything, just talk. We did just that for a few minutes, talking about the beauty of Spain, and it worked! I didn’t know all of the words but I understood. Amazing. Jose is a unique man and immmediately puts you at ease. At one point he announced “Dante and I are going to sing a Spanish song and then you and Andie can sing one in English”. So, I don’t sing, but we did and yes, I’ll post the video. Jose, a gift.
Today’s albergue in Castrojeriz is delightful. The communal meal was a traditional Korean dish, bibimbap, which we ate, coincidentally, with a couple from South Korea. Delicious. Again, a pilgrim must suffer.
Another two videos:
You're not a half bad singer, brother. Love the song choice, although I'm surprised you didn't choose one from Wizard of Oz, considering the poppies! :) XO
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