Making Burgos!

Up and out of the monastery early and on into the beautiful little town of Ages about 4k down the road. Had a cafe con leche and some great pastries at a really cool little cafe there.  The sun was barely up.  On through Atapuerca which is a world heritage site for archaeology.

The slog into Burgos was arduous and industrial and we hit about a one mile pocket that smelled so bad, like rotten cheese and then like a fertilizer factory, that I thought I would be sick. Another reason my scarf has been brilliant.

As we walked along through not so pretty outlying burbs, a couple approached us and directed us to walk along the peaceful river Arlanzon. Muy bonita, they said.  Very pretty.  This is typical of the helpful and nice Spaniards we have been meeting along the way.

Booked into the Almirante Bonifaz when the hostal Acacia was not working out.  We thought it would be so cool to stay there in honor of our niece, Acacia who was getting married on this very day in Pennsylvania.  Oh well, I'm excited to take a two day layover. A nice reward after walking five straight days.

We settled in, rested up for a few hours and went out to see if we could find any of our Camino friends.  We found a little tapas bar where it was old home week with all the young people we had met so far on the way.  I saw Sara, the young Ozzie from the night in Belorado and she was in much better spirits since she had purchased a new pair of shoes here that she thought would help her out.  There was also the Barvarian who we stayed with in Belorado,  Joe, (don't call him German). See how much we are learning with this international crowd?  We had some tapas and wine before Joe asked us if we wanted to go to a "real Spain bar".  Yes of course.  We headed to this very small little place with posters plastered everywhere and crowded with Spanish men and women all having a good time.  Some of the men were dressed in what looked like bullfighting robes but we never did find out the significance of that.  We ended up somehow (it's all a tad fuzzy) at a table with two Spanish men and talked for hours about politics, our families, the Spanish economy, all with very little Spanish on our parts and no English on their parts!  It was amazing really.  They insisted on ditching our vino tinto and replaced it with Rioja.  There were some musicians there who surrounded us and started playing their guitars and sang for what seemed like just our little table.  The entire place and all the people there made us feel so welcome and special.  When we decided to cash out and go back to the hotel, the bartender told John our entire tab was on the house.... And we had had more than a few riojas!  We left Joe at a table surrounded by women, and the two spanish men we spent the evening with walked us back to the cathedral and wanted to make sure we got back to the hotel safely.  It was 1:45am and the Saturday night streets of Burgos were still vibrantly rocking! We both giggled arm in arm all the way back to our hotel, we just couldn't believe how much fun we had had.  It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.  We don't have pictures from the ipad since it doesn't have flash but I did get pictures on my camera which I will have to add after I return home.  Simply magical!

We spent our off day touring the cathedral, the most renowned Gothic cathedral in all of Spain and one of the largest, second only to Giralda in Sevilla.  I learned that the church and all it's little chapels are basically mausoleums of the benefactors and their families.  Interesting.  It was a veritable art museum with paintings dating back before the 12th century.  The surrounding streets definitely have a medieval feel to them.

Tomorrow we enter into the beginning of the meseta....