July 11 & 12: Burgos to Castrojeriz

The albergue at Burgos seemed like quite the luxery living--pull-out boot racks, individual bunks each with its own reading light and outlet for charging stuff, elevators for heaven´s sake, and pretty spiffily new. But it wasn´t quite as comfortable as it looked. The ladders into the upper bunks (I had one) were much too narrow, didn´t provide enought steps, and offered no leverage for getting in or out securely. (When you´re fighting both shinsplints and neuromas, this stuff is HUGE.) Plus, while there was a nice large dining area, there were no stoves or fridges, which meant no freezers, which meant to way to either make or store ice--which meant no ice for my shinsplints. Plus, there was an all-night party going on the night before the World Cup game, and it sounded like it was taking place downstairs from our room.

When it became pretty clear that my legs weren´t going to feel better on Sunday, we opted to find a room in a pension (a step somewhere between an albergue and a very cheap motel) and stay an extra day, which would allow us to stay and watch the game. If we had stayed in the albergue, we wouldn´t have been able to watch the game, because the doors would be locked before it ended. At the pension, we had our own key to get in whenever we wanted.

We were really glad we stayed in Burgos, tho I had had my doubts about being in a big city for a big celebration. What struck me most was the fact that, while people were definitely drinking, I didn´t really seen anyone really drunk before or during the game. Except for one guy--who was from Kentucky. But most of the people actually seemed to be there to watch the game, and it was a blast to be in the crowd when Spain finally scored that first goal.

When the game was over, people dispersed pretty quickly. We headed back to the pension, expecting to not get much sleep, but we were pleasantly surprized to find that it actually seemed quieter than it had the night before. We got to sleep easily, and set the alarm for 4:30 to try to get a head start on potentially walking 30 k to day to make up for the day spent in Burgos.

When we got up, we ran across Gavin the in hallway. (We´ve been walking with him for over a week; he´s from Sligo in Ireland.) I asked him if he was up early to walk, and he said he was going to try to cover about 30 k that day. I said, "Yeah, us too." He said, "Really? Yeah, I was kidding. I´m actually just getting in." He wished us luck and headed to bed.

We got lost trying to get out of Burgos--the city is not well-marked at all for pilgrims. My leg was still sore (even tho I had spent most of the previous day in the room, reading and napping--but not icing, because there was no fridge and no stores open on Sunday. I thought I would try to make the 6 k to Villalbilla, tho, and see how that went. Unfortunately, we pùt in an extra hour just trying to get out of the city, and then discovered that to actually go through Villalbilla (which has a bus stop), we would have needed to take an alternate route. Which we didn´t take.

I ended up pretty much in tears most of the morning, not knowing exactly where we were and thinking it would be shorter to go on than go back, and being wrong about that. We finally got to Tardajos, after walking about 11 or 12 k, which took us 3 1/2 hours. We stopped at a cafe and asked about the bus, which we were told would be in town at 1:45. So we settled in to wait about 3 hours, and when we caught the bus the driver told us we had the wrong one, and the correct bus actually would get to us at about 5:45.

So we went to a different cafe and killed the rest of the day, sitting in the heat and trying to keep our spirits up. Only marginally successful at this.

We did get the bus, and took it to our current position in Castrojeriz. Where we finally got to an albergue, and were informed that we couldn´t stay there because we had taken a bus. We were sent to another albergue, where we got in line behind two other pilgrims, who told us there were only 3 beds left.

Did I mention this day was also not one of our best?

Niles and Emlyn went to scope out a campground, even tho we don´t have a tent, and came back to report it too, was full. But the hospitalero came back around then, and told us he did have beds for us after all. This was at about 7:30--cutting it pretty close.

So we got some dinner, and it´s time for bed, and we´re still not sure what we´re going to do tomorrow. Niles and Em will probably walk, and I will probably take a bus and hope I can still get a bed and maybe find a way to allow my leg to heal enought to let me walk the last 100 k, at least. I´ll let you know....