Villefranca to Burgos...two days

Villefranca was a refreshing stop we had a two bed room to ourselves so only had to deal with shared bathrooms. But the alburgue cleared out VERY fast, we were one of the last ones to leave at 7am. We didn't want to do the mountain in the dark, so we ate chorizo and tomato sandwiches (that's all we had left in our packs, oh, and a pomegranate but that was for coffee later) because the restaurant was not opening until 7:30.

God help the person that is Celiac or has a gluten sensitivity in Spain because bread comes with or is in nearly every dish. Sharon's new favourite food is tortilla, no corn, it is chunks of potatoe and eggs made into a pie and then cooked on a griddle, sometimes they put cheese and/ or chorizo in it, yum. But guess what, you get a hunk of bread with it. In some of the smaller towns that don't have bakeries you can listen for the bread truck. The truck will go to a corner and honk, then the people in sometimes seemingly deserted towns will come out of their houses and go to the truck and buy their bread, very cool!

So the trip up the mountain, gorgeous, we were told we might see wolves, wildcats, wild boar, badgers, ya right, with dozens of peregrinos tromping down the trail, fat chance.

"Pink in the morning" leaving Villefranca think we may get some rain.

In the mountains can see the path and the peregrinos for a long way.

No wild boars just a family of windmills :(

 

We were also told that there was a ghost legend that peregrinos that had died on that trail followed us live ones waiting to take our place. Scary boo, not. We did see the monument erected for those who died in the civil war and weren't given a proper burial.

Out of the trees into the Karst formations we see little purple flowers growing among the rocks and grass.

Aliens, prehistoric man, or peregrinos ?

We went through Atapuerca which has a UNESCO world heritage site for the huge finds of a new strain of prehistoric humanoids, homo antecessor, who were believed to be cannibalistic.

This first day of two, was a day of rocky roads, intermittent rain showers and 36 + km. We have a new rule, it is the 2 hour rule, every 2 hours we sit down for even just a few minutes, take our shoes off and rest our feet, seems to help with sore feet at the end of the day.

OH OH rough walk ahead.

Peregrinos leave rocks everywhere...in case you are wondering about the same clothes in most pictures, these are the most comfortable and wash and dry every night :)

Cover the packs and get out the rain gear!

Maybe our next car a VW ScirrocoTDI

After about 38 k we stopped in Castenares a small town just outside of Burgos we found a great little hotel that served the best lamb dish, had a great dinner and crashed.

Local speciality lamb cooked over a wood fire, so good.

Got up at a leisurely pace no peregrinos bustling around us. Had a lovely breakfast at the hotel then wandered into Burgos along the river.

Burgos bridges old mad new.

After walking through Atapuerca we wanted to see the new Museum of the Evolution of Man. It was on the river route into the city (Burgos is the second biggest city on the Camino Frances). What a fabulous museum, Blair wishes he had the bucks to do a museum like that! Really interesting that no one anywhere on line talks about the cost of it, Blair thinks at least 100,000,000 euros.

Museum of evolution of man

Then we went and found another hotel, promising ourselves we would be frugal for the next week, then went to find lunch and found many peregrinos that we have been walking with on and off. Took over the plaza!

After lunch hit the Cathedral of Burgos another world heritage site. Amazing!

Day of rest over, going to get some food for the road, and get ready to hit "the Meseta" tomorrow and for the next few days.

 

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