Burgos

Stayed in a lovely albergue in Ages last night. A bit chaotic but like staying in someone's home - very friendly, a great dinner cooked by the senora of the house . Up and on the road early. A cold morning and a climb up to 1200 metres past Atapuerca, a site where Neanderthal sites have been found. Cold, windy and wet up there, but very beautiful. I tried channeling my inner neanderthal getting over the mountain. The trail had lots of potato sized bits of smooth rock all nice and slippery in the drizzle, an ankle twisting opportunity at every step, and sure enough I twisted my ankle. Limped into Burgos, and up to the municipal albergue with its magnificent doorway. After washing self and clothes i headed out to find a pharmacia for remedial ankle treatments. I am applying RACE - rest, alcohol, compression and elevation, plus some tapas  _ should be RICE but no ice and 6you need to be adaptable. Hope it will do the trick. Burgos is a lovely city. I feel a bit guilty missing the cathedral, but I think I need to take it easy if I want to move tomorrow and sitting in the sun out the front of a nice tapas bar, watching the world wander by, with lovely wine at 1.50 euros is hard to beat.

I've been walking with a bunch of people for a few days now - one of the fluid mini tribes that form and evaporate on the Camino. But tomorrow some people staying in Burgos so tomorrow a new start. Tomorrow the Meseta, the much feared high flat plane that drives perigrinos crazy because it involves days of walking across a flat, featureless landscape. Tomorrow, maybe Hornillos del Camino, around 20k,  or maybe Hontanos, around 30 k.

Ages

Nearly 29 ks today, windy, rain and a couple of steep rocky climbs up to around 1200 metres - quite a hard day, but beautiful.

Staying in Ages, a small village with wood framed buildings similar to the tudor buildings in Kent, and a beautiful 16th century church with a couple of storks in residence. Staying in a friendly and cosy albergue here. Dinner options look fairly limited but I dont think we will starve.

Burgos tomorrow - the big smoke after a long stretch in smallish villages.

Belardo

Another shortish day, about 21 ks. On the road by 7 and into Belardo around 1, after stopping for breakfast cokes and coffees at each of the conveniently located villages along the way. Cold this morning so I got to use my beanie, which was the only thing I brought that I hadnt used so far. Last stretch into town into a howling headwind and a bit dull, running parallel to the motorway.

Belardo is a very old town with the ruins of a Castillo founded in the 9th Century looming over it from the nearby cliffs and a couple of churches that look like they have been made over multiple times pver the centuries.

About 54 ks to Burgos. Either a very long day tomorrow to Ages and shorter to Burgos next day, or two longish days and stay in one horse town on the way. Rain forecast for next two days. Will see how we go. Feeling pretty good at the moment.

Quite a few people who started in St Jean pdp have quit, some have raced ahead and many fallen behind. Stuff happens , like the poor dutch lady who fell out of a top bunk in Roncesvalles, or people are succumbing to old or new injuries or blisters. I am moving along in a bubble of survivors who are all moving at more or less the same rate.  But I think things will change after Burgos and there will be a largely new cast.

Santodomingo de Calzada

Up and on the road early and headed out in the first light expecting to find a bar for breakfast but everything along the path out of town closed. The coffee, orange juice and tortella at the next village 5 kilometers down the road tasted so good!

A relatively short walk to Santo Domingo de Calzada ( say that 5 times quickly) - only 20 kilometers - so got into the albergue, with 220 of my new closest friends, around midday. After a great lunch in a restaurant on the square, explored the town, found at last an open electrical shop - siesta can be annoying as all the shops shut for long and seemingly random amounts of time - bought a recharger to replace the one I left plugged into the wall in Longrono. Spent a fair bit of time getting my Spanish sim to work, then visited the cathedral. A live chicken and a rooster are housed in a special brightly lit and very ornate hen house built into a wall in the Cathedral, commemorating one of the more celebrated miracles of the eponymous saint, who amongst other things is patron saint of engineers and seniors. An odd combination but whatever. Also a really odd exhibition representing the Easter parade in the town constructed with Lego models.

Sampled some of the excellent wines for which the region is famous, a nice dinner prepared And served up by two hard working senoras then off to the packed dorm where despite creaking bunks snoring shouting laughing doors opening and closing and general mayhem I slept like a top till 6.

Najera

Another 30 k day lots through rolling hills covered with vineyards.
Some very tired people along the way. In Najera it was Fiesta day and all the populace out having a grand social time. A lovely town.

Logrono

30 k day today through lovely rural country. Seas of wheat and barley rippling in the wind. Reminded me of Tennyson: on either
side the river lie/ long fields of barley and of rye/ that clothe the earth and touch the sky/ and through the fields the road runs by/ to many towered (insert name of next picturesque stone town here).

Got to Longrono about 2, shower, wash clothes, have a dutch beer sort of like stout, wander round lovely town checking out churches - San batolemeo my favourite. Seemed to have a mermaid carved in the portico. Had a nice chat in Spanish with  the guy who seemed to be living in the porch - he was very proud of the church. Church of Santiago has a massive energetic statue of st James riding a stallion ( no doubt it's a stallion) trampling moors' heads.

Managed to get a Spanish sim card. Two lovely young women in the shop spent more than half an hour on the transaction - can't see how they made a profit on that one.

Longrono is apparently tapas capital of Spain so I will have to go sample some.

Los Arcos

A relatively easy and short walk today to Los Arcos. Some very pretty country. A rainy grey day to hit Los Arcos on a Sunday afternoon. A lot of blokes sitting in bars but all a tad dreary in the rain. I was hungry when I got here and ordered the wrong sort of lunch - bravas and sambas ( potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce and fried squid pieces) which did not agree with me so a quiet night before a big day to Logrono tomorrow - about 30 k and the longest but not the hardest so far.