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Day 10: Villafranca to Burgos


The evening in Villafranca remained well below expectations. I was completely destroyed and needed a full pilgrims meal, a bar of milk chocolate, a whiskey and an hour sleep to recover somewhat. there was also no celebrations as I had hoped. boring really.

the good news was that the hotel to which my hostel was attached offered full breakfast. at €8 it cost more than my bed (€5), but it was nice to walk with something in the stomach for a change. especially important given the next village was 12km away. really good breakfast together with my south korean friends.

i felt strong in the morning and had recovered well. 40km to burgos were on the agenda today. the first part of the hike continued uphill for an hour or so before gradually descending into the first village. quick cafe con leche and on we went through first forest, then then some country road and over a hill marked with a large cross on the top.
right after the hill cyril from belgium caught up with me (he ran down the hill … well, tender 20y of age only ;o). we walked together from there until we hit the outskirts of burgos. my legs hurt having walked 35km yesterday and 32km so far today. a spanish guy was waiting at the bus stop and i decided to join him after I had read many travellers use the bus for the last few km into burgos. cyril continued on foot. thanks god i met this spanish guy (Juan Antonio) … the walk through the city would have been extremely boring and taken some two hours. now I have more time to see burgos.
in burgos I bumped into Cyril (who looked now seriously dam aged as well) and we went for a beer by the beautiful cathedral. chelsea was playing against city (and lost 3:0. shame!). after the beer we continued our sightseeing and enquired about times for the mass in the cathedral (none of us felt like paying €3.50 to see a church while on pilgrimage). we had pizza for dinner and at 7.30pm enjoyed an excellent mass.

there we met Juan again and had a beer together (a little repayment for the bus fare he had sponsored). one beer was followed by another and eventually a full blown tour of burgos’ tapas & wine places. although he doesn’t speak any english (and I no spanish really), we had a great night. at 10pm we reported back to the hostel.
 

 

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