It is a crisp, cool morning in Burgos, 9:45 and the city is just starting to wake up. A group of pilgrims are waiting impatiently outside the cathedral. I would have thought that after a couple of weeks in Spain, they would have realised that opening times are somewhat arbitrary!
After a glitch in our relationship after yesterday afternoon’s tramp through industrial Burgos, I have fallen in love with her all over again this morning. After a leisurely stroll through the shops I am enjoying coffee and toast at a cafe next to the cathedral

Morning tea!

First glimpse of the cathedral overlooking the Plaza

No, not another choice for morning tea – beauty products, I think!

Love these produce shops, if only I could bring it home with me. Group of Spanish couples enjoying an early morning stroll in reflection

What to have for dinner? Last year I blogged about the Olla Podrida, this year I think I will try the chickpeas.

As always I am in awe of this cathedral. There is no way you can do justice to the size and beauty of it in one photograph. This is just one corner of it.

It was D2’s turn to suffer from Camino weariness today. I could tell by the fact that I could actually keep with her for a lot of the morning! The wind was bitterly cold and although there were quite a few villages along the way, only a couple had bars, cafés or toilets. Luckily we had booked ahead and secured a room in a private albergue so we didn’t have to worry about getting into town to get accommodation.
So it was a more leisurely day today, although the daily distances are building up for the big walk of 26kms into Burgos on Tuesday.
We are staying in a lovely private albergue tonight, with our own room and bathroom; and a beautiful home cooked meal of chicken rice and vegetables. Although the pilgrim menus are cheap and substantial, they are heavy on carbs and protein, and somewhat lacking in vitamins.

The next two days sees us travel 50kms to Burgos with a night tomorrow night in a municipal albergue with not the best of reputations! And at the end if it, a day’s rest

The provinces of Spain deal with the Camino in different ways. The signs in Navarre were very clear and they had
signposts at main crossroads giving how many kms to the next couple of villages. I liked that. Apart from the signs coming into Pamplona which suddenly turned from kms to miles without us realising it. I can tell you there is a big difference between 4 miles and 4 kms at the end of the day.
La Rioja didn’t have as many signs showing the way but they were fond of the big signpost telling us how many kms to go to Santiago. We were thrilled with the first one

But by the time we reached this one it was getting tiresome
and tended to focus you you on how long it actually takes to walk a kilometre!

That was actually the last one and I think we are now in Castille y León (for those who know about these things, please don’t hold it against if I’m wrong…….and I am happy to stand corrected) Anyway, the km signposts have ceased and now we are getting big boards showing us how many little villages we have to go through

So yep, we get it! There’s still a lot of villages and kilometres to go, but I’d rather just take it step by step, hill by hill, field by field and village by village.

I have received lots and lots of words of encouragement from people by email, Facebook and on this blog. I haven’t answered everyone but each and everyone of them has meant so much to us both. Just to know that people out there are thinking of us, sending us their love and believe in us,does a lot to keep us going when the going gets tough!!