Burgos to Hontanas

32 kilometers! We pressed ahead because we wanted to hit some of the smaller and nicer albergues between the stages of the most widely read guidebook. Whoa, jackpot! We are staying in a brand new spacious place (la brigida) with only one other person (a quiet German doctor) in the room. It has a fully equipped kitchen (Scott cooked again - see below), a store, super nice good smelling bathrooms, and heated floors! Only 7 euros a bed and only 6 beds in big rooms! The only thing is that we feel bereft without our Kiwi ladies and all the rest of our camino family (except Cowboy). There is a new set of people here and I am just too weary tonight to go out and get to know them. Maybe on the trail tomorrow...

We went to a pilgrim's mass last night at the Burgos cathedral. Scott leaned over and kept me informed of all the liturgical goings on. It is really cute to get a glimpse of his little alter boy self from nearly a half century ago. As for me, I had such a hard time standing when my feet were so sore and tired. The priest's monotone chants and prayers made me so sleepy.

I did perk up when they said the Lord's Prayer in Spanish because I had to memorize it back in college Spanish and it came right back to me: padre nuestros que estas in los cielos, sanctificados sea tu nombre... Made me think of beloved señora Hodges, with her thick black bob and animated Spanish. My favorite class in college I think. She died of cancer not too long afterward, younger than I am now.

Anyway, all the Catholicism we encounter is very familiar to Scott and he wears his Saint Christopher pendant proudly as always. I get a little lost with all the saints and relics and ornamentation but I do enjoy the sacred feel in the cathedrals.

Today we walked for miles on the flat top of the meseta, windmills in the distance in every direction, but little else. Again a head wind. For the first time I resorted to putting on some music on my iPhone because the last three miles were in very sticky thick mud and I had nothing to distract myself from my ouchy top of my left foot and the fallen arch feeling in my right foot (both minor issues until the end of each day). Plus the roar of a headwind becomes tiresome after so many days. I have lots of Irish and New Age music and it accompanies this mystical place perfectly. It really helped!

All the little creature comforts, like music, have become so exquisite, just like what happens on the ice (and afterward). And simple foods like a banana,olive oil potato chips, local figs and olives...these things make me nearly cry, they taste so good. And because we are nearly always bunking with lots of other pilgrims and don't want to be annoying with lots of PDA (some people go at it in the bunks -rude!), small tokens of tenderness from Scott, like when he reaches his hand down from the top bunk to mine, just to silently say hello, make me happy.

Pics: funny sculpture coming out of Burgos -I call it Boobs in a boat, 3 pics of the Meseta, me at the end of a nearly 20 mile day exhausted, the last pic is us eating helados (ice cream).