Camino: Burgos to Hontanas

Last night, I went to a restaurant in Burgos named Cobo Tradićion, that had a Michelin rating. Since the municipal Albergue closed at 10:30 PM, I told the restaurant to hurry up serving the multicourse dinner so I could make it back to my bed without being locked out.

Sleeping late led to waking up later than usual and I was out on the street by 7:30 AM. What a delight it was to see at least 50 pilgrims out and about and also to notice the restaurant right across the street.

At the restaurant, I had a couple of coffees and a pastry combined with conversations with fellow pilgrims. Jenny from North Carolina was walking with her three teenagers. When I told a young Croatian pilgrim about the places I had visited in her country : Zagreb, Split, Hvar, Dubrovnik, and the Dalmatian coast, it created an instant rapport.

Later than all previous days, at 8 AM, I started walking and what a difference I felt! The sun was shining, obviating the need for the headlamp. It was warm, not necessitating the use of hand gloves. I had already had a small breakfast and was ready to go miles and miles without needing any more boost.

There was an Irish couple walking next to me. The wife had retired last year while the husband retired a month ago; and they had promptly started this pilgrimage. They had read that in two weeks, the body will take the beating and get used to it, in the next two weeks, the mind will take a beating and get used to it, and finally, the soul will be free as you reach Santiago de Compostela. It had been eight days of walking, but my body was still sore, far from getting used to it.

People of all ages were on the Camino and it was quite amazing to see older walkers just hoofing it.

There were many interesting metallic sculptures throughout. They were in the shape of pilgrims and were bearing witness to the pilgrims.

A couple of miles from Burgos, the wilderness path started, and it was next to the river Arlanzon.

On the path was a sculpture of Santo Domingo de la Calzada, a town with the same name I had passed a couple of days ago. This patron saint of the pilgrims is known for this legend and his bronze sculpture was by the river in Burgos city outskirts.

The path had tall, mature trees lining on each side which made it very pleasant.

I walked by the many buildings of the University of Burgos.

After a while, the scenery was that of farmlands and open spaces.

The first big town along the way was Tardajos and it was 7 miles from Burgos. It was a good spot for some coffee and snacks.

Along the way, I saw many huge and creative murals.

Every so often on the Camino, I came across big crosses on huge piles of rocks.

It was a long trek through the farmlands next, dotted with hills and trees while the weather was excellent. The gentle breeze was making the walk very pleasant.

I walked beside a person from Idaho. He opened up with his life story. He joined the US army in his youth and rose to the rank of Captain. With fifteen years under his belt, he retired with a sizeable pension. He subsequently found a support engineer job at the database company, Oracle, and worked there for 25 years, maximizing his 401k contributions. At the age of 67, he recently retired and is living off a good pension. He planned to walk the Camino, then drive through Andalusia, then drive through all of Portugal.

As the unrelenting steep climb terminated, the vast open vistas of the valley opened up.

Another pilgrim appeared by my side and he seemed like a determined walker, with walking sticks and a sure stride. We both seemed to have the same pace and kept walking together for a bit. I discovered that he was Ed, a retired Major General in US Army who at one point commanded 400,000 troops. He was in Iraq for a couple of years and in Afghanistan for 8 years. For about three miles, we walked together in silence, keeping pace and not letting either one get ahead of the other.

We reached Hornillos de Camino, which was Ed's destination for the day. I took a coffee break and invited Ed to join me. He accepted and said he was glad we walked briskly.

There are many markers along the way indicating distance remaining to Santiago de Compostela. They often are in conflict with other markers elsewhere. For example, the marker above appeared 10 km after a sign that said there were only 469km to go.

I reached my destination, Hontanas, by 3pm and stayed at an Albergue run by a German host. It was quite clean and big. I was awaiting my college friend to arrive from Frankfurt to Hontanas to walk with me for the next day. I was worried as he was not in touch and seemed delayed.

At 7PM, dinner was served. It consisted of a huge chicken pallela, wine, salad, dessert and around the table were people from Germany, Netherlands, Lithuania, Canada, South Korea, Denmark, Italy and UK.

The Paella was huge and the host jokingly cautioned that if we did not finish it, we would encounter bad weather tomorrow.

As we were swapping stories, my friend arrived from Frankfurt, and we offered him Paella hoping to appease the weather gods.

We all finished the wine and kept talking until it was time to close shop. I was excited to have my friend as company for tomorrow's walk.