Suffice it to say, I had it my way! Double Whopper, no onions, fries, medium drink--forget about asking for those free refills!
What a long ways we had come! We had gone to sleep last night in Hornillos del Camino, 20 kms outside of Burgos and quite literally the land that time has forgotten. The gently rolling hills are gorgeous and the only sounds you hear are of the birds chirping. We found a private room in the Casa Rural and settled in for a good night of sleep.
We awoke to a drizzly morning and decided we had had enough of the fabled meseta. We enjoyed breakfast with a girl from Sweden, a guy from New Zealand and some young people from Minnesota. In addition, the two ladies with whom we had almost enjoyed dinner
were in our hostel as well, and they hailed from near Oslo in Norway.
There was no wifi connection, hence it wasn't possible to make reserevations for the next stop, to make phone calls or catch up on any news. We began to feel a tad of claustrophobia! It was like the Hotel California--you could check out any time you liked, but you could never leave! We weren't walking out in the rain and there was no one around to call anyway.
I finally walked back to the little store we had seen coming in to town and the shopkeeper had a phone and offered to call us a taxi. It would arrive in 10 minutes, he said, so we would need to get cracking. We enjoyed a very pleasant visit with the taxi driver and learned that we had in fact walked past a prison en route to Hornillos. We had seen it in the distance but couldn't figure out exactly what it was. It was just a tad discouraging to learn that the two days of walking that we had put in could be covered in about 20 minutes by taxi!
Before you knew it, we were in the bus station in Burgos with two tickets to Leon in hand. It was amazing to watch the huge, modern buses pull into the tiny station and maneuver around the passengers. When the driver honks the horn, that is your signal to move! I believe they would run over you! We were soon seated on a modern bus from the ALSA line, complete with wifi!
That's Dana in the yellow jacket in the background, by the way. She and Christene were American pilgrims who joined us for parts of the ride and we enjoyed getting to know them. Dana was having knee problems and was jumping ahead a bit, and Christene was having problems with toes, knees and ankles.
We were also surprised to see Sandra from Mexico in the bus station. She and the young lady traveling with her had come in to get tickets for a bus later in the day. We probably wouldn't see each other again as we were going quite a bit further than they were, so she gave first Sharon and then me a big hug! One of the fun and remarkable things about the Camino is seeing and seeing again people you have met!
As we got on the bus, we were seated right across from Dana and Christene. Christene talks a mile a minute and we had the best viusit! We laughed about a common syndrome that hikers face. You pull your socks on tight, lace your shoes and start walking, but after a while you feel that the sock has crumpled under your toe. You take the shoe off, reach down to straighten the sock and find it is as smooth as a baby's bottom. I call it ghost crumpled sock syndrome, and it apparently is a real thing! http://en.allexperts.com/q/Podiatry-984/socks-wrinkled-bunched-underfoot.htm
The bus was to depart at 10:30 and our taxi driver had warned us to keep a close watch on our backpacks. We couldn't help but notice that in the station there were tons of foreigners. Wait! We were the foreigners among tons of Spaniards. And pilgrims!
So we finally arrived in Leon and the map showed it wasn't far to our hotel. We set off on a jaunt, passing the football stadium, around which all manner of rides and carnival attractions were being set up for some kind of festival going on in town. We stopped for a photo op at the last corner before coming to our hostel:
Checked in, went downtown, enjoyed our Burger King late afternoon snack and wandered on up to the historic downtown. We found the tourist office right across from the cathedral and decided to take the tour of this huge church building. It was well worth it! Take a look at some of the pictures from inside:
That last photo is of the choir loft! In the olden days, the choir was seated in the middle of the cathedral and each member had his own ornately carved wooden seat depicting a Bible or church hero. There's not enough time or space here to mentioned everything we learned about this magnificent building and its history. It almost collapsed in the 1800s but thanks to some ingenious architects, the structure was saved and work finished in about 1901. You can read all about it at http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le%C3%B3n_Cathedral if you want to know more.
We had read in the tourist office that there was a mass at 7:30 followed by a blessing of the pilgrims so we decided to hang around the plaza until then. In the meantime, a group was busily preparing for a dance recital and we spent some time watching. Some things are the same the world over, I suppose!
About 7:20 we wandered over to the Cathedral for the mass, only to learn that it wasn't at this church, but rather it was at San Isidoro, some blocks over! None of the streets downtown would run what you call parallel and following instructions in Spanish can be a challenge, but we made it just as mass was about to begin. This was a beautiful building also and we were glad we made it over. I snapped a couple of pictures inside:
It was difficult for me to follow all of the service, but there was a certain beauty to it, the readings from the Bible, the prayers, the message. As always, it was followed by communion but we did not partake. The parishioners are given only the bread, but the priests get both the wine and the bread. We could discuss this topic for a long time, but let's wind up the mass with a picture of San Isidoro from the outside:
By the way, either they forgot or we missed it, but there was no pilgrim blessing afterwards!
By now it was 8:30 so we started back vaguely in the direction of our hostel. By now the town was jam-packed with people! You could hardly stir them with a palo. We looked for a place to grab a bite and finally came to a lovely plaza with a few empty tables. A band was playing English hits of the 60s, 70s and 80s and we enjoyed listening to Back in the USSR, Hotel California and a little Paul Simon, all with a nice Spanish accent. We both ordered a plato combinado of chicken, fries, Russian salad, pepper and bread:
While we were eating, the band wrapped up its set and before long a parade came down the street. We could see the heads of tall puppets being carried down the street and before you knew it, they were heading right in to our plaza! I snapped a picture of the group before they disbanded:
All in all, it had been a great day! We had jumped ahead from Burgos to Leon and knocked about eight days of walking off our journey.
We were getting closer to the city of Sarria, which marks the last 100 kilometers from Santiago. You must complete this distance on foot in order to receive a compostela, or certificate! We plan to spend the day resting in Leon today, then catch the train over to Sarria in the morning for the last walking leg of our trip, which shouldn't take more than a week to 10 days.
As the day drew to a close we couldn't help but notice the sky. Beautiful blue skies graced with clouds of all descriptions against the rooftops of the city made for a fitting close to another day on our journey to Santiago.
Sorry to be late posting, but just wasn't up to writing last night. Have a great day and buen camino!
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