(Via Villafraca Montes de Oca and Cardeñales Riopico)
"How many corners do I have to turn
How many times do I have to learn
All the love I have is in my mind
Well I´m a lucky man...."
-Verve
Ever since Santo Domingo and Grañon, I´ve been in an obscenely good mood. Walking down rural roads at a fast pace with a song in my head, and sometimes even whistling. Repugnant. If I had bumped into another walker like me a week ago, he´d be pushing up grapevines from the red soil of La Rioja right now.
The walk from Grañon to Belorado was uneventful, but I did bump into Michael, Sarah and family once there. We were in different albergues though, so no concert that night. Their Albergue was modern, with all the amenities a pilgrim could ask for. Mine was in the converted rectory attached to a 14th century church. But, there were very few pilgrims, very soft beds, and it was as cold as a witches tit. In other words, perfect sleeping conditions for me. I slept like a log, only awakening briefly at 6:00am to the sound of people speaking German (or Dutch...can´t tell them apart). Happens every morning on the Camino that you wake up to the sound of a foreign language, and yet never feels any less creepy. I shrugged it off, went back to sleep and was awoken at around 7:45am by the guy who runs the albergue telling me to get the hell out (we´re only allowed to stay until 8:00 at most of these places). "¡Ultreia!" he urged me, which is supposed to mean "onward", but I suspect it really means "get off my property you dirty, fat pilgrim".
Belorado to Villafranca was an easy walk through level farmland and along the side of a highway. I was going to go further, but one look at the big-ass hill outside of town changed my mind for me. So I hunkered down for the night. While I was napping in the mid-afternoon, who should check in but Sarah and Michael. Cool - I had thought they were going on to San Juan de Ortega today. Around this time, I realized that I needed to get to a bank machine and soon. I usually keep a €100 reserve in ******** (edited out for security reasons), but it was gone when I checked. Thought for a second that I had been robbed, but then remembered "oh, yeah...the hotel in Logroño. I wasn´t robbed, just ripped off". So, for the first time in 20 days, I had to take a bus. Backwards, to Belorado to get some funds. Taking a bus was a weird and humbling experience. All that day´s sweating, aching, and marching boiled down to a 9 minute bus ride and €0.98. Watching the landscape zipping by the window though, I´m glad I walked it. I´d have missed too much if I had taken a bus. While In Belorado, I decided I felt like cooking that night, so I picked up all the fixings for my pasta carbonara. When I got back to Belorado, I cooked it up for myself and Sarah and Michael´s family. I for one ate like a pig...minus the trough. It was awesome if I do say so myself, and the feeling of being full is a rare one on the camino.
My good mood was interrupted briefly the next morning by the walk from Villafranca to Agés. There was nothing wrong with the walk itself, nor with the monster hill I had to climb, nor with the scenery I was passing through. The problem was I couldn´t get a coffee that morning, and I was out of smokes. Spent the first 12km in serious withdrawal from both my drugs of choice, and the next 4 after that desperately looking for a cigarette vending machine. Once I found one, the day turned out quite nice. Between Villafranca and Cardeñales (last stop before Burgos) is the last big hill before the Meseta. You have to climb for what seems like an hour or so to get to the top. Once there, the top of the hill is level and littered with little white stones (no doubt the remains of the roman road that passed through here). Oh, yeah, it also had some stunning views of Burgos and the Meseta beyond. A cross marked the highest point on the hill, where the views were at their best, and someone had generously donated two sofas for people to sit on and enjoy the view. Waiting for Neo and Morpheus no doubt. How in the hell they got the sofas up there is anyone´s guess. I´m guessing they had help from an advanced alien race. Using the rocks that were strewn about, people had spelled out messages to their friends, family and themselves. Not wanting to be left out, I arranged some rocks into a little message for all of you. You´ll have to check the pictures to see it though.
Spent that night in Cardeñuela Riopico, which is a tiny little village just 15km from Burgos city limits. Guess who showed shortly afterwards. Yup. Again, it was good to see them. The morning´s walk into Burgos was fairly easy, although exeptionally ugly. Slogging through 8km of industrial sprawl is a lousy way to start a morning. Nonetheless, I arrived in Burgos at around 11:30am, and managed to get myself a tiny little room at the Hotel Norte y Londres. It´s about as basic as you can get (complete with rotary-dial phone), but it´s cheap, it´s comfortable, and it´s mine, all mine. Have been wandering the city a bit, deliberately avoiding the main monuments. That´s tomorrow´s job. Today I need to take care of a few things, like getting a haircut, going shopping for clothes and supplies (three guesses where I´m going. Amalia only gets one...answer below). I actually quite like Burgos - I was expecting the same kind of dickhead attitude I found in Logroño, but I´m finding the people here very nice and very accomodating. The city itself is nice, but no great shakes, the old part of town isn´t as old as I thought, and the newer part of town is filthy. Maybe my opinion will change once I´ve seen the cathedral and the castle the looms above the city.
Staying put until Sunday, when I´m going to try to get to Hontanas (I think). New pictures should be available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/36308626@N00/sets/. Enjoy.
Answer: El Corte Ingles. Congratulations Amalia!
No comments:
Post a Comment