Day 13, Burgos

It was a cold 8 degrees and windy this morning leaving from Atapuerca. I had waited about 45 minutes for Louie before deciding he was leaving on a different schedule and setting out on my own. I left hugs and word with Suzanna that I was leaving.

Now 1.5 hrs and about 6.5 km later, I stopped for a banana juice and skewer of pork and, of course, bathroom and WiFi break.

I passed a dog on the Camino this morning complete with backpack.

The day is much brighter today, but a rocky road to start. Now it is going to be more asphalt for the walk through the Burgos suburbs. I expect to arrive in Burgos by 1 pm.

By the time I'd finished my snack in Cardenuela, Jose, Louie, Suzanna, Gabby, Sylvie and Alfrede had all stopped as well, so we continued walking together all the way to Burgos. We are staying in the large municipal albergue near the cathedral, which has 150 beds over multiple floors.

We arrived and queued up and I was given bed 62 on the 3rd floor. Louie has the bunk above and the others are scattered in the beds around me. It is well organized with 4 beds in each alcove and the illusion of privacy for each bed by having a wall in between each.

I am eager to take a look around and the location near the cathedral makes it easier not to get lost. Jose, Louie & I will meet up for lunch in an hour, but since I can't wait, I am having some of my stash of snacks.

We had a table for 7 at a nice restaurant for a late (for me) lunch at 2:30. For 20€, I had the menu of the day, which was a choice of Catalena soup (bread and garlic), which I had; or eggs with green beans and smoked salmon, which I tried from Suzanna. Both were very tasty.

For the main course we all ordered the lamb chops instead of the fish, and they were excellent. The roasted red pepper was so incredibly good that I ate Gabby's as well. The meal came with house wine - I had the blanco (white), while everyone else had the tinto. Dessert was "cheesecake", which appeared to be vanilla ice cream and a not of jam wrapped in white chocolate with maple syrup on the side - in other words, sugar wrapped in sugar, topped with sugar. It was a bit sweet - Steve would have loved it!

After lunch, we wandered around a bit and then split up and I visited the cathedral with a English audio guide, which was very good and allowed you to pick a higher level of detail if you wanted. The cathedral was amazing, I took a lot of photos.

It's now after 7 pm, so I am going to take another walk around now that stores and businesses are open and also have a small bite to eat. It's 8:30 and I just had a Guinness from an Irish pub a couple of blocks away.

Almost time for bed. I have a plug next to the bed but no WiFi again, so I'm using the phone. It looks like I've used a lot of data in the last few days, so I'll be happy to have free WiFi at my hotel tomorrow.

I also plan to use my free pass to the museum tomorrow.

Unfortunately the new group are all going home from Burgos; none continuing on. So I will see them tomorrow, but then I'm back in my own again. We'll see who I meet next.

Tomorrow it will be cold in the morning - overnight is 9 and a high of 21. With the wind it has been very cool.

Dog with backpack

Sign near dawn

Burgos cathedral

Gang in front of the cathedral

Mary statue

Gorgeous ceiling

Amazing-stairs