Olmos de Atapuerca

I found today quite a challenge. The early morning walking was a joy, as it always seems to be. It was a sharp, bright start with wild flowers galore in the hedgerows. As Roz, one of our Camino group put it, how are we expected to walk with all this natural beauty to photograph?
However, I found the second half of the walk harder. It wasn’t difficult in terms of gradient but the approach to cities seems to be the hardest part of the Camino. There were two routes into Burgos and we took the better one which skirts the river, but it still seemed to take forever. And my blisters remain a bit of a nuisance. However, entering the city by the Santa Maria arch was stupendous and the cathedral breathtaking. We stopped for fizzy water opposite the cathedral with Roz and met Rachel, Clint and Jo (Rachel’s walking companion).
Fiona and I checked into our hotel. On the plus side, it is in a wonderful location and our room has a great view of the cathedral. However, it was unbearably hot and impossible to relax in. I also discovered that my sketchers flip flops were missing and, despite calling last night’s albergue, they appear to have disappeared. Given the fragile state of my feet I was a bit distraught to have lost them and extremely unrelaxed by the sauna-level of heat in our room.
We found a vegetarian restaurant which did lovely vegan food. Despite eating well, I was still feeling a bit miserable. An evening out with a jolly group of fellow pilgrims helped considerably and I came back to the (slightly) cooler room a lot happier than I’d left it. Tomorrow we plan to visit the cathedral and I would like to go to the Museum of Human Evolution. I gather this was established following the discovery of the earliest humanoid life in one of the villages we walked through this morning.Läs mer