Agés to Burgos

WHAT a day yesterday was. Agés was a lovely albergue...one of the best I´ve been in so far. We stayed at El Pajar, and everyone was there except Hank and Skip. The German boys, Mimi and Jocelyn, Al, and the Spice Girls (I hope they don´t get offended if they read this...you come up with names for people and groups in your head...besides, one of them calls me Miss America). We got there pretty late in the afternoon..about 7pm. So we didn´t get a real early start, but not too late either.

I decided to sit and have a cup of tea and hope that Christa hadn´t passed by yet. She hadn´t. They boys took off before she and I did, and the Spice Girls stayed behind, so Christa and I headed out alone. It was good to walk with her again. We get along so well...and her English is very pronounced and precise, with a British accent, which makes so much of what she says SO funny in a way I just can´t describe.

The initial walk from Agés to Atapuerca was beautiful. Atapuerca is noteworthy because back in 1994, they found the remains of the oldest verified European human. There are statues and pictures of a Neanderthal looking guy all over the little town. Unfortunately, the albergue was closed and we didn´t get a stamp, nor was the museum-welcoming-center place open, and we had to get to Burgos and couldn´t wait. There are tours that take you to the site, apparently, but this is just another example of how the Camino is a purpose for me (at least this time) and the sights take a backseat to the goal. Perhaps my priorities are out of order, but the fact remains that I have 17 days now to reach Santiago and I just can´t afford to wait. (At the moment, I am sacrificing a morning to upload photos to a Snapfish album! I was hoping to go back through my posts and add photos, but it takes SOOOO long, so Snapfish is processing as I write. There are five or six in the posts entitled Made It! and The Pyrenees, but that´s all. This café is expensive, so my grand plan will just have to wait.)

So on through Atapuerca and up a steep, rocky incline past a sheep enclosure with about 100 sheep and the requisite few black ones, ha ha.

At the top of the mountain was a cross, framed beautifully with a half moon in the background. I got a great shot and am hoping Mom´s Photoshop magic can edit out the bikers in bright yellow jerseys who just REFUSED TO MOVE. On from the cross was a great circle of little rocks...several concentric ones, actually. I suddenly realized it was probably a labryinth, like my Chartes labyrinth medallion!! Christa and I tried to walk it, but it was hard to see the paths and it might have just been circles. Anyway...the boys caught us there...had apparently stopped for coffee in a café in Atapuerca that had somehow eluded our notice.

That was pretty much the end of the beautiful views between Agés and Burgos. The way down was long and rocky, but not difficult, and we could see for miles and miles, including a city that seemed too close to be Burgos, but was (Burgos) and was not (close). We stopped a few times for brunch and ice cream (which I always spill on myself, can´t take me anywhere...).

We split up when the book stated there were two roads into Burgos...a nasty one and a relatively pretty one. The boys wanted to bus in and see the city. I am still firmly anti-transport...13 days of moving your body entirely under its own power, nearly 300k, no less...I want a shirt with a boot on the front and a wheel with a circle-slash on the back. Ha ha. So Christa and I took what was supposed to be the pretty route that promised a riverside walk.

NOT SO.

We ended up in a goddamn industrial zone. MISERABLE. Dust. Rocks. Beating sun. Dodging dump trucks every two minutes, either lumbering up behind us or looming before us. Sporadic yellow arrows were maddening, as they would disappear when we needed them to be there, and the book was no help, and all we had were a few random points and hollers from the dump truck drivers. I am floored and incensed that the Camino takes us through there...it´s not safe and I felt the whole time like we were trespassing in a place where we´d end up with a free ride to the local police station...or government detention. The zone bordered a fenced airport-like area, and the whole thing had me feeling like Mulder and Scully sniffing along the borders of Area 51...with dump trucks.

GRRRR!!! We were furious. But at least we were together. We said several times later in the day how happy we were to have had each other through that leg, because each of us would´ve been sure we were lost and probably would´ve ended up in frustrated hysterics.

But we made it. It dumped us out on the highway. We sat and changed shoes and tried to restore our spirits and figure out how to proceed. Another crossroads. The mythical river supposedly lay ahead of us, on an alternative route called the Camino de Santa Marina, and though a woman on the street assured me it existed, we were in no mood to chase shadows any longer, as it was 1pm at this point and we were on the outskirts of what looked to be a very large city.

So we headed up the highway and into the burbs.

The burbs lasted FOREVER. No cafés. I could tell what kind of territory we were in by the prevalence of auto body shops and cigarette stores. We stopped into a place called Dulces Milagros, and as promised by the store name, we did have a sweet miracle in a sugar-coated, cream-filled eclair, which we split...and a Diet Coke, which we also split, to make up for it. (Like any of us are worried about weight on this trip.) Headed on.

Walking. Lots of walking. Lots of sun. Ahead, SPIRES!! The Cathedral!! It was far, but it was in sight. But the trek towards it reminded me of my pursuit of the Arc de Triomphe up the Champs Elyseés a few years ago in Paris, where I toiled uphill like a linebacker through an endless stream of opposing pedestrians while the Arc retreated before me. We lost the spires in the maze of hideous new apartment buildings in truly obnoxious shades of red and yellow. They looked like Legos.

But another oasis appeared. A MALL!! =) With a post office!! We headed in and got lost in cheap discount dress stores. We each found one for about 15€ and realized in the dressing rooms (I am sure to the saleslady´s dismay) just how sweaty and disgusting we both were. It was ludicrous to try on cute little sundresses in our boots and sports bras, too lazy to bother to take our trousers off, shuffling back and forth to display this one and that one to each other with our pants around our boots.

Post office, stamps for post cards, mailed a few I´d written days ago in Santo Domingo, and to our delight realized that the hour spent in the mall had taken all thoughts of foot pain out of our heads. Tired of walking? Shop. Of course.

Onward. Directions from a very kind security guard. I´m starting to understand directions better. The new city gradually loosened its grip on us as more and more old stonework came into view, and we finally entered the walls of the old city.

Burgos is a beautiful old city. Narrow little cobblestone streets and shopfronts, stonework, gargoyles...bronze statues here and there...one of a pilgrim looking very destitute (I got a shot of myself consoling him). And just as we were starting to grouse about the lack of cathedral spires and welcoming committees of our friends, THERE IT WAS.

If you´ve seen a proper, 1000 year old, European cathedral, you already know that they defy description. I´m glad I got a few postcards of it, because there´s no way it´s going to fit in a camera shot. It´s gorgeous. And enormous. We came upon it along a high walkway, with about six million steps leading down into a grand square. Christa had gotten a text from Yasmeen that they were down there, and I told her to make damn sure ¨down there¨ was where we thought it was, because there was no way in hell I was coming back up these steps. We thought about going to the albergue first to drop our things, but eventually went down the steps after finding out it was another 2k away. No.

We headed across the square and saw a dude in a green bandana taking pictures of...the Spice Girls. I hollered ¨AUSSIEEEEEEE!!¨ Skip is back and better than ever. He still has a little pork sausage for a foot, and had to go back to the doctor last night, where they bypassed the oral antibiotics for intravenous ones (they don´t mess around here) and sent him on his way. The German boys were there too, as were Mimi and Jocelyn. (Jocelyn told me the other night in Grañón... ¨That first day on the mountains, you should have seen your face, it was so white...and I thought to myself, she will not do the Camino.¨ HAH! Defied the odds. Is anyone surprised? lol!) They had seen Hank and Al and a few others, and there were plans to meet back for dinner at 8pm.

Hitch. The albergues were full. Everyone was getting hostel rooms. Double rooms were 50€. To make matters worse, Yasmeen offered Christa the other bed in her room. Which left me odd man out. DAMN. Lots of indecision, lots of poll-taking about the prices of this place or that place, and in the end, I had to suck it up and get my own double for 45€. Ouch. But there was no way around it. I was a little pissed off because I am hanging onto my budget by my fingernails, but on the upside, it was the first privacy I´d had in two weeks, and it was nice to unpack my entire rucksack and re-organize...take a LONG, HOT, HARD shower...take leisurely stock of foot and skin issues...and just be alone for a little while. (Two pillows last night was divine too.) So be it.

So we came back for dinner, all ¨dressed up,¨ and the entire crowd was there...everyone I´d met since the Pyrenees. A lot of people were talking about staying in Burgos for the next day and taking a break. I won´t...so this might be it for us all, or it might not. We drank some and wandered around a LOT looking for a suitable place for 15 people to eat, and eventually the group broke down into smaller pieces and we ate at a place called Estrella de Galicia, which had a very good combination ¨de la tierra¨ plate...which most of us ordered (or ¨del mar¨) because we couldn´t figure out what any of the individual dishes were. Good company, good food.

The German boys had found a pub right outside our hostel (they ended up in the same one we girls were in) called Munich and had already put down four or five beers before dinner, so pack mentality took over and we all ended up back there for beers. Georgie sprung for Jägermeister shots for her, Skip, the boys, and me before I knew what was going on...which, as it turns out this morning, was probably a pretty bad idea. But we were a little drunk on freedom, too...it was 11pm and we were finally getting to see some Spanish nightlife! The albergues hustle us all in behind closed doors before dark, so it was our first night that we could stay out late.

We had a blast, and the lights came on (at 12:30am!!) for last call, and I was ready for it. Way past my bedtime.

Which brings us to this morning..when the melodious sounds of the jackhammer outside my window at 7am made me grateful I was on a budget that had me drinking far less than my friends...but still not quite in tiptop shape. This morning´s frustration was that both this internet café and the cathedral didn´t open till 10am...so I showered and repacked and killed time and had a cup of tea and scrawled out a calendar in my journal and tried to figure out how to hit Santiago by August 9th... found out the café would be another half hour late in opening...ran into Gunna, a Dutch expat who´s been living in Melbourne, Aus for 35 years, who I had met last night (he and Hank make two elementary school principals in our little gang, and his news that his Camino was for free under a professional enrichment plan at his school system in Melbourne has me making a mental note to GO TEACH IN MELBOURNE). We sat and killed time till the café opened, and then found to my dismay that my camera cable won´t upload my pictures.

But the guy running this joint speaks pretty good English and has a card reader. So I now have a Snapfish album. I´m not sure I¨ll be able to afford the time it takes this morning to link to it here, and it´s taking a small forever to upload photos 20 at a time, and it´s 3€ an hour here, pretty pricey. I was hoping to go back through my blog and put a couple pictures on each post, but that took a long time too. I´ll try to get some people up there, though, so you can see what everyone looks like.

I have no idea where anyone else is. That´s good. I didn´t have anyone´s room numbers last night, and though I saw Yens the German and the Spice Girls walk by earlier, I haven´t seen anyone else. I might run into a few in the cathedral, which is my only stop before I head out of town this afternoon. I´ve blown the morning here...it´s now noon...and I won´t get far today, but at least I´ll make a little bit of progress. I don´t want to take a day off. And I´m pretty sure I´ll lose everyone today (though I´ve said that before, I guess). Time for me to hit the solo stage of my Camino.

All for now, I suppose. Love you all and hopefully more later tonight...though it´ll be a short day, so maybe not till tomorrow. On with the meseta..grrrrr.