THE CAMINO I KNOW AND LOVE

Ah, the camino into Burgos. It just doesn´t get any better than this. I walked across a low mountain range yesterday--the one I couldn´t cross last year because of the snow. There had been a really stiff wind the day before and a forecast of rain and I was expecting the worst. But the lighter wind did not impede progress, the sun was out, and it was glorious. The hills were all alive with a gorgeous violet bush set against a green background and the blue sky with billowy white clouds. And few pilgrims when I crossed so I had the place almost to myself it seemed. It just screamed for the soundtrack to SOUND OF MUSIC. Alas, I did not get past Do a deer....

And the alburgue on the other side was fabulous even though I got put in a room with a bunch of middle aged Portugese women, one of who snored like a banshee. I wanted to be in the young folks room!!! At least I did not get the fart room. We were served paella for dinner. Rather a nice change from the fried chop I had last year most of the time.

The way into Burgos was like I expected. I took a different route this year, thinking it could not be as bad as following the N 110 like last year. Boy was I wrong, it was worse as seen above. But I got to town and into a HOTEL. I am treating myself to 2 nights in moderate luxury in the center of town. Can even take a bath if I want.

Just so you don´t get think all of this camino stuff is all just crazy fun, here is how we have to do our laundry at times. That is probably the most arduous chore. There seems to be more and more automatic washers on the camino. But it doesn´t seem so practical for a shirt, underwear and a pair of socks. And most get pretty used to having more than a bit of piquant smell around them. Otherwise you wouldn´t last too long. And a lot of the engineered fabrics don´t seem to hold odor a lot. Thank the saints of the camino for that (particularly, St. Ignacius de Odorant).

Drying the washed items is, of course, even more problematic. Things dry pretty fat in the Spanish sun. But when we had the long run of overcast and humid days, everyone was suffering. Here is a photo of the yard at the alburgue outside of Pamplona on the first sunny day. This is not even all of the laundry hanging out. It was wonderful--I even got an hour of sun bathing.

On to the Mazeta (? spelling) the Spanish high plateau--hot and dry. And not a little boring.