Some New Tires

 

Day 49 Burgos

     Today we had by far the nastiest weather of our Camino.  We had to put our parkas on as we left the albergue.  It was 50 degrees, a driving rain and a relentless wind. The scenery may have been nice, but we didn’t know it.  The flapping parkas made it hard to converse.  We both had shorts on, so our legs were wet and cold.  We pulled our hands under our parkas to keep them warm (a dangerous move given my previous tumble, but we took the risk). We plowed through the morning without a break.  We reached the outskirts of the city of Burgos and marched past the airport and through industrial plants next to a busy highway for five miles before entering the city.

      We saw our first McDonalds since starting the Camino and throwing all cultural values aside, ducked in out of the rain and indulged in American food.  We still had to walk through the city a couple more miles through a heavy downpour to get to our hotel, which is small, clean and inexpensive.  

     After hot showers and a nap, the sun came out; and we set out to explore this important Spanish city.  The cathedral is spectacular and houses a museum as well, so we paid the pilgrim fee (which is less than senior’s discount) and basked in medieval sculpture and art.  You would think that we have had enough of altarpieces, carvings and paintings; but we still marvel at the craftsmanship and imagination of centuries of artists.

   Our main errand in this city was to find some replacement sandals for Esther’s Tevas, since one of the straps is about to break, and we don’t want to be out in the middle of nowhere (which is coming soon) and stuck.  After some asking around we found an outdoor shop that had the exact same sandals.  When you know something works, it is hard to risk something different. So Esther has a new pair of sandals, ready to go when needed.  I can’t convince her to throw her Hoka tennis shoes away.  Every time she wears them for even a short while, her feet kill her.  I guess she’s a little Dutch  herself. For dinner we found a local rice and seafood dish that was very good, sorry Ronald!