Burgos to Hornillos del Camino

We got a late start from Burgos this morning.  At the hotel, we prepared for a long day of walking.On the way out of Burgos, we visited a monastery that was a highly recommended stop in our guide book, John Brierly’s A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Camino Santiago.  Brierly let us down, again. 

He fails to mention that the monastery, the Monastario de las Huelgas Reales, did not open until 10 a.m.  Nor does he mention that the monastery can only be seen by guided tour; that the first tour does not begin until 10:30 a.m.; and that the tours are entirely in Spanish.  The monastery was beautiful, but not more than many of the other churches and cathedrals we have seen.A couple who spoke only French was also on the tour.  The guide, after each of her presentations, would pull the French couple over and give them an abbreviated version in French.  After one of these excursions, I asked the guide a question in English.  She shrugged her shoulders as if she did not understand.  Maybe she didn’t understand English.  I am surprised how easily people identify Anne and me as Americans, even when we don’t speak.  I have asked  people how they knew that we were Americans.  They only laugh.  Maybe they are too polite to tell us.

After leaving the monastery we were quickly out of Burgos on a path that passed by fields.  

The Camino went by a prison.

We didn’t see a lot of people on the Camino today, which is understandable because much of it was beside busy highways.

As we have learned, lots of people skip the drearier parts of the Camino by hopping on buses or hiring a car.

This raises the question, would a Real Pilgrim take a bus?  How much hardship must a pilgrim experience to authentically experience the Camino?  

There many ways to smooth out the bumps on the Camino.  Anne and I have been staying in good hotels and restaurants when we can.  Are we any less pilgrims?  We had originally planned on finding hotels as we went along. We thought it would be very pilgrim-like to find our bed at the end of the day wherever we happed to land.  Maybe pilgrim-like, but totally impractical.  A few days ago in Puenta La Reina, we ran a serious risk of sleeping in a field on the side of the Camino.  We are spending a lot of time now trying to find reservations at the next town down the Camino. We are looking into hiring a booking service  that will make the reservations for us. Do Real Pilgrims use booking services?

After we got through the highway interchanges, the scenery improved as the Camino began to climb up to the Meseta.

Our first view of the Meseta is in the background.

Before entering the Meseta, we went through the village of  Rabe de las Calzadas.

The Camino then began a long climb up onto the Meseta.

At the the top, the Meseta extended to the horizon in all directions.

After walking for several miles on the top of the Meseta, the Camino dropped sharply to the village of Hornillos del Camino, our destination for the day.On the way down, I had sharp pains in my right shin.  It had been bothering me since the race to the albergue three days earlier in San Juan de Ortega. It has been getting steadily worse.  If it does not get better tomorrow, I will hire a service to deliver my backpack to the next day’s destination.  If it continues to get worse, the photos I post in the future may be from the window of a bus.

I doubt that anyone on the Camino today has a fully authentic pilgrim experience.  I haven’t seen anyone dressed in a rough wool robe and sandals carrying water in a gourd.  Those hardships are long past.  As we go along, Anne and I have been turning to more and more of the services available to smooth out the Camino, grateful that there are there.

Here is the church in Hornillos del Camino.