We stayed in a 'pension' in Burgos. They did have a safe place to lock our bikes away. On the 2nd floor of the building...
The night before we had spent enjoying the Burgos nightlife (no refugio to get back to by 22h00) and did it in our usual way of tapas-bar hopping. We blend in well now with the locals standing at the bar and ordering different plates of food (most of them you choose from the glass counter; it helps that we do not have to pronounce what we order).
Start as usual, Richard at work (our 5th flat tyre I believe). No time to loose. Off we go. We thought. Following the Camino is not difficult while in the fields. There are clear signs every 200-300 meters (a yellow arrow, or a sign with the symbol of a pilgrim on it). In the cities, however, it is very different. Much harder to find the indicators. We found out in Burgos where after 7 km we got back to the point where we started from half and hour earlier... Our 2nd try was a success.
We entered the famous Meseta; these are supposed to be flatlands. Come again. The kind with hills. But the weather was nice; sunny, not too warm, no wind. We stopped for lunch in Hontanas, a village with 40 inhabitants. Menu del Pelegrino: a 3 course meal for 8 euro. This includes wine (I am sure you already figured that one out), digestivo, coffee with some extra brandy; we loved it.
When we ended our lunch, the weather had changed. Rain and wind. Sam´s gear system broke down (yes Sam´s, the guy who never has technical problems: were Richard and Jan happy when this happened!). Unfortunately this time we were not able (did not have the right tools) to repair the damage, Sam had to cycle the last 10 kim without changing gears...
We arrived in Fromista, miserably wet and cold, and with a broken bike. To make things worse the local refugio was full. And the next place we went to (a private pension) did not accept us as we were too dirty.... (´but we are poor pilgrims...´we tried, without success). Finally we did find a great ´casa rural´that offered us a fully equiped appartment (kitchen, dining room, washing machine...) and most importantly we found a 65 year young ´handyman of the village´who led us to his secret workshop. He managed to repair Sam´s bike! A perfect end to a not so nice day.
Day 6: 75 kilometres, 5 hours of cycling.
The night before we had spent enjoying the Burgos nightlife (no refugio to get back to by 22h00) and did it in our usual way of tapas-bar hopping. We blend in well now with the locals standing at the bar and ordering different plates of food (most of them you choose from the glass counter; it helps that we do not have to pronounce what we order).
Start as usual, Richard at work (our 5th flat tyre I believe). No time to loose. Off we go. We thought. Following the Camino is not difficult while in the fields. There are clear signs every 200-300 meters (a yellow arrow, or a sign with the symbol of a pilgrim on it). In the cities, however, it is very different. Much harder to find the indicators. We found out in Burgos where after 7 km we got back to the point where we started from half and hour earlier... Our 2nd try was a success.
We entered the famous Meseta; these are supposed to be flatlands. Come again. The kind with hills. But the weather was nice; sunny, not too warm, no wind. We stopped for lunch in Hontanas, a village with 40 inhabitants. Menu del Pelegrino: a 3 course meal for 8 euro. This includes wine (I am sure you already figured that one out), digestivo, coffee with some extra brandy; we loved it.
When we ended our lunch, the weather had changed. Rain and wind. Sam´s gear system broke down (yes Sam´s, the guy who never has technical problems: were Richard and Jan happy when this happened!). Unfortunately this time we were not able (did not have the right tools) to repair the damage, Sam had to cycle the last 10 kim without changing gears...
We arrived in Fromista, miserably wet and cold, and with a broken bike. To make things worse the local refugio was full. And the next place we went to (a private pension) did not accept us as we were too dirty.... (´but we are poor pilgrims...´we tried, without success). Finally we did find a great ´casa rural´that offered us a fully equiped appartment (kitchen, dining room, washing machine...) and most importantly we found a 65 year young ´handyman of the village´who led us to his secret workshop. He managed to repair Sam´s bike! A perfect end to a not so nice day.
Day 6: 75 kilometres, 5 hours of cycling.
No comments:
Post a Comment