Thursday, 21st September.
Burgos

Had a hot shower this morning. It was sooooo goooooood.

Today was our rest day. We checked out of the hotel and checked in at the refugio on the other side of town.

I spent part of the afternoon wandering around on my own, taking photos, avoiding eye contact with the locals, buying pastries.

above: the cathedral at Burgos. The interoir of the cathedral is ornately decorated, perhaps a little overdone. In fact, pretty much every surface is carved or decorated in one way or another.

(sorry about the quality of these scans, I was a bit rushed and blah blah blah I'm sure you don't care)

I ran into Barb and Noelle (or Noelle and Barb, I can't remember) and we did some shopping. They had a high degree of need for some waterproof trousers, and I needed a waterproof protector for my backpack. We bought icecream, which was good but still not quite as good as Logrono.

Back at the refugio, Richard and Geri the New Zealanders were there. They hadn't heard from Uncle Howard, but they'd met people who had heard of him, and he was a few days walk ahead.

In the early evening everyone at the refugio went on a tour of Burgos on a "train"...one of those touristy contraptions that ferry bored-looking tourists around a city at high pace. The commentary was in Spanish, but the entertainment was in our carriage. There was a whole bunch of lads carrying on as lads do, leaning out of the carriage and taking photos of any even slightly good-looking girl. Dave learned a new word: gwapa!

Once we had been returned to the refugio, we walked to a nearby restaurant that offers a pilgrim's menu. (ie cheap) It was essentially a one-woman show - a dynamic woman would take our orders, cook the food, bring it out, and boss her father around, who was manning the bar.

This woman took a real shine to Noelle. Especially after she licked her plate clean. She fussed over Noelle, commented on her rosy cheeks (obviously caused by drinking so much Spanish wine, Noelle was told), guessing her age (16...uh, no!), and we were convinced that pretty soon Noelle would find herself married off! As far as we are aware, Noelle left the restaurant without being pledged to marry any young Spanish boy.