04/06/07
I slept well enough - probably the drink! I seemed to be the only one walking, the others had bikes. Back on the road it was very quiet as I made my way along the road. It was pleasant and I passed through Orbaneja
then Villafria then at Gamonal I started the normal entrance to a big town again Burgos! It was the horrible main road and industrial strip. On reaching what I thought might be near the main town, I asked at a couple of different banks if they could change some Australian dollars and was always directed to the head office or main bank, city centre. One attempt to get in a big bank that I thought might be the main bank of a big banking chain was quite funny. It was drizzling rain and I was dressed in my rain cape!
I went up to a glass door and had to pull it hard towards me. It opened, I move smartly forward, as it springs closed behind me pushing on my rucksack and clicked shut! I can't move! There is another glass door in front that doesn't open. I am stuck with my face inches from the glass in front. I am in a glass cabinet not much bigger than a telephone box, I hear a loud mechanical Darlek voice
"Leave your weapons in the foyer and try again" and every time I touched the door in front it repeated it
"Leave your weapons in the foyer and try again"
My Spanish was good enough to understand but I could not move, let alone remove my rucksack or any weapons I may have had anyway!
"Leave your weapons in the foyer and try again"
bump bomp!
"Leave your weapons in the foyer and try again"
"Leave your weapons in the foyer and try again"
I shouted and waved as best I could at a bank teller serving a customer, the teller was facing me but twenty feet away, behind a glass screen on the far side of the large room before me.
"Leave your weapons in the foyer and try again"
"I want to change Australian Dollars, do you do that?"
"Leave your weapons in the foyer and try again"
He and his surprised customer spotted this army khaki wrapped figure gesturing at him!
Suddenly, realising I'm just some tourist nut not a bandit, he shook his head and called back
"Try the main bank in the centre of town."
Well ok, now I didn't have to enter, and although the voice kept on, I now put my mind into turning round and flattened my face against the glass eee-shurrump! went the rucksack against the opposite glass! I'd managed to get half round. Once more, eee-shurrump! suddenly it went again and I am facing outwards! I grabbed my staffs heaved on the handle and putting my shoulder to the door stumbled out into the street again complete with my weapons!!!! What a photo shoot that would have made for a funny home video!
At last I was in town or at least on the edge of it. Here I found a bank to change my notes and I enjoyed the fountain before entering the old city.
Soon I came to the Catheadral.
I never found the entrance and know there must be much more to see here but my itchy feet sent me on. It was a nice walk and a different way to last time where I followed the river all the way, but I did come down to it later. First I found a charming lady who said she was just starting her camino but coffee called and I stopped in a bar then continued later.
Out of town again I walked seeing several peregrinos, spoke to some but stayed alone. The arrows took us to the right and we took a rough road with bulldozed trees and hedgerows. I stopped, dumped my bag down and searched for a new staff and finding one cut it to length and pealed off the bark. I took my big one to pieces and with the other old one, that was now bent like a bow, I fixed both of them on the outside of my rucksack. Hands free, I could walk and trim up the new one. It was sturdier and I hoped it would dry and stay straight! It cut well and I thought it was chestnut but was not sure. I walked for miles working on the stick hardly noticing where I was. I drew on where I was going to put my Templers cross and the four-leaf clover and started carving them on the staff. I was walking with some ladies for a while and we crossed a stream not sure if we were right. It all looked different than before to me. Puzzled I noticed there was a lot of new building work going on and then looking again at the stream I remembered it now, last time the same stream had been very green and natural. Now it was neat and tidy, its banks lined with stone and very colourful, yes wild flowers capping and transforming its banks, I'm not sure how I felt. 
The camino is the old way, I wanted to see it as that, as it had been, not with just another neat park look! Next time there will be a new village here I think! Next village was Villabilla. I think it was here I took a photo of the unique fountain by Gaudí.
I had a photo of it but I had got a finger over the lens and spoilt it. This time I did better and in one a young peregrino was crossing the shot.
We were to meet later as we climbed up a hill many miles further on. After Rabé the camino climbs high and crosses a plain and it can be a hard journey her for 8 kilometres. I was lucky this time, the wind was ok, and the sunshine seldom and showers few. I came down into Hornillos pretty tired and met two Canadian ladies and one kindly took my photo by the village name.
Hornillos has a special meaning for me. It was here I got taken to a Casa Rural and I joined a fiesta and drank and dined for three days with a most wonderful host. I decided I would try to see them again. I called into a little shop and bought some food and drink and helped the two ladies buy things and I asked the lady behind the counter if the Casa Rural El Molino was still open
"Yes of course, why?"
I told her of the wonderful time I had had there and would like to see them again, she said
"The son is across the road you must speak with him."
I did not remember seeing a son but she dragged me to meet the young man. He was very pleasant and listened to me, then made a phone call on his mobile and said he would take me there, he was sure it would be ok, but he was unable to contact his mother at the moment.
"You go to the bar in the square and wait and I will collect you from there."
I thanked him and the shop lady and went up to the bar to wait. This was similar to what had happened before, that time I had asked in the bar itself for something other than the albergue and been collected by an older gentleman with a beard. We had tried all the wine in the bar before driving the eight kms to the El Molino.
I only had a couple of tinto de veranos this time before the young man called in and I loaded my rucksack in his car.
Sadly my memory for names has let me down again although I knew it when introduced to the same bearded smiling face on my arrival, Paco I think.
I was shown my clean room with a superb view and clean shower room with hot water! Oh I had arrived in paradise again! I was welcomed by the dueña and she looked hard and then her face lit up and said
"Yes you have a different hat this time!"
She did remember me! She explained that my timing was out this time, sorry there was no fiesta! She told me later when I gave her a koala that she only had one other Spanish gentleman staying, a peregrino like me. This place is charming, the river runs right under the house and the mill now generates electricity for the house or at least it did last time I stayed here. It deserves a much longer stop than I could do this time. Nearby there are hot springs and as I understood my host to say they are being developed and a hotel built too. Paco joined Ernesto and me at our main meal in the dining room that night and we ate and drank well. I found Ernesto good company and conversationalist and time flew. We retired and arranged to be on our way at seven thirty in the morning.
Cardeñuela de Río Pico to Hornillos
I slept well enough - probably the drink! I seemed to be the only one walking, the others had bikes. Back on the road it was very quiet as I made my way along the road. It was pleasant and I passed through Orbaneja
then Villafria then at Gamonal I started the normal entrance to a big town again Burgos! It was the horrible main road and industrial strip. On reaching what I thought might be near the main town, I asked at a couple of different banks if they could change some Australian dollars and was always directed to the head office or main bank, city centre. One attempt to get in a big bank that I thought might be the main bank of a big banking chain was quite funny. It was drizzling rain and I was dressed in my rain cape!I went up to a glass door and had to pull it hard towards me. It opened, I move smartly forward, as it springs closed behind me pushing on my rucksack and clicked shut! I can't move! There is another glass door in front that doesn't open. I am stuck with my face inches from the glass in front. I am in a glass cabinet not much bigger than a telephone box, I hear a loud mechanical Darlek voice
"Leave your weapons in the foyer and try again" and every time I touched the door in front it repeated it
"Leave your weapons in the foyer and try again"
My Spanish was good enough to understand but I could not move, let alone remove my rucksack or any weapons I may have had anyway!
"Leave your weapons in the foyer and try again"
bump bomp!
"Leave your weapons in the foyer and try again"
"Leave your weapons in the foyer and try again"
I shouted and waved as best I could at a bank teller serving a customer, the teller was facing me but twenty feet away, behind a glass screen on the far side of the large room before me.
"Leave your weapons in the foyer and try again"
"I want to change Australian Dollars, do you do that?"
"Leave your weapons in the foyer and try again"
He and his surprised customer spotted this army khaki wrapped figure gesturing at him!
Suddenly, realising I'm just some tourist nut not a bandit, he shook his head and called back
"Try the main bank in the centre of town."
Well ok, now I didn't have to enter, and although the voice kept on, I now put my mind into turning round and flattened my face against the glass eee-shurrump! went the rucksack against the opposite glass! I'd managed to get half round. Once more, eee-shurrump! suddenly it went again and I am facing outwards! I grabbed my staffs heaved on the handle and putting my shoulder to the door stumbled out into the street again complete with my weapons!!!! What a photo shoot that would have made for a funny home video!
At last I was in town or at least on the edge of it. Here I found a bank to change my notes and I enjoyed the fountain before entering the old city.
Soon I came to the Catheadral.
I never found the entrance and know there must be much more to see here but my itchy feet sent me on. It was a nice walk and a different way to last time where I followed the river all the way, but I did come down to it later. First I found a charming lady who said she was just starting her camino but coffee called and I stopped in a bar then continued later.
Out of town again I walked seeing several peregrinos, spoke to some but stayed alone. The arrows took us to the right and we took a rough road with bulldozed trees and hedgerows. I stopped, dumped my bag down and searched for a new staff and finding one cut it to length and pealed off the bark. I took my big one to pieces and with the other old one, that was now bent like a bow, I fixed both of them on the outside of my rucksack. Hands free, I could walk and trim up the new one. It was sturdier and I hoped it would dry and stay straight! It cut well and I thought it was chestnut but was not sure. I walked for miles working on the stick hardly noticing where I was. I drew on where I was going to put my Templers cross and the four-leaf clover and started carving them on the staff. I was walking with some ladies for a while and we crossed a stream not sure if we were right. It all looked different than before to me. Puzzled I noticed there was a lot of new building work going on and then looking again at the stream I remembered it now, last time the same stream had been very green and natural. Now it was neat and tidy, its banks lined with stone and very colourful, yes wild flowers capping and transforming its banks, I'm not sure how I felt. 
The camino is the old way, I wanted to see it as that, as it had been, not with just another neat park look! Next time there will be a new village here I think! Next village was Villabilla. I think it was here I took a photo of the unique fountain by Gaudí. 
I had a photo of it but I had got a finger over the lens and spoilt it. This time I did better and in one a young peregrino was crossing the shot.
We were to meet later as we climbed up a hill many miles further on. After Rabé the camino climbs high and crosses a plain and it can be a hard journey her for 8 kilometres. I was lucky this time, the wind was ok, and the sunshine seldom and showers few. I came down into Hornillos pretty tired and met two Canadian ladies and one kindly took my photo by the village name. 
Hornillos has a special meaning for me. It was here I got taken to a Casa Rural and I joined a fiesta and drank and dined for three days with a most wonderful host. I decided I would try to see them again. I called into a little shop and bought some food and drink and helped the two ladies buy things and I asked the lady behind the counter if the Casa Rural El Molino was still open"Yes of course, why?"
I told her of the wonderful time I had had there and would like to see them again, she said
"The son is across the road you must speak with him."
I did not remember seeing a son but she dragged me to meet the young man. He was very pleasant and listened to me, then made a phone call on his mobile and said he would take me there, he was sure it would be ok, but he was unable to contact his mother at the moment.
"You go to the bar in the square and wait and I will collect you from there."
I thanked him and the shop lady and went up to the bar to wait. This was similar to what had happened before, that time I had asked in the bar itself for something other than the albergue and been collected by an older gentleman with a beard. We had tried all the wine in the bar before driving the eight kms to the El Molino.
I only had a couple of tinto de veranos this time before the young man called in and I loaded my rucksack in his car.
Sadly my memory for names has let me down again although I knew it when introduced to the same bearded smiling face on my arrival, Paco I think.
I was shown my clean room with a superb view and clean shower room with hot water! Oh I had arrived in paradise again! I was welcomed by the dueña and she looked hard and then her face lit up and said
"Yes you have a different hat this time!"
She did remember me! She explained that my timing was out this time, sorry there was no fiesta! She told me later when I gave her a koala that she only had one other Spanish gentleman staying, a peregrino like me. This place is charming, the river runs right under the house and the mill now generates electricity for the house or at least it did last time I stayed here. It deserves a much longer stop than I could do this time. Nearby there are hot springs and as I understood my host to say they are being developed and a hotel built too. Paco joined Ernesto and me at our main meal in the dining room that night and we ate and drank well. I found Ernesto good company and conversationalist and time flew. We retired and arranged to be on our way at seven thirty in the morning.
END DAY 20 = approx. 35 km Sub Total = 144.5 km Total = 482.4 km
