Day 13 - San Juan De Ortega to Burgos

Today we traveled from the tiny hamlet of San Juan De Ortega to the major city of Burgos. 

Quite a transformation!

The walk today passed through woodlands, croplands and several small villages. A large part of the walk was spent walking into Burgos itself.

A lot of people that we have met on our Camino are leaving today from Burgos and therefore the spirit in San Juan De Ortega last night was very much a party spirit. 

As the town was tiny, there was only one place to eat and one place to drink (same place) and most everyone was there.

The pub only had one type of red wine, one type white wine and one type of beer. Wine was 4 Euros a bottle. Dinner was 6 Euros a comprised of a choice of omelette or blood sausage and ice cream for desert.

Due to the party spirit and cost of the wine, too much was drunk and a lot of walkers made slow progress today.

We also!!

We did the 25.7km to Burgos in 6h05m for an average pace, door to door, of 4.2 km/hr.

However all was not due to the partying. 

Vicki has developed a sore ankle and was walking slower than normal. This afternoon she has brought an elastic support for it and at present is resting with her foot raised.

We also had rain for the first 3 hours of today's walk which caused us to lose time while Vicki put her raincoat on and took it off a couple of time. We also waited out the rain for awhile in one of the village cafes along the route.

Although we did not get wet we did have to walk through mud and puddles.

Burgos is great and we have a nice hotel (Hotel Melia), which is close to the town center.

The Cathedral of Santa Maria in Burgos is the third largest Cathedral in Spain and is stunning. We had lunch in the square near the Cathedral.

We have now traveled 280km in 12 days and have about 520km to go in 23 days. 

We are therefore now one third of the way through. Yippee!!

Tomorrow will pass the 300km milestone with a short journey of 20km to another tiny hamlet.