SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO?

That was the question that I contemplated upon waking up Friday, and which preoccupied me for much of the day. There were lots of reasons to stay on to explore Burgos, and I have to say that only mere hours off the Camino and into "regular" mode, I was liking creature comforts like hot showers and ready wifi and not wearing my boots all day long. The thing is, I was concerned I was liking them TOO much...even less than a day already felt far from the Camino and I wasn't sure about resuming the groove. Also, it was Melissa's last night, and after weeks of shared accommodations it might be nice for her to have a space to herself again. I chewed over the options as we got ready for breakfast.

Brian, Thomas, Elke, Melissa and I enjoyed a final meal together in the hotel cafe, all feeling a bit odd about this being IT. We also had a good laugh at the weather report on TV, which showed a graphic of Spain spotted with little rainy clouds ALL OVER --the cold and changeable weather we'd been experiencing was clearly universal, and not changing. (Portugal, we noted with amusement, apparently has no weather, at least according to Spanish news). Eventually we said our goodbyes and headed out variously toward our separate pursuits.

CHURCH MOUSE, CITY MOUSE, COUNTRY MOUSE

I bundled up for all kinds of weather (because already in our short time in Burgos we'd had cold, wind, rain, and sun in the same afternoon) and headed to the cathedral, making it for the 9:30 am opening. The admission included an audio guide but that soon proved overwhelming...as did the building itself. It's now really a museum rather than a place of worship (although I did see a mass being held in one of the capillas near the back)...and what a collection of art and artifacts it is. Every chapel is a jewel of detailed artwork, sculpture, stone masonry and design, and as you tour round the main church and bend your neck to take in the amount of detail rising up the hundreds of feet to the windows...it's all kind of boggling. You almost can't believe this place was built by humans, in any kind of timespan... The amount of man hours of painstaking work in even the tiniest areas of the church is staggering. And then the path leads you out of the main part of the cathedral into a square of passages surrounding a courtyard where archives and others chambers and sculptures live, the corridors illuminated by stained glass windows in different designs and colours. I really hardly felt like I could take in information on top of all that...and when I ran into other pilgrims walking around the space looking as dazzled as I was, we all exchanged the same word: "Overwhelming". All you could do was just keep looking and take it all in. It's quite remarkable.

After about an hour I gave up, happy I'd made the time to stay and see the cathedral...even against the many many MANY others I've seen around Europe, this one is breathtaking, in part because of the excellent condition it's in. Well worth it.

I wandered around the downtown a bit, picking up a few small gifts and souvenirs I thought might please, and eventually made my way back to the hotel. Even though it was approaching noon, I was thinking I would probably hit the road after all and resume the walking schedule. When I arrived and discovered Melissa not feeling well, that clinched it: she shouldn't have to worry about another person in the room when she was feeling under the weather. So I decided to take up shop in the hotel cafe looking into the street to take advantage of the wifi for emails and downloads, and then head back out onto the Camino.

My timing was perfect: just as I sat down in front of the window, a guy popped on the other side and pretended to give the glass a cartoony smooch.It was Thomas,about to start his trek onward, and so we had a final goodbye. He is very fast and determined, and I suspected he'd be way ahead of me before long, so I'm glad I got a last chance to snap a shot of him in full on walking pilgrim mode.

Melissa also happened by a few minutes later for a tea and a chat, and then she went to nap while I settled in to update all my audiobooks, upload my photos etc, and wrote a few postcards while I waited for it to all get done. It was so nice to just sit and watch the street as the weather alternated between sunny and windy and rainy and back again, nursing a couple of cafe con leches. Why do we only do this when we travel? Why do I not sit in cards in Toronto every once in a while just to tend to correspondence or read or think? I never understand why it is so hard to recreate the easygoing travel mode in everyday life, although I suppose if it was easier we'd never need to go and appreciate such leisure. Anyway, for someone likes me who tends to bustle around new towns, it was a refreshing change to sit still for a while (my dad would have been pleased to know where I was for longer than an hour at a time.:-D )

Eventually it was time to get ready to go, so I went to pack up my stuff, said goodbye to Melissa, and after a few errands on my way out of town, hit the road at about 5:30. It was strange to start a walk so late in the day after all our early morning starts, but the sky was clearing and I knew the light would be long, and I wasn't going too far. My plan was to do half the mileage I was supposed to have done today, about three or four hours' walk, and make up the rest tomorrow to get back on track. As long as I found a place to sleep before the albergue closed up around 10pm, I'd be fine.

The walk out of Burgos was far nicer than the brutalist walk in, wending through the city and past the university along tree lined avenues. At the edge the sidewalk literally stopped and became a gravel road that led into open fields surrounding a highway.

For a long time it was the kind of empty open green space you see along the sides of the 401, and crossing over the highway didn't add to the glamour. It was also strange to be so aware that I was the only pilgrim walking...not scary, since I knew there were towns not far ahead, but just unusual in its novelty. It made me feel more like that romantic solo. hitchhiker or backpacker from the 60's or 70's, crossing the country and having adventures like Jack Kerouac or Bruce Banner or The Littlest Hobo. The soft dusking light added a poignant lonely air as well. I was struck by how quickly I had returned to Camino mode after the seductive immersion into city life for a while...now, just hours out of the hotel, Burgos bustle seemed as distant as Camino trekking had seemed 24 hours earlier.

Once I crossed under another highway and passed by a little wood near a river, I was back in open country with a town in the distance. I entered the next one close to sunset and found an albergue where my friend Elke had also stopped for the night, so there was a friendly face to greet me. Her albergue was full, but the owner called a friend who came and fetched me up to her place, where she had a converted garage housing four or five pilgrims (as well as a bunk bed with THREE beds, almost to the ceiling -- I so regret not getting a picture of that novelty!). It being after 9, some people were already asleep and I was ready to crash too, so I just paid and slipped into my sleepsack and called it a day.

I'll post some more pics from Burgos and will try to limit the many beautiful shots from the cathedral. But it will be hard.