1st May 2024 San Juan de Ortega to Burgos

Another really cold day – “feels like” temperature of -1 when we left and not expecting to get to more than 8 for the entire day. We planned on getting some breakfast in Ages, about 5km away so we headed off – once again through the forest before breaking out into farmland and Ages was in sight.  Last time I went to a little bar/café selling empanadas but, all the water we had drunk meant the first place became a priority!

There was a lovely fire going but the owner, a man in his 50’s/60’s was a grumpy thing and didn’t make us feel at all comfortable.  In hindsight we should have just paid €1 to use the toilet and moved on to the next place but we saw Niall and Jerry there and found out that they had finally ended up getting a taxi back to their room in Villafranca and then back to San Juan this morning to start their day.

We had coffee, Steve had a croissant and I ended up with a piece of carrot cake as there wasn’t much of a choice (ok but nothing special).  The grumpy owner did not give me my change (half an Euro) and it seemed quite overpriced compared with other places where we have eaten so I ended up doing a Google review for the café and about an hour later got a reply from them asking me to change my review as I must have had the wrong place!  We looked at all their reviews and a lot of people mentioned him being rude and that they were overpriced so I replied that my review stands as is, but I would add that the woman at least said “Buen Camino” when we left and that the fire was nice.   

Ages has some lovely murals as well and we admired them before heading on to Atapuerca, a fascinating place where I would have loved to spend some time. The mountain area nearby is the location of one of the world's most important archaeological sites and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site containing a rich fossil record of the earliest human beings in Europe dating back 800,000 years including many cave paintings.  There is a Museum of Human Evolution in Burgos that explains all these findings, but I don’t think we will have time to see it.

Up another hill of the Atapuerca Range and past a Military Zone (we saw a convoy of military vehicles heading this way yesterday while we were in Villafranca de Montes Oca) with old and new barbed wire and lots of signage to stay away, we came to a cross on the hill.  There was no information board, and I couldn’t find anything on Google so I am not really sure of its significance.  I will try to research a little more when I have more time.

We had been keeping our eyes out for the town of Orbaneja Riopico as this would be our lunch stop and we found a really cute little stop with a marquee tent out the front which was ideal as it was out of the wind and would stop any rain that was due to start in the next 30 minutes.  The bar had a group of older men at a table playing cards and they were all joking with each other.

I ordered bocadillos for us both – with of course Steve having ham in his while I just had the cheese and tomato.  I ordered a cerveza grande for Steve – the woman serving showed me a glass and I indicated a bigger one.  She picked it up and I said “Si – mucho grande” and we had a laugh.  She went out the back and made the two bocadillos and I must say they were the best we have had so far. It was really lovely to just sit outside and relax for a while.

Orbaneja Riopico is also where the Camino splits and where you can choose your route into Burgos.  We had planned on taking the river route but the directions were a little hazy.  We had to cross the motorway which was fine until the pathway seemed to disappear and we had to walk on the road again but at least it was only one of the roads leading to the motorway.  There are a lot of major roadworks around so I suppose this contributed to the confusion.

We reached a spot where, apparently, the Camino splits but the left-hand pathway seemed to just go to a housing estate so we ended up about 100m later coming to an area where we had to go through a paddock or continue and go along the right-hand pathway that would lead us through the industrial area.  That was not what we wanted so we continued through the paddock.

I could see that other people had been this way so I wasn’t quite as dubious, but it was still a little disconcerting.  We walked for some time following the perimeter fence of the airport before we came across a dirt/gravel road that continued along the fence.  We realised that we should probably have turned left and gone through the housing estate but hadn’t seen any signs until we had reached this junction.  I knew we were heading the right way though and we arrived in the village of Castanares where we continued and finally got onto the river pathway to Burgos.

We knew we still had about 5km from here and we were getting tired so we just trudged onwards in the cold.  We had put our wet weather gear on in Orbaneja Riopico as the forecast had warned of thunderstorms after 2.30 but we managed to avoid them once again.  It was one of those situations where you know if you took the gear off you would probably just need it again!

The last 5km into Burgos seemed to take forever but it was broken up as we watched people using the river area for recreation - from people fishing to people riding horses or just taking themselves, or their dogs, for a walk.

Finally we got to the Cathedral and on to our hotel in the square. 

Our room was lovely and had a great view over to the Cathedral.  We were depleted of carbohydrates so we ended up having baths, washing clothes and ordering room service!  Two containers of fettucine carbonara were quickly devoured while the crumbed cheese sticks were only just nibbled and the salad wasn’t touched.  That will be eaten tomorrow.

It was lovely to be able to lay on the bed and look out to the cathedral while resting our feet.  Another good day down and a sleep in tomorrow on our rest day.