We stayed in the Hotel Silken (a nice 4-star!) for a couple of nights as we had a rest day in Burgos. The hotel was very nice, as should be expected.
Nice city and river views from my room, as we were all upgraded to “better” rooms which were comfy and spacious. On our rest day, we enjoyed a very nice helado in the old town and climbed a load of stone steps up to the castle for a great view of the city. In the morning, we took a self-guided tour of Burgos Cathedral; it is such an amazing place to visit. Our afternoon was spent watching Burgos host Almería in a La Liga 2 game, with promotion and play-off places at stake. As soon as we got into the ground, we were greeted by thunder, lightning, hail, and then torrential rain. By half-time, blue skies appeared, allowing us to dry out somewhat, and the game ended in an uninspiring 0–0 draw, but it was a fun afternoon nonetheless. This morning’s sunrise was a nice start to the day.
It was a chilly start to the morning as we walked alongside the River Arlanzon, with some nice views back to Burgos Cathedral, as the sun finally decided to put in an appearance. It was not a warm appearance, but if definitely was not cold any more – somewhere in between!
While the sun was out we enjoyed a nice walk through the predominately flat countryside and followed a convoluted path to pass through a set of busy road interchanges. We recrossed the River Arlanzon vie the El Arzibispo Bridge (Archbishop’s Bridge), which was rebuilt in the 17th century and where king Alfonso VI was said to have suffered a serious fall. Unfortunately we could see the sky darkening ahead of us, but for now, we were still staying dry. As we walked through Rabé de las Calzadas there were a lot of murals pained on houses and buildings, quite a few of which had bible quotes as part of the artwork. We then passed the little church where, 3 years ago was a lovely nun blessing each pilgrim – sadly she was not there as we passed.
We then had a long, slow hill to climb before topping out today at 922m. The clouds were rolling and the wind picking up, so even though we accelerated down the hill to Hornillos, the rain caught us before the dry safety of the bar. It must be the only open bar in Hornillos as it was packed with pilgrims escaping the rain. After a coffee and a (first) piece of Tarte de Santiago, our taxi arrived to take us to Isar where we are staying the night.
