Today we left Villafranca Montes de Oca / San Juan de Ortega and headed to Burgos
Our taxi picked us up after breakfast from our Hotel San Antón Abad and dropped us back to San Juan de Ortega where we would resume our walk. The hotel is in Villafranca Montes de Oca which was founded as Auca by the Romans, a little further south of its current position, and was semi-destroyed by the Muslim invasion in the 8th century . As reconstruction progressed, by the Middle Ages the town center had moved to the north, in the heart of the Oca valley.
In San Juan de Ortega, on June 2nd, is the festival celebrating its namesake, bringing together 26 towns in the region, who come with their town banners. Cultural associations associated with the Camino de Santiago and the College of Surveyors, whose patron saint is San Juan de Ortega, also participate.
The first picture is the start of the sunrise from my bedroom window. The sun was still rising as we resumed our walk, which took us into a wooded area with a fairly wide path, before we emerged back into wide open green pastures.
We passed through the villages of Arlanzón and Atapuerca, passing many familiar faces who had gone on further last night and were now getting ready to start off.
We then encountered our only climb of the day, up Matagrande (1082m). As we were already at a reasonable altitude, this climb was a short sharp 121m of climb. This gave some lovely views back over Atapuerca and, passing the peak of the climb, we saw Burgos for the first time (so near and yet so far). Matagrande and local archaeological sites are located on military land, the Matagrande Shooting Range and Manoeuvres, which has contributed to the good conservation of both forestry and fauna of the land.
It was now downhill all the way to Burgos. We passed through a few villages before we then took the advice of our taxi driver. Apparently the normal pilgrim route into Burgos is a long walk on concrete paths through industrial areas. At Orbaneja Riopico we made a sharp move to the left and headed for a village called Castaneńes whereby we would then take a much greener path into Burgos.
We crossed the Rio Arlanzón, where a couple of fishermen were trying their luck, and then spent the next few kilometres walking though the Parque de Fuentes Blancas alongside the river. As it was midday Sunday, the park was filled with families, couples, runners and cyclists out enjoying the weekend weather.
No Sunday afternoon in the sun would be complete without an ice cream, so after lunch in Burgos old town, we enjoyed an ice cream in the Plaza Mayor.
Tomorrow is a rest day.