15 May back to Castrojeriz

How different a day in Burgos is when you are feeling good.

For comparison, here’s my cathedral scribble after walking 33km feeling grotty:

Had it not started spitting today I’d have spent more time on my picture (every time I looked up I saw something else), but I really didn’t want to get wet, so I took off to the bus station….

Earlier I had walked past the dentist for the last time…

…noticed a church was open, so went inside (interesting to see people sitting in there on their own – made me realise our own church building is a very much a communal space)

I didn’t stay long, because I was headed here before they closed:

After delicious decadence…

…I worked on the journaling I have neglected the past couple of days

The cathedral then called, tantalisingly close

En route

And on the way back to the bus station (via the supermarket handily located right next door)

Lunch while I wait

Then I rescued an Australian couple who seemed to be trying to get to where I was going and the next hour and a half was spent chatting with them until the bus arrived.

On the bus were a bunch of pilgrims all heading to the same village and the conversations continued up and down the aisle – such interesting people…a couple resuming their Camino from the place she fell and broke her pelvis six years ago…they also happen to volunteer at lighthouse keeping for a month every year…an Israeli couple with two children under three…a Danish couple, although when asked about his non-Danish accent (I couldn’t help myself!), it turned out he had been born in London, but spent the last 31 years in Denmark (about half his life I would guess)

Back in Castrojeriz…

I have my choice of chairs

Met one more interesting family as I had dinner

A Dutch couple who lived in Sierra Leone for four years and then have been in Malawi for four years, and are on their way cycling back to Holland from Porto with their 5 and 7 year old boys. They are both healthcare professionals and are feeling daunted by the fact that they are going to a district of 250,000 people with 230 medical specialists from an area that had 1.3 million people, and only 6 doctors, two of whom were appointed by the government to do administrative tasks and had no patient contact (so really only four doctors – and these two have now left) You can imagine them grappling with searching for meaning and not wanting to get dragged into a lifestyle that is ultimately unfulfilling.

So endeth another day…back to walking tomorrow.