Rather than spend two nights in Burgos or somewhere else for a rest day, we had planned another short day which meant we needn’t arrive early because nothing would be opened anyway. We planned to have breakfast for a change and would still be there by lunch time. We had organised an American breakfast the night before with a waitress who spoke English and the crazy lady was coming in at 7 to cook it for us. What we didnt know was that she was coming in at 7 and wanted to be out at 7.30. Might have been nice if we had been told this.

I couldn’t see properly in the dormitory so I brought my tape and kit down to fix my feet after breakfast. I had no sooner started fixing my feet when we saw a bit of a commotion at the counter as the German guy and the nice Japanese man were trying to order food. The choirmaster intervened and tried to translate a bit whilst I kept going with my preparatory foot taping.

The two men were given their food and started eating when the crazy lady turned the lights out on them afterwhich she came to clear our table mumbling something about needing to take her marido (husband) to the medico (doctor). I swore I saw her smile at me, it was like some game of being tough and maybe our efforts to speak Spanish had finally broken her! We laughed and called out to the two fellows eating breakfast in the dark. We told them that she was in a hurry to take her husband to an appointment.

Meanwhile we were discussing how good the food was and how rude the woman was. I decided to look up Tripadvisor and yep – 9 out of 10 reviews said the same. Had us in fits of laughter that almost every review of Albergue Santa Fe mirrored our experience.

Its hard to imagine how these people succeed in business really but we all just laughed our way down the road and, just as we were crossing the highway crazy lady drove past us on her way back and tooted the horn and waved!

We continued on our way chatting to the Japanese fellow. I think his name was Yanaka – he was an architect turned farmer and was doing the camino in transition to being a fruit shop owner! Always meeting interesting people on the camino.

I was well prepared to find the river walk this time as the walk into Burgos through the industrial area was one of my worst memories of our last camino. My preparation paid off and we took off around the back of the airport and had an easy walk along river into Burgos. Only downside was that there were no toilets this way either and it was almost crowded with locals walking so not many opportunities to go bush!

We finally made the city after a leisurely 4 hours and checked in to our hotel for a change – but we were too early and had to wait until 2.30 for our room to be ready.

This gave us an opportunity to visit the municipal albergue in search of friends! Guess who we found? Speedy! Sadly she was hiring a bike and heading off across the Meseta with some other friends on the morrow. This meant tonight would be our final farewell (until we visit Sydney!) So we organised a catch up for the evening and did some sight seeing.

We checked in to our room and went back out to catch up with some friends at a vermoutharia! There was a moment when our Italian friends from Orisson arrived and the bar went crazy. It was a great moment. We had already caught up with some aussies including speedy one of our Canadian friends, even Jack the dog from Ireland was there.!

Had a great night in Burgos and another pilgrim meal with a bunch of Aussies. After such a short time in the city my only disappointment was we didnt have a chance to eat at La Mafia again. That was a great restaurant Shirley had sent me to last time.

We did stay in a great little hotel called La Puebla and the choirmaster was thrilled to catch up with Roberto the receptionist who had taken our booking and asked her “what’s the crack?”!

Desafortunatemente, a late night to bed does not bode well for an early start on the morrow!

Buenas noches!