Day 13 - 26.1km - San Juan to Burgos

Caffienated we set off on a longer day than we have done recently hoping the healing will not be undone.

The first 4km was beautiful. A track running through forests with the early morning sunlight filtering down. The weather was warming and made for good walking and we strided through the forest tracks with noone else around (apart from a brief encounter with Adrian, a young french rugby player who was answering nature's call in the trees - needs must and all that).

We reached the town of Ages and popped into grab some sandwichs for lunch later when we find a nice spot. We have decided that we will start doing this more often so we can have our rest in a beauty spot rather than a cafe full of pilgrims. We weren't sure the sandwich would be worth the 10-15minuted it took the chap to make them. He was not in a hurry to achieve anything!

It paid off as after another 6 or 7km we reached the top of a long steep climb on stony difficult terrain to find a pile of stones surrounding a huge cross. We sat and looked at the view as we enjoyed huge fresh sandwichs with Iberian ham, strong cheese, tomatoes and a drizzle of oil. It was a great moment!

We continued striding on, down the hill and onto a small country road, we followed this for a pleasant hour, putting the world to rights as we walked. We stopped at a second small cafe and had a fresh orange. It was sweet and refreshing and gave us the energy to continue on. The road winds around the airport of Burgos and into a reasonably new estate in Villafranca before joining the main road for 5km of dull pavement pounding.

We checked into our accomodation which was a big let down, it's very basic and there are no facilities. We will put this one down to lessons learned! Check the reviews in future!

We went to decathlon to get some cycling clothes. We are going to hire some bikes and cover a few days on bikes to catch up on lost time. Should be a different experience! I will warn you all now that it is likely we will share cycle short pictures later in the week!

The sun is shining and it's a glorious afternoon. Burgos cathedral was absolutely stunning and we are now relaxing in a little square having a beer and watching the many cultures walking passed us and wandering where people are coming from and going to.

Have an amazing evening pilgrims. Rest day tomorrow so get yourself and extra Vino Tinto!