[Mary and Lexi and Josh are behind us by a few days. They are walking slower and are doing fewer km per day. We are keeping in touch by email. As of today (Wed. 9th) they are headed towards Belorado.]
Stella and I actually sleep in a little bit in our palace in Burgos! What a luxury, except I really didn´t sleep any better there than I do otherwise. But I still enjoyed it. And we don´t have everyone else around us, getting up early or rushing around or squeezing in to get their stuff packed. We have a leisurely breakfast with Marie Noelle of bread and jam and another wonderful French cheese and tea con leche. Grudgingly, we leave our palace.
We head out of Burgos, along the Camino. The guidebook always seems to make the path straighter than it actually is. As we cross back over the river, we make our way to the convent at Las Huelgas. We have to ask directions a couple of times, but we find it without too much problem. When we reach it, we round a corner to see a whole street that is almost like a movie set, it seems so perfect and so different from what surrounds it. It looks like a medieval village established to support this convent.
The convent looks nothing like the picture that I have posted on the early blog, so I don´t know whether that´s a view that we don´t have access to or what. 
It is virtually a castle - a world - unto itself. Remember that this was a whole community established for noble women (presumably so they wouldn´t have to associate with common women). 
It was an opportunity for them to learn and to be in positions of leadership. The women created and performed an extremely sophisticated form of polyphonic music for their time. According to Michener, this was an extremely powerful convent. It was said that "if the pope ever had to take a wife, only the abbess of Las Huelgas would be eligible." Unfortunately, the convent doesn´t open until 10 am which is an hour later than when we are there and we don´t really want to wait around that long when we have 20 km waiting in front of us. I wish I could have a sample of someone performing music from here. Even just touring the outside of the convent is an interesting side trip.We get back onto the Camino. There is some kind of tree that is sending out white fuzzy stuff that comes down and accumulates in drifts by the side of the roads and paths, almost like a very dry snow. I guess they are some sort of seeds, almost like milkweed pods.
It is a good day's walk, except that for me, my one foot is a problem between a serious blister on one toe and a nerve problem in the foot. By the end of the day, I am seriously hurting and compensating in my walk so much that I can feel it all the way up into my hamstrings and gluteous. Not a good thing. It is only about a 20 km walk, but it seems to take forever. There are 3 or 4 villages that we pass through on the way, each interesting in their own way.
I stop in Tardajos midmorning at a bar/cafe for a tee con leche to take a rest. Always a good thing. I sit at a table outside as it is too smoky inside. I watch as contractors work at refurbishing a house next door. Despite the economy in Spain, I am surprised at how much construction, big and small is being done. It is everywhere. The waitresses always appreciate it when I bring the dishes in from outside. How far is it to Hornillos? Another 10 km give or take? Oh. I was hoping for a little less. Ok. I take advantage of the facilities as long as I am there and am quite pleasantly surprised to find that it is completely handicap accessible in this little, out of the way village. And, it's a really nice bathroom, which cannot be said of many of the places we stop! On the road again, just can´t wait to get on the road again...The next town is Rabe.
It has an interesting church and building connected to it, but unfortunately, the church is closed. I take a picture of the handcrafted fountain. 
On the way out of town, there is a neat little chapel where I have lunch out of the stuff in my sack. Then I realize it is the entrance to a cemetery! So that's what 'monasterios' means. Oh well.We begin the meseta today. Meseta comes from the word for table, mesa. I have the idea in my head that it should be completely flat because the books talk about all you see for days on end is the horizon, the fields meeting the sky. But I still see hills. And I am still climbing. It finally occurs to me at some point that to be a table means getting to the table TOP. Why didn´t I think of that before? But even once I am sure I am on the meseta, it is not completely flat. It does seem rather like walking across Kansas or Nebraska however. The fields just go on and on. It is absolutely beautiful and serene. The fields are oats, wheat and barley, though don´t ask me where the oats are. I think I can tell the other two apart. Still, there are wild flowers all along the path. There are several kinds of lavendar and I rub my hands on it frequently, just to enjoy the smell.
The guide book talks about protecting ourselves from endless sun and the lack of shade in this part. We are lucky this day. It is cloudy, and even a few drizzly drops, so I break out my Kmart special poncho. It is highlighter pink. You can seem me coming or going for kilometers across the meseta. I feel like a large walking traffic cone. But I´m visible for walking near the road!
Eventually Hornillos comes into view. (I think the name has something to do with the word for 'little ovens.') At the end of each day´s walk, and the day´s goal appears, it is rather like Dorothy getting her first glimpse of Oz! It´s there, it´s doable, I´m going to make it! Hornillos doesn´t have too much going for it - one little alimentacion (small grocer) and one little bar/restaurant. Once we get settled, Stella and I leave the alburgue to get a few things to eat for the next days breakfast and journey. Just outside, we find a small, baby bird that is huddled against the somewhat blustery wind of the meseta.
Then we have dinner at the little restaurant. It is actually a very good little pilgrim dinner. The chicken is quite good, with a good glass of wine, and great white asparagus as a first course, and the usual little tri-flavored ice cream for dessert. Who could ask for a better ending to a good day´s walk?
