What is this dial up stuff?

It´s been a couple days since I´ve had internet, and now I do but it´s the hospitalera´s computer and it´s slow! But it´s free!

I took a bus to visit the monastary Santo Domingo de Silos from Burgos, and it was pretty cool! I´m not sure the other two pilgrims who went with me were as into it, but I very much enjoyed hearing the ¨famous¨chanting monks (from the Chant recordings that were on the charts like 15 years ago). They wore long black robes with big jedi sleeves and looked very peaceful and monkish. What was most impressive, though, was the acoustics of the church in the monastary. Huge 16th century (?) church, but without all the gold and glitz and Mary ¨dolls¨that clutter up most Catholic churches here. Instead, just stone walls, with rounded domes in all the ceilings... so that when I was in there before the Completas end of the day service, I was alone and tried out the acoustics... and one voice, from the middle of the sanctuary, was perfectly amplified and had a full 4 seconds of reverb!!! I so wished for any of my singer friends (or family) to be there with me and play around with it more, but it was phenomonal. The Completas at night and the Laudes in the morning were very pretty, but not as perfect as the CDs. There were about 30 monks but room for at least 50... trouble recruiting? It was a peaceful mountain town but not much to see there besides the monks.

From Silos I came back to Burgos in the morning and thus got a late start walking. I got into Hornillos del Camino at about 3, with trepidation. A French woman with long braids (who, incidentally, has walked the same route I did but in about 9 days instead of 15 - how is 40km per day fun??) told me that the albergue there was full. I mentally geared up for a long haul, not getting into Hontanas until like 6. But at Hornillos the woman at the bar who was in charge of the hostal told me that there was no room in the hostal, but there were beds in the gym next door. There ended up being about 20 of us in the echoey gym, with walls covered with dirty round smudges from a ball being smacked against them. But it was fine. A roof and a mattress is fine. Some people walked on to a place 6km further, which was a house in the middle of nowhere with no electricity or running water. Interesting, and community building, but I wanted a nap and time to do laundry! And I got it!

From Hornillos to Itero de la Vega was my longest day (distancewise) yet, about 32km. I´m getting more blisters, and my knees did NOT like the steep downhill at about km 25, but otherwise it was really not so bad. It´s getting hotter again, though, so I may not be able to sustain the distances.

The plains are not as plain as I expected. Yes, there are lots of fields. But it´s not flat. It´s rolling hills and plateaus, with windmills in the distance. It does all look pretty dried out right now, with harvested wheat fields, but the sunflowers are always a nice change of scenery. They look thirsty, too, though.