Learning to Walk, Day 55 (!), Friday, October 21, from Leon to Villar de Mazarife—by foot!!!

It feels so good to be walking again. I’m glad we only had minimal elevation gain today. Even though I have done a lot of city walking in Pamplona, Burgos and Leon this past week, that is not the same as walking on the path, and I can tell I have lost a lot of conditioning. But I managed 21 km today. Gave my feet a good rest with shoes and socks off half way through:

When my toes started turning blue (see photo!) I figured it was time to put my socks and shoes back on and keep walking. It was CHILLY and WINDY today. The forecast yesterday said there would 55 mph wind gusts today. I don’t know if it was that strong, but it was very windy. The last four km were tough—walking on a narrow path by the side of a road, straight ahead for 4 km, into gale winds. But we made it. During the last km my feet really wanted to stop, but I am proud of them. They did much better today.

It was a relatively flat, empty walk, so not a whole of photos for today.

There are two paths to choose from about 7 km beyond Leon. The main route is a path by the side of a busy, 4-lane highway all day. No thank you. The alternate route, which we took, follows country roads. The part of the walk on the dirt road was very pleasant. But there was some not-so-pleasant pavement to deal with as well. Still a better choice than breathing exhaust with cars whizzing by all day.

Now to catch up on Burgos. I loved Burgos, as I have loved all three cities I spent time in this week. The cathedral in Burgos is probably beyond my capacity to adequately describe. Visiting it, using the audio guide, looking at all the chapels and individual elements and works of art is similar to spending several hours in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I probably took hundreds of photos. Which clearly I cannot share here! I will try to edit carefully.

Burgos is beautiful beyond the Cathedral. I love the different colors they paint their houses:

The Cathedral is jaw-dropping both inside and out.

It’s dinner time, and I have added so many photos to this post, I probably need to do a part 2 on Burgos rather than add more photos here. More later!