Burgos

Lots of walking today, some ten kilometers worth between our overnight stop in Puenta la Reina and the lunchbreak. Mostly on the flat, fortunately, as it's too warm for uphill and downhill hurts my toes (pressing against the shoes' toecaps, I'm bruising rather than blistering). There was a moment of excitement at the coffee pause halfway, when we caught up with the bus and found out that my parents had disappeared without trace (they were going to do the final four kilometers, 2 km after the break, but went walkabout from there without informing the driver).

My mother bought a dual-band cellphone before the trip, specifically in order to be able to call me or the emergency services while on the trail; unfortunately the company sold her a phone which was restricted to their own cards, so the Spanish cheapie we tried to use wouldn't work. So we bought a brand-new phone for 40 Euros, damn the expense. We shall give it to the deserving poor at the end of the trip. Mom is confused by the technology: she switches the phone off to save the battery, then switches it back on again and thinks that the "enter your PIN number" prompt means "don't bother with the PIN, everything is fine." so I could not call her after they disappeared. Sigh. (Sis, you don't know any of this! If and when they tell you, act surprised.)

Weather good (cool, sunny with broken cloud, gentle breeze), landscape beautiful (often no sound at all but wind, birdsong and the clicking of walking sticks on stone), food good (mostly fish, what a surprise). I'm enjoying this and might just do some serious walking again sometime.

Internet access is a great problem. Four of our hotels have boasted of WLAN in the rooms; it has never worked except in the two-star Jardines in Bilbao on the first night. This is written on the (singular) public computer in the hotel here, there are four other treckers waiting in line behind me so this will have to do.

Take care, be good.