Today was my tenth day of walking after starting last Tuesday from Saint Jean-Pied-de-Port in France. I realized today that walking is starting to become natural. Muscle pains that often appeared in evenings when trying to walk up stairs after a day of walking are gone now. Walking a stair after a day of 34 km is now as natural as seriously considering walking another 8 km. But nevertheless I did not and decided to stay in the city of Rabé de las Calzades. A nice small town right before the next ascend onto the highlands between Burgos and León.

Last night I stayed in Atapuerca, the city where the remains of the oldest European have been found (est. 800.000 year old). That did not really make the city special for me. After 10 days of walking the basics become important and the fact that the Auberge where I was staying was run by a French lady and thus had a French cook in the kitchen made the difference. The pilgrim menu suddenly became haut cuisine!

Today I also passed through Burgos and although in general I like big cities, today on the Camino I noticed I don’t. After having walked 250km through a beautiful countryside crossing a city from one suburb through the center to another suburb is no fun, actually it is very boring. Visualize yourself crossing the nearest large city from one side to the other in about 4 hours of walking and you’ll understand what I mean. The cathedral of Burgos was a nice break in the furthermore boring city landscape. I guess when I come back to Burgos to visit it as a tourist I expect that I may have a different view on this city.