- Distance today: 4.8 mi
- Distance Camino 2017: 274.8 mi
We left in the dark at 6:25 even though we have a short walk today. We wanted get to El Burgo Ranero ahead of Ken and Mandy so we could have breakfast together before they move on ahead of us.
We saw another first this morning. Still in the dark, we noticed a full harvest (orange) moon just above the horizon as we left Bercianos.
As it sank below the horizon it had an orange glow much like a sunset. Our first “moonset”.
The Camino this morning was a narrow path about a yard wide and it paralleled a narrow two lane paved road. Traffic was light on both the road and the path.
We arrived at El Burgo Ranero at 8:20 and stopped at the first bar, a likely place to stop for breakfast. We didn’t know when Ken and Mandy would walk by or if we had missed them. But 10-15 minutes later Jim saw them walking by and flagged them down. We had a nice chat over breakfast and about 9:20, we said our goodbyes and our fellow bloggers continued on toward Religios, our target destination for tomorrow.
After getting directions from the bartender, we walked on to El Peregrino (45€) and because we had a reservation were taken to our double room w/bath and began our pilgrim chores at 9:30, a record, we think.
El Burgo Ranero (pop.826) was a wool-producing town, the biggest business of Castilla during the Middle Ages. Huge flocks of sheep (up to 40,000) were tended. They grazed in the mountains in summer while the Meseta fields were occupied with wheat, and returned in winter via specially developed sheep roads known as cañadas.
A pizza lunch in the hotel bar, reading (Linda), blog (Jim) and nap (Jim) occupied the afternoon.
Before dinner we walked to the Iglesia San Pedro Apostol and had some quiet moments and took some photos.
Dinner, also in our hotel restaurant, included melon with Serrano and veal for Linda and Russian salad and rabbit for Jim. We had a nice local house red wine, which we won’t be able to find in the states.
It was a tasty and filling meal, so we climbed the stairs to our room and called it a day.
Jimandi 