Burgos to Rabé de las Calzadas

After packing up, Dorte walked with me past the cathedral to find a place for a café con leche before we said goodbye. We found nothing, but decided to ask at the big, fancy Hotel Abba Burgos, which we were just passing. The valet girl assured us there was a cafe, which served coffee. So we went in and had coffee in their fancy restaurant, which was all set up with breakfast buffet for their staying guests. We were certainly out of place, but they were very nice, and when we wanted to pay they said it was complimentary! What a generous and sweet gesture and a great not to leave each other on! Another gift of the Camino!
The first part out of Burgos was nice, past old buildings, parks and boulevards, then it was pretty boring with suburbia, crossing under the freeway, and along fields, and the first village after Burgos called Villabilla was totally bypassed by the track, so no rest to or coffee there! When I finally came to the outskirts of the next village of Tardajos, I sat on a bench to rest my burning feet, eat the rest of the cheese and bread I had, and drink some water, before I pulled my socks and sandals back on. I walked the last 1.5 km to my destination for the day in Rabé de las Calzadas. - I found the albergues and chose the one that was already opened. I got a bottom bunk - a very nice, older German couple were already there. Very talkative and friendly.
The bathrooms were nice, and there was a friendly hosteliere who spoke a bit of English.
After laundry and nap I wandered around the little village, and a friendly older man showed me where the local bar was - guess he knew I was looking for it! On the way I met the girl from London, Libby, again - she was staying at the other albergue across the street. As I walked into the bar an Irish lady joined me, and we ended up talking and having coffee, then wine together. She had just started her continued Camino journey from Burgos that very same day, as she was doing it in stages as her vacation time allowed. Dinner was going to be at the albergue, it should be fun with a small group like tonight. I bought a bottle of wine for the dinner, which, strangely enough, did not include wine - that's a first! Then I went over to check out the church while it was open. I had arranged to share the bottle of wine with a young Brazilian bicycle rider, who just arrived as I came in with the wine. He was so happy to get a bed - a spare, and the last one in the village! So he thought as I did, that a glass of wine was a must with dinner! We ate in 2 shifts, and he was on the late shift, so I had a heck of a time protection his share of wine - several of the others had not noticed that tonight the wine was not included, so I shared as best I could from my bottle, still leaving wine for the Brazilian!
We were only 9 in the room, 8 bunk beds and 1 spare bed with a funny Italian guy, who spoke hardly any English, but somehow that didn't stop him from being hilarious! He reminded me of the guy from the movie "It's A Beautiful Life". His feet were in awful shape, and he must have been in a lot of pain when walking, but he laughed and joked as he tended to his many blisters! It was a noisy night with lots of coughing, snoring, tossing and turning, sometimes a big room with 100 beds are quieter, you just never know! Oh well, that's part of the fun!