In Burgos

7-april-2010
Yesterday our hospitalero, José Manuel gave us a concert and played a few flamenco songs on the guitar. He is quite the character and this AM at about 7:15 AM he woke us all up and said that we were going to miss the train and that it was time to get the train “en marcha”. He put on some really funny old school music done in Spanish.

I am staying in Burgos an extra day. It does kind of hurt to walk on my left foot and I wonder frustrated why tendonitis forms.
Our hospitalero didn’t accept our offer to clean and goes about singing and happily cleaning. He seems like a great example of grace. Yesterday on the camino I walked slowly and Shetil—or something pronounced and phonetically spelled likewise—the retired Norwegian Lutheran pastor—said out loud, “Is it freedom to always follow these yellow arrows?” (that mark the path continuously for pilgrims so that no weary wanderer loses himself). I said, “Yeah, good question, I don’t know”, leaning towards the negative of that. He said, “Well, really if I am choosing to follow them, that is freedom because I am choosing it. I could choose not to, I could choose to follow my own thoughts every day that change and wander, and really what kind of freedom is that?” He followed it by saying he was just thinking out loud. I thanked him for doing so. I think his commentary really speaks to a Christian lifestyle because it might be someone’s idea of freedom to live however I think I want but if it changes and is inconsequential, then what good is that? It makes me want to be a Lutheran kind of. Well, in any way, I don’t like to attach a name to myself because I despise stereotypes so much.
I went and saw a sung mass with Alissa and our hospitalero, José Manuel. Then we walked around Burgos, well just to the bank, the pharmacy and then to the Cathedral, which was beautiful but very very cold. It is a World Heritage Site and was first built in 1000 or so but has undergone several renovations and expansions. It was huge, impressive…
We went for pintxos and a warm tea afterwards and met a bar-owner, Marcos, who has a brother working as a chef in Miami. An older couple blessed us and asked us to remember to pray for them when we reached Santiago.