[POST UPDATED! Okay, I’m a brazen thief and have stolen some of my sister Doris’ photos!]

Owwowwoww … my aching feet!

We have just come back from walking part of the Way of St. James, on our way to the Santiago de Compostela. The bus dropped us off at San Juan de Ortega and picked us up a couple of hours later at Atapuerca.

But look at what the pedometer on my phone registered:

You see, we did a walking tour of Burgos and its cathedral before walking the Way of St. James. Let me tell you about The Way first. On our itinerary, the experience is described as:

For centuries, the revered route to the final resting place of St. James has been traversed by countless pilgrims. Today, follow in their footsteps as you make your way along a 3.7-mile portion of the trail, beginning at San Juan de Ortega for a visit to the Santuario de San Juan de Ortega. Pass through beautiful forest landscape as you travel next to the small village of Agés. Here, spend time visiting the local cafe and admiring the quaint town. Then continue on your journey to Atapuerca, the UNESCO heritage site known for its archaeological sites.

We were extremely fortunate to have beautiful and breezy weather, with gorgeous blue skies and no rain for our walk today. Part of the walk was through a forest, but other times we walked along trails marked by stones. Of course it was impossible NOT to think of the millions of pilgrims who have preceded us and walked along these same paths. We only walked for a couple of hours—they walked all day for weeks!

The complete French Way starts at Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain—taking about 30 to 35 days. In order to achieve this time, one would need to walk between 23 and 27 kilometers per day (14 to 16 miles).

Belinda, our local guide, shows us the Way of St. James on the map.

This morning, we met Belinda, who gave us a walking tour of the town of Burgos, with almost an hour devoted just to the Cathedral, which dates from 1221 — they celebrated the 800th anniversary of the cathedral last year. Owing to a 30 million euro restoration and cleaning, the cathedral is bright white where once it was almost black with dirt and soot. The cathedral was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on October 31, 1984. It is the only Spanish cathedral that has this distinction. It is an enormous space, with millions of art objects and five pipe organs! El Cid and his wife are buried here.

Thank goodness we have one day of rest before our next segment of The Way. Tomorrow it’s a 6-7-8 day: 6:00 am, wake-up call, 7:00 am, breakfast and 8:00 am, board the buses as we make our way to León.