This weekend the final piece of my next camino puzzle fell into place.
I say the final piece – obviously there are still many moving parts: the covid situation in the UK, the covid situation in Spain, the rules and restrictions that could be added or lifted, the success or not of a green digital covid status pass …
But on the purely logistical level, the last piece of my puzzle was the good old ALSA bus that would hopefully fit perfectly with my arrival to Madrid airport’s terminal 4, and whisk me gently and rapidly off to Burgos in time for a tapas feast and a glass of albariño before bed. I had even booked a pricey hotel room one hop and barely a skip from the cathedral, so I could roll out of bed and onto the plaza for my breakfast croissant and café con leche while marvelling at the splendour of my possibly favourite religious building.
Normally ALSA release the bus schedules 3 months before, so I had even set a reminder to myself to start looking excitedly at bus times later this summer. Then, on the forum, someone said they had bagged their ticket already – I jumped on the website, and tickets were indeed available! One massive fly in the ointment – it was a late bus, leaving 6 hours after I am due to land. Meaning there would be no daydreamy staring out of the window at Spain going by.
Also, with the bus leaving late, I won’t be there until one in the morning, and my hotel closes the reception at midnight, so there was a sudden rush of activity to find a replacement for the first night. There was a room to be had just down the road from the bus station, but it was more expensive – so I rebooked the second night as well, to somewhere cheaper, and ended up basically even. Main thing is – I have my ticket, I will get there (if possible to travel), and I will have my whole day in glorious Burgos to sightsee, walk along the river, sit and people watch, and get my fill of tapas.
And though 6 hours seems an awfully long time to wait, who knows if there will be delays due to covid testing, immigration queues etc. Better have too much time than miss my bus! With the kind help of forum members I even have a list of places to see, sit, eat and drink if I have time to nip into Madrid itself before getting back to T4 to catch my bus.
After so many cancellations and postponements, it finally feels like I am all set!
Somewhere Slowly 