Keith arrived in Spain at what was about 1 AM Pacific time/10 AM his time. He’d gotten just a little sleep on the plane—which for him is good because he doesn’t sleep on planes. And, thankfully, his bag made it through with no problems (we’d packed it in a large garbage back to keep the straps from getting caught in any automated luggage equipment).

Keith said the airport was really warm until he made it past the customs and passport process—which went smoothly. He was pretty grateful for that—especially because he was getting a little giddy from lack of sleep. He said he reminded himself of Kevin Bacon in “Apollo 13” at the point where the character was putting up signs like “Do not press this button” to avoid disaster. Thankfully, he made it through their process easily and got to the train station where he got to sit for a few hours until his train was ready to take off to Burgos.

The train ride was average and the train was very much like the Talgo that he takes to Seattle on occasion. The most exciting part of the ride was that he got a set of headphones that came in a container with the Spanish train logo on it. Well…that and he kept himself awake so he didn’t miss his stop. He also said that his two taxi drivers didn’t speak English or had no interest in conversing with him. He said it was ok since he wasn’t up to that awkward conversation mode while he was so darned tired.

His hotel room in Burgos is small, but nice and his view of the cathedral “is great.” He said that the balcony is about his shoe’s length wide, but at least he has one. The cathedral bells were going off while we were on the phone and they were amazing loud. He said that it’s beautiful and will be his first stop tomorrow so he can get a Spanish version of the pilgrimage credential. These are a passport-like document for the El Camino that gets stamped at various places throughout the long walk to prove you’ve earned a compostela (a certificate of completion of the pilgrimage).

He found himself a couple pieces of pizzas for dinner and after wrapping up his last few housekeeping chores is hopefully sleeping peacefully. He is going to get to sleep in because the cathedral office where he needs to get his paperwork doesn’t open until 9:30 AM. I knew he’d be way worn out by the time he got to the hotel so I had prearranged for him to get the buffet breakfast in the morning. He seemed pretty thankful that he wouldn’t have to figure that out tomorrow.

And, finally, Keith has started taking some pictures, but we’re giving him a few days to get himself regrouped before he tries sending any. Until then, please note that the picture included with this post is one from Wikipedia with permission for reuse.