to see if we avoid getting entertained in the road, and we arrive in
Burgos before the night falls."
We left Carrion to Burgos almost at sunrise, after a delicious
breakfast of cow's milk and some sweet buns that the counts put at our
disposal.
We have almost twenty leagues of road to Burgos and then there
are about two leagues to Vivar, my house. I imagine I will leave for
Vivar tomorrow, as we will surely be late, and I would like to present
myself at home, ?to my mother? a little cleaner and neater than I
am going to be today at the end of the journey.
Sancho, sometimes, seems to guess what goes through my head:
"Rodrigo, today, when we get to the palace, you will stay in it, so
you can take a nice bath and change your clothes. Tomorrow I'm
leaving with you to Vivar. I want to see your mother's face when you
arrive and, by the way, give also a hug to the woman who gave life to
my best friend."
"Thank you, Sancho, I was also thinking of doing so. I want to
present myself to my mother in the best possible look and, probably, it
won't be the one I have when we get to Burgos."
We passed by the town of Osorno and decided to stop after
crossing it, as we found River Abanades. This river flows a little
further on in the famous Pisuerga, which crosses the city of
Valladolid. The river has a large flow and it is limited on both sides by
a large number of trees. We've been freshening up and the horses
calmed their thirst. Then we continued on our way to Burgos.
We passed on a stone bridge, after crossing the Pisuerga River, and
reach Melgar de Fernamental ?named after Fernan Armentalez,
descendant of the Counts of Amaya, whom not long ago was devoted
to repopulating the area. In this area pass a few Roman roads, so it is
clear that it has always been a transfer area since immemorial time.
We arrived at Sasamon, where Octavio Augusto settled his camp
to, from here, carry out the campaigns against Cantabrians and
Astures. It shows the great Roman presence in the area with the two

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