Day: September 1, 2024

Burgos

We took advantage of our rest day and slept in a bit.

Leaving our hotel for a late breakfast at 8:30.
Our room is on the second level. We’d share photos, but it’s a mess with all our stuff layed out for easy access and quasi- organization.

All was quiet at 8:00 on this Sunday morning so it took a while to find a bar open for breakfast. But we soon found one not too far from our hotel.

We returned to the room after breakfast and Linda decided to chill and Jim wanted to revisit his favorite Catedral so we went our separate ways for the morning.

The Burgos Catedral was relatively quiet other than the 10:00 chimes. It was too early for the usual Sunday crowds.

After paying the admission fee (5€) for pilgrims, Jim entered the Catedral and followed a guided tour app that was conveniently upload to his phone and he easily follow the narrators guidance and commentary, confirming photos and written text on the app for the “tour” throughout the entire Catedral.

The tour pace was controlled by Jim listening to and occasionally pausing and speeding up the guide’s commentary based on interest. Total time for Jim to take the tour was 2 hours. The following photos and notes are a sampling of the architecture, art, paintings and sculptures seen along the way:

One of the many stained glass windows throughout the Burgos Cathedral.

“The Holy Christ of Burgos” (14c) located in the chapel of the same name.
The Golden Staircase (16c)
The Catedral Nave with the tomb of Don Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, ” El Cid”, in the foreground.
The main Altarpiece- dedicated to the Virgin Mary and shows scenes of her life.
The tomb of El Cid
The dome over the tomb of El Cid
Tomb of the Constables of Castile – carved in Carrara marble.
An altarpiece of St James on horseback (St. James Matamoros) located in the Catedral Museum
The legendary coffin of El Cid, located in the upper Cloister.
Stone reliefs of the Retrochoir of the last events in Jesus’s life
A view of the North Wing of the Upper Cloister
The Main Sacristy
Painting in the Catedral Museum
Painting and sculpture of San Jerónimo in the Catedral Museum 

Jim returned from his tour of the Catedral in time for lunch. Yesterday, during one of our reconnaissance strolls, Linda spied a restaurant menu offering “Ensalada de queso de cabra” (mixed salad with goat cheese), So we decided to make it lunch.

This mixed salad had a variety of fixin’s plus a large slice of goat cheese on top, with a tasty combination of two separately drizzled dressings: a caesar and a viscous red berry balsalmic. Yum! Yum!
A nice Rioja Crianza perfectly complimented our salad lunch on the street where we live (today).

After lunch, we took a stroll down toward the park by the river looking for a chocolate dessert, without having anything specific in mind. We heard some music and followed it and a gathering to a large gazebo in the park with jazz musicians performing for an appreciative mixture of local citizens of all ages and even a few pilgrims.

Music in the Park on a Sunday afternoon

We listened to the music until the band took a break, then continued our stroll until settling for a Magnum double chocolate bar on our way back to the room.

We passed the rest of the afternoon organizing our stuff for continuing the walk tomorrow then returned to the park to a pizzeria for supper.

Pepperoni and margaritas and wine for supper in the park along the river (Arlanzón).

We thoroughly enjoyed our extra day in Burgos and appreciated all the many aspects of the Camino Frances that make it so special to us.