Burgos Cathedral, heavenly white lace, El Cid!

Today we took a bus to Burgos, skipping two stages of the Camino. We don´t have enough days to walk the whole way. Anselmo had to find a stage that he could stand to skip and he decided he could skip the stage before Burgos.

We met an interesting fellow pilgrim while waiting for the bus. He was a Canadian from Montreal, but he is in the military. He just finished a 7-month tour in Afganistan. He and Anselmo talked a lot about maps and navigating. He said that in Afganistan the streets have no names (like the U2 song, LOL). He said that the soldiers spend a lot of time getting lost.

We reached Burgos and walked into the old center. It is a big city with a beautiful center. The apartments and shops are in great condition although old buildings.

We came to Burgos in 1985 on our frenetic Spain honeymoon! At that time the cathedral was all black and dirty and it was hard to appreciate. They have spent the 25 years in between cleaning it and restoring it.


It is stunning!!! The first thing we did was walk up to the castle at the hilltop and look down on the cathedral. It has two pointed 14th century Gothic style towers at the front. It has two other towers in the middle and back, that are 8-sided, with lots of points and lots of lacy Baroque ornamentation, all white and gleaming in the sun.

Late in the afternoon we toured the interior of the cathedral. They are restoring the inside too, making all the art look really good.

Those Baroque domes have 8-sided stars underneath, so beautiful.

One of the rose windows (there are several) had panels that looked like Butterfly wings.

I took a picture of Anselmo in front of the grave of El Cid and Mrs. Cid (Dona Jimena), and also in front of a mural of the 9th century hero. Oh, they had El Cid´s treasure chest or trunk or whatever hung up in there. I guess he is the most famous person from Burgos.

Okay, later.