We were drawn to Burgos because it is the home of El Cid. He is the great hero of Spanish arms; the rough equivalent of George Washington to Americans or Lord Nelson to the English.
El Cid was a minor knight born Rodrigo Diaz in the village of Vivar near Burgos. Over time he rose to head the armies of Castile in wars against the Muslim rulers of Zaragoza. Despite being victorious in many battles after a change of rulers he fell out of favor and was exiled. In exile he became a mercenary general for the Muslim rulers of Zaragoza in their wars with the Berbers. Eventually he ended up again fighting for Castile and eventually ended up the ruler of Valencia until his death. Ton and I were familiar with him because of the movie El Cid from the early 1960’s staring Charlton Heston. It is also interesting that one of the national heroes of Spain fought for both Christians and Muslims during his life.
Our first stop in Burgos was at the beautiful Gothic Museum. We have visited a lot of museums in Europe, but this one impressed me. It is a beautiful building as most Cathedrals are, but what I really liked was how they gave you a structure to the visit. You were guided through the Cathedral like it was a museum.
You were routed in a very thoughtful way through the museum that gave me a much better understanding of the purpose of all the pieces that go into a giant building like this.
Ton gave me a list of 6 things that we had to find in the Cathedral. We found 5 of them on our walk, but we came to the exit without finding the “Flycatcher Clock.” Ton was bummed but I had an idea where it might be and took her around to the main doors of the Cathedral and there it was about 100 feet in the air on one side of the entrance. A small win for me.
Having walked quite a bit to get to the city center, and then walked through the Cathedral for over an hour it was time for lunch. Ton had a tapas bar on her list and we were able to squeeze our way in and grab a table. Spain spoils you for food. We got two glasses of wine and 4 good sized tapas (one of which was a nice hamburger) for less than $20. Not only were they inexpensive but as usual they were delicious.
Now with some energy it was time to tackle some more sightseeing. Ton mentioned the castle and I googled it and it was pretty close in distance. What it didn’t mention was the nearly 400 foot climb. After a tough climb we arrived at what can only be called the ruins of the the Burgos Castle. There were a few intact walls and a lot of scaffolding supporting ruins, the views from the height were good, but the building itself was a bust.
By this time we were really beat from the climb and decided to head back to the campground, but the climb down took quite a while as Ton was drawn to quite a few beautiful photo opportunities.
I lost track of Ton twice on this walk as she took off after something that caught her eye. Luckily after years of doing this we have a sense of where to find each other when we get separated.
After a long day and over 7 miles of walking we got back to the campground only to find a Medieval Festival going full tilt just outside the entrance gates. We made a quick walk through the fair, it was nice and I enjoyed watching the knights hacking away at each other with blunted swords. But we were tired and decided to retire back to François for water and vermouth.
We liked Burgos, and at the end Ton suggested we extend our stay a day so we can take in more of the city tomorrow.
