13th Jan 2016
Rain, cloud, snow ploughs,
and an incredible cathedral.
We woke up to heavy and
continuous rain – Oh no ! I hate wet
pack ups in the morning. To be fair, we
have had very few really bad ones – Unfortunately this was one of the worst on
the entire trip !! We were close to the
sea, and I guess the rain had blown in overnight, and there was nothing we
could do except try to pack up as much in the dry as we could, and then just
put our rain coats on for the last bit when we had to put the awning and pop
top away. So by the time we jumped in
the van and headed down the road, we were a bit wet !
But we were clean and
showered, so life wasn’t all bad, and we headed back into Santander to find the
Brittany Ferries office and retrieve my Kindle.
Bit of trouble finding the right port entrance, but when we pulled up at
the booth where people normally check in for the ferry, the girl immediately
asked us if we were the people coming to pick up a Kindle ! I was impressed ! She told us to wait 5 minutes and someone
would bring it over – which they did.
BIG STAR for Brittany Ferries – They will be getting a nice email from
me shortly.
Once that was done, we headed
out of town, headed south towards Burgos.
On the way out of town we passed a gas station with diesel at €0.814 per
litre – SO much better than the best recently in the UK of about £1.03 per
litre. So I filled up both tanks (I had
come with almost empty tanks from the UK), and we headed of down the road ready
to face anything on our new adventure – Although it was still raining hard
! And as we headed out of town it got
heavier and heavier – Double speed wipers required to see anything !
We had decided to go to
Burgos because it is the home of El Cid, which was one of the first movies I
remember seeing, starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren. The road climbs rapidly after leaving
Santander, and we were soon at 1000 metres.
The good news was that the rain stopped, and we even saw some blue
sky. The bad news was that the
temperature quickly dropped to 3 deg C !
We ended up crossing 3 passes over 1000 metres, and never really dropped
below 800 metres.
On one pass we saw 3 snow
ploughs by the road, with drivers in, and headlights on. We didn’t see any snow, but are wondering if
they know something we don’t – Like a heavy snow storm is due tonight ??? Burgos, where we are overnight, is still at
861 m ASL, so maybe we are in for a spot of snow ? We will see……..
We wandered on into Burgos
over some very pleasant roads, through little villages, over bridges across
waterfalls, and really enjoyed the afternoon’s drive. We arrived in Burgos at about 3.30 pm, and
decided to go and see if the camp site we had listed was open before heading
into town to the Cathedral where El Cid is buried. Good news was the camp site was open,
although it was pretty soggy after recent rains, but once we knew it was OK, we
headed into town.
The Cathedral rates highly in
the guide books, and we managed to find a good parking spot ony about a 10
minute walk away, and headed off. The
trees that are everywhere in Burgos have been recently pruned, and form the
most amazing shapes, in many cases with neighbouring trees actually joined
together at the branches – Quite incredible.
I would love to see them in the spring or summer when they are in full
bloom. The archways they make over the
pavements are stunning even in winter.
Then we came to the
Cathedral. And all I can say is that it is like no other cathedral we have ever
seen on this whole journey. Work
basically started in 1221, and within 40 years a large part of what is visible
today was already complete. Other parts,
like the towers, date from the 15th Century. The main altar is a typically overwhelming
piece of gold-encrusted extravagance, while directly beneath the star-vaulted
central dome lies the tomb of El Cid himself.
I cannot even start to
describe this cathedral in any meaningful way, but there are some 15 “chapels”
all around the main body of the church, each of which is almost a
mini-cathedral in itself, each seemingly trying to outdo the other in opulence
and size. All designed by well known
(mostly) Spanish artists, each one even has its own metal screens, all of which
are totally different and amazing in themselves. As I say, I will let the photos do the
taking, but if anyone is ever in the Burgos region, a visit to this amazing
cathedral is a MUST. Janet and I left
speechless after 2 hours, and could easily have stayed for another two
hours. Incredible place.
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