Burgos Spain

Day 31/ Spain 6 

Travelled: 64km visiting St Domingo de Silos, Covarrubias and Burgos. (parking area next to the old fort on the hill within 10mins walk to the cathedral (42.3436, -3.7072)

Stay:plus 69km to Osorno motorhome area on the way to Leon (42.4133, -4.4133)

We began the beautiful day with a stroll around the small village of StDomingo de Silos.

It’s centre piece is the monastery built in 1041 that has inspired pilgrims over the years. 

We managed to take a peek inside the church but the monastery was not opening until much later. Mark was particularly impressed with the ceilings of various shaped domes. 

The village, especially early in the morning, had a lovely tranquil feel.

Amazing these pillars made from ancient trees are still standing.. the guy next door looks like he pillaged his from an ancient Roman ruin.

Did we mention that the around the area they filmed Clint Eastwood’s The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Ooops must have had too many tapas 

Or maybe need more tapas to get this sword out of the rock hehe

Next in our route was the medieval town of Covarrubias with its charming centre predominantly with arcaded half-timbered buildings. 

Notice the small house it is actually a rubbish bin.

The walls that once fortified the village are gone but a large gate way remains.

Further along we traversed through fertile countryside. 

Without too much effort we drove into Burgos and up the hill to a nice parking area under the trees next to the old fort. 

We stopped at the lookout on our way down.

Then off to buy €10 tickets to visit the Cathedral plus 3 other churches, the later closing between 2pm and 4pm, so we decided to visit them first. 

Just near by there was the Arch of Santa Maria, an impressive gateway into the historic centre. One of the rooms inside had an intricate wooden painted ceiling. 

Door knocker of the day.

We fortified ourselves with a cervesaz and tapas along the way. 

Inside the 13th C gothic style Saint Gil church we were wowed by the golden altarpiece from the Renaissance era.  The small chapels also had elaborate altars. 

The Retablo Museum was all about the wooden made altarpieces and had few taken from other churches on display. Along with some religious artefacts. 

Just next to the cathedral was Saint Nicolas church which has a spectacular altarpiece made from stone.

There was even St Mark on the bottom right hand side.

So now it was time to visit the jewel of the city, the cathedral, Spain’s third largest and founded in 1221. The style is mainly Gothic with intricate designs inside and out. 

We followed the route around to all the chapel surrounding the central nave. Each with its own architectural wonder from altarpieces, ceilings and stone carvings carved reliefs. 

The golden staircase was a beautiful. 

One of the popular attractions is the Papamoscas, an automation that rings bells every hour. 

The magnificent star ribbed central dome built in 1539, rises on four huge pillars is above the El CID and his wife’s tomb.

The choir made from walnut wood

The central altar

The Sacristy is Baroque style with exuberant plasterwork. 

The Constables’ Chapel was impressive also.

Beautiful oval shaped ceiling

The enclosed stainglassed cloister

After 90mins or so, we go another round of tapas and a beer (€12 average) then walk along the green space next to the river. It’s the ‘green’ city in Spain and it’s lovely under the shade of the plane trees that they have grafted the branches together. 

We pick ourselves up with a coffee and sugar treat (€5) then head back up the hill to Bluey. We pop in to have a look at the ruins of castle/fort. We were keen to walk down the 65m deep well but this experience is closed at the moment. 

So we instead cool our feet in a bucket of water in Bluey and decide that we may be parked in an area the locals come to meet up. We enjoyed visiting Burgos it has a lovely atmosphere.

But we decided to hit the road at 8:30pm for 50 mins towards Leon and stop in a motorhome parking area in a little town called Osorno…