Burgos

Don't let me stay in Burgos long. No chance of losing any weight here. The Spanish have mastered lolly shops, when it's siesta and everything in town is shut, there will be a shop that just sells lollies still open. But in Burgos we find the refined lolly shop, with nougat and marsipan and the smell of nuts roasting across the plaza. Blueberry nougat anyone?

I digress. Burgos, home of the UNESCO World Heritage Cathedral of Santa Maria, in the Gothic style and influenced by the great Notre Dame in Paris, is a rather lovely place. I like walking by the Arlanzon River in the gorgeous tree covered arbors and people watching in the Plaza Mayor.

There are cute statues everywhere devoted to the common man, lovely gardens, many historic buildings of course, and plenty of churches and museums. Kids clothes shops abound in Spain. It would cost a fortune to be a grandmother here. Too much cuteness temptation.

Back to that Cathedral. I pay tribute to the amazing architects, artists, stonemasons, painters, sculptors and more that worked with great skill and mastery over the centuries to create what we see today. The money spent supporting these sorts of endeavours is why Europe has such a fine history in the arts. The church was first started in Roman times and greatly extended, modified and decorated over many centuries. My photos do it no justice and it abounds in fabulous ceilings, vaults, chapels and stained glass.

The cynic in me was however somewhat appalled by the huge amount of money and resources that basically went into building fancy crypts for bishops, rich people and their families. Two thirds of the cathedral tour was for the many side chapels built for burial of the wealthy. I can't find much appreciation for things built from the wealth of Spanish colonisation, the Inquisition or the successes of the Spanish Armada. I not sure where God and Jesus asked for all these grand gestures or how a fancy crypt gets you closer to heaven but I'm pretty sure it was at the expense of the poor, the pilgrims and the indigenous of half the planet so it puts a pretty big dampener on the admiration.

Heading off tomorrow across the plains. It's about ten days to Leon.En savoir plus