Day 52: South to Burgos

Playtime over, we needed to get back to World Heritage business and back on the road. Had another lovely breakfast in the sunroom before packing up and hitting the road. Although our destination for the day was the city of Burgos to the south-west, first stop was in the mountains at the combined monasteries of Suso and Yuso - World Heritage sites, of course!

This is a pair of monasteries constructed in the mountains - Suso is dedicated to St Millian, a miracle-working hermit who lived in the caves in the 5th century. His tomb is still there, and the monastery (really just a small stone church) was built up against the hillside, with the caves opening into the church itself. Very unusual. We'd booked a guided tour as it was the only way to see the monastery, but of course the group tour was only conducted in Spanish! That was an interesting 20 minutes, though we managed to get the necessary footage.

Back down the hill to the Yuso monastery, which is much newer and dates from the 12th century or so. It was constructed as many pilgrims were passing by on the Camino del Santiago, and the old monastery was getting overloaded with people. We decided against doing another tour of this monastery and just filmed from the outside.

There were a couple of nice looking cafes here, so we stopped for a late lunch and enjoyed a drink in the sunshine as well. We weren't in a hurry as Burgos was 2 hours away and we couldn't pick up the keys to our apartment from a nearby bar until 6pm.

Eventually we drove off and arrived in Burgos at the apartment around 5:30. To kill some time we wandered over to a nearby supermarket and bought some supplies for the next couple of days. Since our host was away for the weekend, she had left the keys at a nearby bar which opened at 6pm. Not ideal, but we could manage. 6pm came and went, and no sign of opening. By 6:30 we got in touch with the host who said the bar owner had been caught up with something but was on his way. Finally he arrived at 7pm and we could go upstairs - not a fun way to spend the afternoon!

At least the apartment is nice, and with good district views too. Unfortunately the heating didn't work very well and it took some back and forth with the host again via Whatsapp before I could get things functioning. Thankfully not that cold!

Into the town tomorrow where we'll have a busy day checking out two World Heritage sites.Read more