Day 53: Exploring Burgos

Busy day today, with a double-header of World Heritage sites! First up after an early apartment breakfast and quick Skype with the Cleavers was Burgos Cathedral. Interestingly, despite the number of cathedrals we've been in in Spain, this is the only one WH listed as just a single building - the others were all as part of a series of buildings or an old town/cityscape.

The Cathedral was built in the 12th century after a new king came to power, who wanted to show off the power and glory of the Catholic monarchs (remembering that this area had been reconquered from Muslims in living memory). He'd spent some time in France in his youth, so he wanted to build a cathedral to rival the famous ones in Notre Dame, Reims and Amiens. It's considered the best example in Spain of early, mid and late Gothic architecture, and honestly, it was incredible.

We've seen a lot of churches and religious buildings so far on this journey and this was easily in the top few. Aside from the building itself, the painting, sculpture, tapestry, carvings, stained glass, woodwork and etchings were all amazing and super impressive. We spent a few hours in here, though we had to hurry slightly as today is Palm Sunday and the church was closing for tourist visits at midday.

Back to the apartment where we picked up the car and drove 20 minutes out of town to Altapuerca, where probably the most ancient site we'll see anywhere awaited us. This is an archaological site where the oldest hominid fossils in western Europe have been found. They were discovered in the late 19th century by workers digging a railway cutting through a hill, but it actually wasn't until the 1960s when proper study revealed the bones to be 600,000 - 1,200,000 years old.

And I say "hominid" deliberately, as these weren't actually homo sapiens that were discovered. The species were homo heidelbergensis, neanderthals, and an entirely new species known as homo antecessor (a precursor to humans). Great to walk through the cutting and see the dig sites as well as the very obvious layers in the strata where different era fossils have been recovered, and to learn about the process.

Unfortunately, this was another guided tour of 90 minutes operated entirely in Spanish. My Spanish is improving, but there's no way I can keep up with an excited and passionate tour guide speaking about scientific concepts and history, though I can get the gist of a minute or so from a few words here and there. It was an enjoyable experience, though we were both a bit bored and ready for the end by the time it finally finished.

Back into town where we were both starving - it was close to 3pm by now and high time for lunch. We picked up Schnitzel and wandered around a bit - all of the bars and restaurants were open and doing a roaring trade, likely due to the religious services earlier in the day. Looked for a while for somewhere to eat and eventually picked a place essentially at random. The food was great, though unfortunately the service was terrible - we waited nearly an hour for food, and I had to remind them to bring us the bread basket! At least they forgot to put our second round of drinks on the bill.

Back to the apartment where we settled in for the evening. I edited a couple of videos and we booked a bit more accommodation for the next few weeks. Late dinner at 10pm since we'd eaten lunch so late, then eventually headed for bed just after midnight. Moving on again tomorrow!Read more