A trip 1.3 million years into the past

Woke this morning to thick fog, with even the spires of the cathedral barely visible. Thankfully it dispersed as soon as the sun came up and the day was clear and hot as usual. We drove out of town to the site of the archeological digs at Atapuerca, where a series of cave systems were discovered during the cutting of a railway. It is a dig that has been going on for forty years and shows no sign of getting to any kind of end. The caves have animal and human habitation going back 1.3 million years (that's a lot!) with a series of types of humans, including a completely new subspecies never found before. Sadly the tour around the site was all in rapid Spanish so we didn't keep up very much. Must go and get a Spanish refresher course I think!

Back in Burgos we trekked up the hill overlooking the city to go to the castle (oh, another one!) which was founded in the 9c and rebuilt in the 14c. It was the centre of napoleon's army in Spain until Wellington came along and defeated it. No doubt with Sharpe's help - read the books !

Then back to the museum to go and see again the finds from this mornings dig site.

We leave Burgos in the morning to drive to Rioja. We have enjoyed this city a lot, it has a lot going for it, and the food has been excellent- always a big plus. In places you find life sized statues of ordinary people doing ordinary things, like the photo of a young lady looking out over the river. It all seems very human.Read more