I left off my Camino recap in Pamplona. That afternoon, we caught the train to Burgos, the next major town on the Camino. For the next four days, we would be fast-forwarding through the central section of the Camino. Once we’d checked in to our hotel, we headed out to look at the town. Our first stop was the UNESCO World Heritage Cathedral, a high Gothic-style masterpiece. We bought our tickets (10€) and downloaded the cathedral app, but when we wanted to download content, it wasn’t loading. After a bit of frustration, we decided to download the content later and return the next day. Instead, we walked towards the river and admired the Arco de Santa María. Burgos would have been a walled city in the Middle Ages, and this is one of the original gates, although it was reconstructed in the 16th century by Charles V.

Just across the river is the Museum of Human Evolution. This museum houses the findings of the archeological digs at Atapuerca. The museum details human evolution through the artifacts and hominid remains dating back 850,000 years. I found this museum fascinating. It was also well set out, with excellent information provided to help us understand the significance of the exhibits. If you had extra time, the museum runs day trips out to the diggings, but I think only in Spanish.

After the museum, we returned to our hotel and rested until dinner. I had booked a table at Casa Ojeda, but like most Spanish restaurants, it didn’t open until 8:30 pm for dinner. This is a historic restaurant that serves regional food. We left our hotel a little bit before 8:30 so we could check out the town at night. Our dinner was pretty good. G had the suckling lamb (sorry to any vegetarians). This was the meal we finally worked out how to eat in Spain—always get a salad to share or soup for an entree because the main meals are usually meat and potatoes. We did not do that that night, well, not quite. I had the soup, and G ordered the mixed salad, but be warned that the mixed salads are usually massive, so it is better to share. While G struggled through his massive salad, we watched the Spanish family beside us order a selection of vegetable dishes to share as an entree. Lesson learned.

There was no hiking today, but with our walking in Pamplona and Burgos, I did 17,356 steps.

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Our train didn’t leave until 3:35 pm the next day, so we had plenty of time to explore some more of Burgos. We walked to Cartuja de Miraflores, a Carthusian monastery about 4 km from the city centre. The walk was quite pleasant, with much of it through a park near the river. The monastery was founded in 1442 and has some beautiful artwork, a spectacular altarpiece and the eight-pointed star-shaped tomb of John II of Castille and Isabelle of Portugal. I also spied a couple of St James statues with his pilgrim’s garb and scallop shells.

Exiting the monastery, we saw a couple getting out of a taxi, so we rushed over and got a ride back into town. The previous night, we’d downloaded the content for the Cathedral app in our hotel, so we were all ready to go. The main section of the church is fairly small, but all around it are ornate chapels with artwork and tombs. Most chapels were built by wealthy benefactors (some of them bishops), and the craftsmanship, scale and ornate detail are a testament to the amount of wealth generated for the church by the pilgrimage. It is awe-inspiring but also somehow a bit obscene, especially when you consider how much poverty there would have been as well. It was a lot!

Across the street from the Cathedral is the Church of St. Nicholas. The main attraction here is its amazing main altar piece, placed in 1505. On entering, we were given a sheet with a numbered diagram for each of the sixty-four scenes. Some contain saints, some depict bible stories, and there are coats of arms and stories from the life of St Nicholas. See below the closeup of the section showing Mary being crowned by the Holy Trinity surrounded by angels.

Since we were partway up the hill, we continued to the observation point near the Castillo. From there, you look down on the town, which is dominated by the cathedral, and out into the surrounding countryside. It was lunchtime by then, so we returned to a little bar in the main square, where I had a beer and sardines on toast. Then we went back to our hotel to pickup our bags and catch the train to Leon.