9/28 --- Burgos Cathedral, Next Camino Walk, Arrive in Leon

We set out west toward Burgos, and arrived at the gate to the old city. Immediately inside was the  Burgos Cathedral, the third largest in Spain. It had an amazing number of spires! Turns out it was built and added on to several times and apparently each addition needed to compete in the spire contest. I am not normally that interested in cathedrals, but Carlotta, our guide helped it be interesting. In theory, El Cid is buried here. One tale has his wife bringing him there armor and all, but we were told he was initially buried in Valencia and brought here centuries later.

The main gate to old town Burgos

Accordion player outside the gate. Very cheery
and reminded me of my Dad's accordion.

Side view of the Burgos Cathedral. What you see from the
gate. The left tower is one of the two in front.

A side entrance we used.

The top has a bunch of symbolic animals

The rose window

The main altar

Pipe organ with some horizontal pipes - a
design unique to Spain. Below is choir seating.

Better view of choir seating

A dome stained glass in the Moorish tradition

Here lies El Cid

Papamoscas means 'flycatcher. This clock
strikes 12 and with each strike it opens its
mouth (see below).

Our guide commented that most the people watching are
leaning back to see him at the top of the cathedral with their
mouths  open too, so lots of flycatchers.

An unusual statue of Mary trying to breast-
feed Jesus.

This painting  of Mary Magdalene was
originally thought to have been done by a
student of Da Vinci, but after it's cleaning,
the quality of the hands and face led to the
conclusion that master and student collaborated.

Detail from a rococo segment of the cathedral

This represents some saint trampling the Moors. In another
location, the warlike image is modified by covering the
Moors with flowers.

This image of Mary and Jesus was carved from
an elephant tusk, hence its slight  arch to the left.

Modern painting of El Cid. The Spanish see him more as
Antonio Banderas than Charlton Heston.

Model of the cathedral that provides some clue to its complexity.

After the cathedral, we were left to forage for lunch in the square after some samples of cheese and cookies. The cheese place also had chocolate and said their family had been making it for over a hundred years. Unfortunately, the smaller bars (ingots, really) were only sold in pairs -- one milk, one dark, so we enticed a travel  mate, Iwona (eh-van-ka) to split the booty with us. Instead of a fancy lunch, we found a bakery that had pizza and got a small one to split, plus some yummy looking almond cookies. Lunch was so fast, we had a half hour to explore and ended up in a jewelry shop (surprise, surprise), where I got a lovely Amazonite necklace.

Back on the bus, we headed toward our Camino walk -- this was from one end of the village of Castrojeriz to the other. Instead of rain, it was warm and sunny. Quite the contrast from yesterday. We set off on our short walk, which was a bit farther than anticipated, but nothing to challenging. We could have gotten two stamps at the end, but I had elected to leave  my purse -- with the Camino passports -- on the bus. We got one on a slip of paper, so all was not lost.

We started on the right side of the hill ans walked mostly
uphill towards the left, below the castle.

Walking thru the village was quite a change from our previous
rural walk.

Finally, we headed to Leon. The motorways here are pleasant and straight, so I enjoyed a book until we arrived in Leon shortly after 6pm. We are staying at a parador, a former monastery (in this case) or castle that has been renovated to create unique accommodations. This one will undergo a second renovation next year, and certain elements are dated, but it is quite an impressive space.

Our parador from the outside.  The hotel entrance is in the
middle. The impressive entrance on the right is a museum.

The gardens below our 5th floor window.

Our room -- comfortable, but a bit dated. The worst problem
is the key -- very old style, difficult to use. We miss the
plastic key cards!