Burgos - A city full of surprises.
Burgos
We caught the Alsa Supa economy bus from Salamanca to Burgos. The bus has only 3 seats across instead of four – so heaps of space. It was comfy and cool and lovely scenery all the way to Burgos.
That’s where the niceness finished for our arrival though, because when arrived we had an exciting, stressful, funny and interesting time trying to get to our apartment.
Our apartment was in the plaza right next to the main Burgos cathedral. The Sunday afternoon we arrived the plaza was absolutely jam-packed full of people. We had to cross from one side to the other pushing our way through with our suitcases to our apartment door. There were people standing on the step of our door and weren’t happy to move.
The noise was deafening because all the people are watching a parade of gigantones and gigantillos (see info below). There is music, shouting, cheering and clapping and we are trying to get into our apartment.
Eventually I left Lyle out the front with the suitcases while I went inside the shop to call the owner. Luckily, he answered and he was so helpful as I made my way back to the apartment where he was going to open the door remotely. We pushed our way through the people, opened the door and stumbled into the foyer with our suitcases.
Next step was to squash into the tiny elevator. We reached the apartment, and the unlocked the key box – but there was NO key!! So once again I rang the owner (Ramiro) and he told me to ring back in 5 minutes. I ring back and he gave me instructions to go to the other side of the plaza to a restaurant to get the “emergency” keys from the owner.
Across I go, pushing my way through the people, and finally get the key and shove my way back to the apartment.
Phew – we open the door to be confronted with a very surprised cleaner happily mopping the floor. So obviously the keys weren’t there because she hadn’t finished cleaning yet!
The lady was almost finished – so we waited in the bedroom – which was perfect because it had a balcony directly overhead of the parade as it was leaving the plaza.
Gigantones and Gigantillos
This is a parade of gigantic figurines representing the monarchs of the medieval times in Spain. The parades are very common traditional celebration in some parts of Spain but this was the first one they had had in Burgos since 2000. There were groups from seven other areas of Spain as well as the local groups. In all there 126 figurines with over 440 participants and all their supporters.
No wonder the plaza was so full.
We arrived on our bedroom balcony just in time to see the parade make its way back through the streets.
These figurines were metres tall and they were all different. Some were solemn, others were comical. Some were dancing up and down and others were spinning around. All the groups had their own musicians they were dancing too. It was definitely one of my favourite memories of Spain.
After the excitement of our arrival and the parade we headed out for a little explore. We walked along the Paseo de Espolon. One side is the river, the other there are restaurants and bars. The Paseo itself is shaded by the most amazing archway of trees. These trees are unique because the are all joined to each other across the middle and side by side. It is like one big living tree arch. Very impressive.
There is a semi-permanent pop up artisan market set up in the main section of the paseo. There are hand made creations from all over Spain, including jewellery, clothes, scarves, glass blowing, silver and leather goods.
We wandered around until we found the Plaza Mayor full of colourful buildings and restaurants and – my favourite – fantastic shoe shops.
There wasn’t a lot on offer for dinner, so we grabbed a bocadilla (sandwich) and headed home for an early night.
Day 2
Today we started with a nice long walk along the river. The river itself isn’t massive, more like a babbling brook, but as clear clean water, with lots of pebbles and lovely green grass under the willow trees along the banks.
We walked along part of the Camino de Santiago (only about 6km) towards the Burgos university. The new part of the university has some fabulous sporting facilities. We found the old part of the uni and as all the students are on holidays, we explored the old buildings.
On the way back we walked along the other side of the river which had some lovely big homes.
As it was getting quite warm, we decided to visit the cathedral. It is a very important part of the Camino de Santiago with pilgrims visiting along their camino. Once again it was a very opulent cathedral, but the place we loved the most was the annex attached that has a courtyard with four walls that are all stained glass.
Lyle was also impressed to see the coffin on El Cid – although it was a lot smaller than he thought it would be. The painting on the wall next to the coffin was of a tall, muscular man, standing in the lavender fields in his battle gear who looked just Chris Hemsworth – not sure if it was an accurate depiction of El Cid though.
Home for a siesta before heading out to Casa Panchos. This is a highly recommended bar that we had been looking forward to visiting.
We sat at the bar and watched the service guys all dressed in their black pants, white shirts, and aprons. They were really efficient and were really fun to watch as they worked.
All the pinchos (tapas) are on display and then your order is cooked fresh. We were upsold every time and we ended up eating a lot more that what we would have normally tried, but it was so delicious.
The owner was Jose (but liked to called Pepe). He was a well-travelled charismatic guy who was giving us lots of suggestions about what we should eat. He couldn’t say Lyle’s name, so he nicknamed him Coca Cola. Lyle was flattered because he though it was because he was the real thing. Lol.
We enjoyed it so much that we gave Jose a Kevin the Koala award.
Burgos was selected as the Spanish Gastronomy Capital of 2013 and in 2015 it was named City of Gastronomy by Unesco.
Day 3
The owner of our apartment also has a family-owned winery in a little town called Lerma, very close to Burgos.
We caught a bus for the 40 minute trip to Lerma. We explored the little township for about an hour as it was very hot.
Ramiro, our landlord and winery (bodega owner) picked us up and took us to the winery – Palacio de Lerma Bodega.
Ramiro gave us a tour of the small wine making area and explained the process of how they are made. It’s all about the quality of the grapes and not adding any sulphites and using the natural fermentation process.
We then saw the barrel and bottle room where all the wine is resting and aging until time for sale.
Then our favourite part of course was the wine tasting. We enjoyed a white, rose and red.
We learnt how the taste of the wine changes the longer it is in the air. The white went from flavours of raspberries to citrus. Was very interesting how different they tasted over the time we were there.
After our tour we headed back into town for lunch. Ramiro recommended the best restaurant in town, and we asked him to join us.
The restaurant at The Hotel Posada de Eufrasio was old fashioned, traditional, glamorous and on the side of a hill with views for miles. We had the best table because we were with Ramiro.
We tried the menu del dia with all the local delicacies, and things we probably wouldn’t have eaten on our own. Cured meats, blood sausage, suckling lamb, and the best cheesecake in the world.
After a lovely day we caught our bus back to Burgos.
Summary
Burgos and surrounding areas a definitely worth a visit. We found three days sufficient time to for us to explore this beautiful city.
The Camino de Santiago is very important to the city and you will see many people with their backpacks and walking sticks.
The Paseo de Espolon is one of the most beautiful promenades in Spain.
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