It’s Saturday Night

To say I was impressed by the cathedral in Burgos would be an understatement!  There are three cathedrals considered to be the most splendid in Spain (and among the finest in the world) and this is one of them. Construction of this cathedral began in 1221 and work continued until the middle of the 1500’s as new parts were added or parts were redone to pay homage to rulers and religious leaders. Like most in this time, it is in the Gothic style but later additions reflect renaissance influences. It contains the tomb of El Cid. The domes are beautiful. It is enormous and took about 2 hours to go through. The audio guides are very informative and interesting. The photos did not load in the correct order so the second and third are from today and the rest are the cathedral.

I made it through the cathedral on my leg but not easily. I sat when I could and moved slow and carefully. It’s been a week and a day since my injury and the course seems to support my initial diagnosis of stress fracture. My leg looks so much better and I am completely pain free at rest but weight bearing for even a short time is painful and it’s very clear that getting off of it is the right thing to do. The pain is very localized over one place on my tibia. I think the PT really helped with the inflammation in the supporting soft tissues but I really don’t think this is fundamentally a soft tissue injury. So, it is one day at a time. Do what I can do and keep the long view in mind.

I took the bus to Carrion de Los Condes today. It is a very small town today of 1500 or so but historically it was much larger and at an important cross roads between the river and the Camino de Santiago for those making the early pilgrimages. Tomorrow I will walk out to the large old monastery that used to care for the pilgrims before I take the bus on to Leon.

Riding here on the bus I was very aware of how much difference there is from region to region in Spain. This area is a huge, higher plateau area 800-1000 ft above sea level of gently rolling hills and flat lands. It’s a wheat growing area – primarily agricultural with some other crops and livestock. Right now the fields are littered with big rolled bales of hay. It’s very picturesque. The dryer land areas are mixed with some bright green areas of irrigated crops all set against the bluest sky imaginable. Such a changes from the mountains and the mixed terrain moving back and forth from the rugged sea coast up into the areas of hillside farming and range land and forests and back to sea level of my first two weeks.

I rode through miles of sunflower fields interspersed between the golden hay fields today. Wow.

It is hot here and dry but the nights cool down some. I have my own room tonight in a private hostal – still only $20 or so for the night. There is one municipal albergue here but given my bus arrival time and the location of the alburgue I decided I wanted to have a reserved room. There is also a parochial albergue run by the church but I knew I would be inside resting the leg so wifi becomes an important variable for me. I have to make bus plans and can’t really walk 2-3 km from the bus to the albergue as I was doing before.

I am on the third floor and I have a large window that opens over the roof tops with a big view of the sky and setting sun. Nice.

It is Saturday night and festival time so there are fireworks and people are up late celebrating.  It’s okay though as I have adopted the siesta – this is a survival tactic really given the meal hours in Spain, the afternoons closure of all of the shops, and the night time sounds until the wee hours and early departure times required from the albergues.

I’m looking forward to my morning stroll (and my 11 am checkout) to the Monasterio- hope it goes well. Then, back in the bus at noon and on to Leon.