Leaving San Sebastian meant negotiating rush hour traffic on the ring road which was good experience for the next part of the trip, as the Spain part involved mainly city visits. It was only a 10 minute drive out to the motorway though, and on to Burgos.

By this point I was really confident with motorway driving, and as Spain doesn’t have many tolls I didn’t have to stop and do my convoluted yoga to pay at the booths! Sadly the weather was poor driving though the mountains, the views were good, but would have been spectacular if I could have seen more.

Burgos was another one of my pre-planned stays, but again I altered what I was doing, this time due to the weather. I will tell you more about accommodation later but first on to the beautiful bits. I had come to Burgos to see the cathedral, and to this particular campsite on the outskirts of the city, to see the monastery of the Carthusian monks, the Cartuja Miraflores, just a short walk from the campsite. It was one of the most beautiful, and incredible religious places that I have ever visited, and if you are a regular reader you’ll know that I visit a lot of religious places.

Not only was the monastery itself very beautiful, it is still a working community and there was a lovely video about the monks’ life which ended with the blessing, ‘God be with you on your travels’, which I felt was very appropriate for me. Making this visit, and hearing that just made me so very grateful to be able to now drive, for the trip to have gone well, and for me to have had the opportunity to leave work and spend my time travelling.

There was a very interesting insight into monastic life. This board dates from the 15th century and shows which duties each of the principal monks had during the services of each day.

The little museum there also had some beautiful paintings. Some of which related to the quest of Queen Helena, mother of Constantine, the first Holy Roman Emperor, to find the true cross used in Jesus’s crucifixion. I cam across stories of Helena last year in Cyprus, and of the relics of the cross she left at a monastery there. The detail in the paintings was incredible, I loved her robes. There was also a beautiful version of The Annunciation, one of my favourite religious paintings.

An amazing surprise was the tomb of Isabella of Castile’s parents, John and Isabella of Portugal, and of her brother Alfonso. Because they were buried there Isabella became a patron of the monastery and that helped it survive some very turbulent years, including being ransacked by Napoleon’s army.

This tomb was amazing, the detail in the marble was incredible. All around the tomb were heraldic emblems, including these amazing lions. I couldn’t get close enough to get many good pictures of the clothing they were wearing but the carving was stunning.

There is a large photo of an arial view of the tomb next to it, so you can see more of the detail.

I was able to get closer to Alfonso’s tomb, which has the most wonderful detail on his robes and hat.

As the weather was really bad the first day in Burgos I had stayed in my lovely warm cabin, just watching the rain lash down. The campsite, Fuentes Blancas, was situated near the river in a country park, so my original plan had been to visit the monastery on the first afternoon, then walk the 4km into the city the following day. I had a brilliant time at the campsite, the cabin was very luxurious after all that living in Katy for months. I also had a very nice evening at the restaurant where I shared a bottle of wine and travel stories with an Irish couple.

This very much relates to what I said in the last post about solo travels. They said they would not have talked to me if I’d have been with someone, but were intrigued as to what I was doing travelling alone. The cabin would have cost about £90 for the two nights, but thanks to my rewards from Booking.com for all of my travels in Cyprus I only paid £35.

I still really wanted to visit the city, and the weather forecast was better for the following day, so decided to look for a park up, found a free one just outside the city on a bus route, and went there for a third night in Burgos. I set off early morning on the Saturday so that traffic would be less, and after a few wrong turns found the space. It is basically a very large car park, next to a sports centre, with water, waste disposal and bins, and there were lots of vans there.

There is a dedicated van area, but people were also parked all over the car park, again police patrol regularly. Here I had very nice chats, (in Spanish), with a Spanish woman who was travelling full-time, and, (in English), with a Frenchman named Pascal, who insisted on me taking a photo of him with my van to send to his friend as he said it was so cute! There were such a variety of vans there, I was parked opposite fab yellow overland truck. Generally I didn’t see much variety in the types of vans on this trip, they were all mostly standard motorhomes, so Katy did always stand out.

The bus to the city was only a short walk away and thanks to Google maps I found it easily. Buses in Spain are really cheap, this was just over a euro each way and drops you right in the centre. Just a short walk over the river and I was at the cathedral.

This really was a stunning one, I had wanted to visit particularly to see the tower, which is incredible. the stone work on the ceiling is just breath taking. It is a UNESCO world heritage site, and one of my wish lists is to visit all of Spain’s world and national heritage sites. I am doing quite well so far 😉

The carvings all the way round the cathedral have such incredible detail. Whenever I visit places like this I just think of the thousands of craftsmen who worked on these places, and how their work has, hopefully, been so appreciated by everyone who has seen it. They are true geniuses to have been able to make this beauty out of stone.

There were also beautiful wooden carvings, intricately done, and painted and guilded.

I came across some unusual reliquaries as well, these are in the form of female saints, which I’ve not seen before.

This very large reliquary was decorated with squares of enamel, which I’ve not seen much of before in this kind of floral design.

There were also some more stunningly detailed effigies on the tombs, the first set of these pictures is from the cathedral, they are of Pedro Hernandez de Velasco, Constable of Castile, and his wife, Maria de Mendoza. He died in 1492 so I assume the effigy is from around that time.

The two pictures above are from the Burgos museum that I visited later, and are of Don Gomez Manrique and Dona Sancha de Rojas, dating from the mid 15th century.

The cloisters were quite plain, though with some interesting statues and lovely stained glass, so I took some arty pictures of the cathedral through the windows.

I had a quick wander around the city after visiting the museum, which had an inner courtyard laid out like a Roman villa. The city square was pretty, and the city gate was amazing, with again wonderful carving.

I came across this gorgeous bronze statue in one of the streets, the woman is crocheting, so I had to take a few close up pictures. I have been crocheting with Ellen while she was in Spain and have been improving, thanks to her excellent tuition, so will show the results when I do a catch up crafting post next week.

And of course there were beautiful doors, I had missed my Spanish doors. They are always so gorgeous.

A really amazing few days. There are so many cities in this area that I want to visit so it was hard to choose but I’m very glad I included Burgos. In the next post I will be moving further south, through more amazing countryside, and some of the best cities I have ever been to. Come back soon for more stunning architecture! Until then have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.