On Monday, we explored the town. Ran some errands. Rested. Charlie did a 3 mile round trip walk to Decathlon to get a cap to replace the one he lost on the bridge in Nájara.
On Tuesday we took a train to Sahagún and back. I’ll talk about that in a separate post.
Today, Wednesday, we toured the Cathedral, cooked a fabulous lunch of pork chops, fresh (green) asparagus, salad, fresh bread and butter, and then took a walk along the canal that leads out of town. I’ll do a separate post about the cathedral.
Some photos around Palencia:
Elegant old man. One of the first thing I noticed walking the streets is how many people I’d see chatting. I think it’s a small enough place that people always run into people they know when they go out. I liked this woman’s bright red shoes.People waiting in line to buy lottery tickets.Palencia Post Office. The Correos all over Spain are often painted yellow/gold and some are quite elegant.The canal where we walked todayWhen we were walking we noticed this hill in the distance on the other side of the city and we both thought it was probably a cell tower on top. Something told us to look more closely so we aimed our phone telephoto lenses at it. We looked it up. It is called Cristo del Otero. It is an art deco statue of Jesus, erected in 1931, the same year as Christ the Redeemer was erected in Rio de Janeiro. This one is the second highest Christ statue in the world (after the one in Rio). Artist: Victorio Macho.
So, given my illness, what were our plans for after I got well? We had originally planned to spend a week in Zamora after we finished this year’s Camino in Sahagún on May 6. We had the option to cancel the Zamora plan and spend that week finishing the Camino. When I got sick, we had to cancel all our upcoming reservations for hotels, etc. At this point, private rooms on the Camino were scarce. It wasn’t at all clear we’d be able to get accommodations at short notice except for bunk bed albergues. And Charlie and I had decided … no more of those.
I was feeling a lot better by the 3rd. It was looking like soon I’d be able to start walking again. But … because of the accommodation problem we reluctantly decided that it would be best to not try to finish. I was really disappointed. Already feeling nostalgia for our daily walks in the pretty countryside and through the little towns, never having to retrace our steps. Getting into a delightful town and into our accommodation for the night. Making brief connections with the pilgrims and locals along the way. But then we thought about scrambling to find places to stay. We probably made the right decision but it made me very sad.
We decided to leave Burgos and come to Palencia for a few days. It is a medium sized city (77,000). We rented an Airbnb for 4 nights in Palencia and then we will move on on Thursday to spend the planned week in Zamora.
So, May 3 was a travel day. We didn’t have to leave our Burgos hotel till noon so we (1) had another good breakfast at the hotel, (2) walked the Camino to the edge of Burgos and back (about 4 miles round trip, much of it through a neat park), (3) packed up and then took a taxi to the train station, (5) took a train to Palencia, (6) got into our Airbnb, (7) took a walk around Palencia and were awestruck by the huge and pretty cathedral — third largest in Spain!
Where the Camino leaves Burgos (looking back into Burgos park). There was a scene in the movie The Way at this spot, we think.We are just starting to see storks. There are two in this photo. Can you find them? Look up, look down.Magpie on the Burgos walk. We hear it is bad luck if you only see one (and not two).River in Palencia. The whitish stuff on the water is “cotton” from the trees. We found out it was from poplar trees, also called Alamos. In other words, cottonwoods! The trees don’t look like the cottonwoods in Albuquerque but the cotton coming out of the trees and filling the air does!
Yep, that illness was not going away!! I didn’t feel up to moving on on the camino and we had to be out of our great apartment. It was May 1 which is Labor Day in Spain. Terrible timing! It was a 3-day holiday weekend in a popular Spanish tourist destination city. Hotels were either booked up or very expensive. But we did find a comfortable place to stay for 361 euros for 2 nights, including breakfast. A lot more than we usually pay in Spain, but not outrageous, at least by USA and other European country standards.
Of course, nearly everything except bars and restaurants were closed on May 1 as well and I was still running a fever and it seemed I had developed a sinus infection and conjunctivitis. The AI was screaming “see a doctor!” Luckily, when I asked the AI where to find a doctor in Burgos on Labor Day, the AI told me that Spain has great on-line telehealth services. I did some research and ended up contacting virtualclinica.com. It was great. Fast and inexpensive (35 euros). I reported my symptoms and did a video call with a doctor and he prescribed antibiotic pills and eye drops and decongestant. We found a pharmacy that was open (every city has at least one that is open no matter what). Total cost for all three prescriptions: 12 euros. Health care is affordable in Spain!
We moved to the hotel, Crisol Mesón del Cid, which is next to the famous Burgos cathedral. We stayed there May 1 and 2 and I rested and we tried to figure out the rest of our trip.
Our hotelPlaza, cathedral on the left, our hotel on the right, not shownView from our hotel room. Can you see the farm land in the not-far distance? That is where the Camino was headed, where the famous meseta begins, and we weren’t on it!View of the cathedral from the hotel breakfast roomBreakfast buffet. You name it, they had it.Behind the cathedral. I liked this scene. Burgos is a pretty city.Back side of the cathedral.
