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.
I’ve been sick. A lot of fever every day and a runny nose that just won’t stop. It sure is hanging on. I’ve spent most of the last two days in bed. Charlie has been so nice to me. He’s made a few trips to the farmacia and several for groceries. He did manage to get out to see the incredible Burgos cathedral (which we toured in 2013) and to visit the Museum of Human Evolution.
We are glad we are in such a nice comfortable apartment. We called this morning to see if it was available for us to stay an extra day and it was! We got charged for our cancelled reservation in Rabe where we had planned to be tonight (April 30), but it was worth it to have another day to recuperate. I just hope this will end soon! Since we have reserved all our alojamiento (lodging) for this Camino, we’ll have to skip walking to Rabe. Another taxi tomorrow, no matter what.
View from one of our 11th floor apartment windows. Pretty much all I’ve seen of Burgos the past two days. Most people in Spain live in apartments like the one we are in. Here you can see several hundred of them.
I’ve started taking photos of confessionals when we go into churches. Up to now they were the “open” kind where the priest is inside the center box with a sliding window on each side. The confessee kneels on the side. This was the only kind I saw from Saint Jean to Burgos.
In a church in Burgos I finally found the kind I am used to where the confessees are also enclosed in a box.
But wait, let’s zoom out.
Hey Burgos, what with all the sinning?
I grew up Catholic and when into those boxes many times, always on a Saturday so I could take communion on Sunday. Or do you receive communion? I forget. But I did not forget what you said when the priest slid the slider open:
“Forgive me father for I have sinned. My last confession was (well, let’s see, hmm…) 63 years ago. My sins are: …”
I just checked with Claude and it says the second part is “It has been [length of time] since my last confession” and it used the word “penitent” where I have been using “confessee” which is probably not a real word.
Another confession: I never confessed all my sins. Somehow masturbation never made the list. Even at age 13 I was aware of the irony of lying to the priest at confession. On the other hand the “get out of jail free” aspect of the whole confession thing always appealed to me.
It was clear I had caught a bug so we scratched all plans for walking and took a taxi from Atapuerca to Burgos. I told Charlie we need to call this “The Taxi Camino.”
We got to Burgos around 9:30 but couldn’t get into our apartment until 3:00. We filled that time having breakfast in a great bar (Boston), going to the Post Office to pick up a package we’d cached here, walking to a pharmacy for a covid test, going to another bar for coffee, going for raman noodles at a Japanese place (ok, not great). I was starting to fade but made it through all that. The covid test was negative. Yay!
When we finally got to our apartment, which we had reserved for two nights, I crashed. Lovely comfortable beds. Great roomy apartment.
Our apartment kitchenOver the years we’ve stayed in a number of Spanish apartments. They, without fail have a very roomy entry way. This is by far the smallest entry way we’ve seen. But, I think it’s cute.Great bed!
We started the day with a taxi ride around the once-bandit-filled Montes de Oca (Goose Mountains). That’s an option the medieval pilgrims did not have. We weren’t too worried about bandits, but we did the taxi to make the too long distance manageable. The taxi left us off in San Juan de Ortega. Closer to Atapuerca than we wanted but it was the only place on the Camino that the taxi could get to that wasn’t a farm track.
We had breakfast in San Juan de Ortega in another best bar ever. Charlie just made a post with photos.
We got into Atapuerca around 11. Couldn’t get into our (extremely charming) albergue (private room with private bath) until 1:45 so we had coffee in the Atapuerca bar and then went to the tiny grocery store and got food for a picnic and ate in the park.
Went back to our albergue to wait to get in and found a bunch of other pilgrims waiting. We had a nice time visiting with a French Canadian couple, a French French couple, a Dutch woman, and a young couple from Yorkshire, England. Luckily we were under a cover because it started to thunder and rain.
It was probably just as well that we had a short walking day. The night before I had noticed a tickle in my throat and by 2:30, after we’d gotten into our room, I noticed I was getting a fever. I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in bed.
Note: Atapuerca is a famous archaeological site. Here are some photos from the web. We didn’t get to see it. You have to arrange a tour ahead of time.
Getting close to AtapuercaWaiting outside the albergue.Did I mention our room was very small?View from our windowThe albergue kitchen. Charlie made us some coffee before we left in the morning. Some of the other pilgrims used the kitchen to make a big pasta dish for a group dinner.
The bars are one of our favorite things about Spain. Each one is different and it is always an adventure to see what the next one will bring. And, of course, we love the cafe con leche’s.
Outside seating. This is where the pilgrims usual sit. This was also an albergue. The counter, espresso machine, things to eat (there are usually more pintxos, larger bars have alcohol bottles lined up, this one has beer selection, of course, the TV. Where we sat. Various photos on the wall. Every bar has different decorations, that is the fun of it, seeing what it will be this time. A collage, looks homemade, other various stuff. We got excellent toast with olive oil and tomatoes. More random decorations. Stove It was early so the daily deliveries hadn’t been put away, eggs and pastries. View from the bar. And, to top it off, a lilac.
I don’t think of the Catholic Church as a leader in marketing innovation but check this out. 50¢ for five candles, 1€ for 10, and 2€ for a whopping 20 candles. I dropped in a euro and behold, let there be 10 lights.
Kinda fun too. Try that with real candles! Well, I guess you could just light ten of them but somehow it seems kind of piggy with real candles.
And if you’re having trouble replacing those high lights, try this indoor, slimline cherry picker. Just when I made my peace with small electric candles they start doing it with the big candles.
