Camino de Santiago
Ever wonder where the term “blue bloods” came from? As in “He’s a real blue blood.” During the Muslim era in Spain (711-1492 CE) there was a great deal of intermarrying between indigenous elites, Arabs/Moors and Jews. Those who refused to marry 'outsiders' (like the nobles of Castile, where we are now) called themselves sangre azul -- blue bloods, meaning much the same as purebred. As part of their ‘pure Gothic’ descent, they would claim never to have intermarried with another race by drawing attention to their pale skin, which made the blueness of their veins visible.
Me? I’m an American mutt… a little bit of everything in me.
Estaban El Stud hiked 17 miles to Burgos yesterday. The other three Amigos took a taxi, which we shared with an Israeli named Sharon (he). It was rainy and windy,and we wanted a break. Our taxi driver pointed out that we were driving through the area where they filmed the cemetery scene in “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” the spaghetti western starring Clint Eastwood from 1966. Our driver was so proud of this fact, that he insisted on playing it on his navigational screen for us as he drove us through the aforementioned wind and rain, and now trucks and cars. just a little scary.
We arrived in Burgos by about 10AM (Steve got there about 4!) and our first visit was to the cathedral. It’s the 3rd largest in all of Spain, and in my opinion is a must see! Each chapel off the main nave was better than the previous one, and there seems to be 20 of them… each with a little recorded explanation you could play on your phone. I was in history nerd heaven. ( I have over 50 pics from the inside, but my editor in the states (Mindy) said that would be way too many to include.
Sooo many pics of the cathedral. i think we spent 2.5 hours inside. A highlight for all of us was one chapel devoted to a virtual reality experience. You paid another 2 euros to put on some goggles and suddenly you were transported to high up in the main dome, looking at the statues and frescoes “at eye level” It was fantastic! They had made it with several drones over the course of months. If you looked down, you could not see your feet, but instead you saw the floor, 120 feet below you. Then the presentation took you outside and you were on the highest tower looking down at the spires, chapels and streets of Burgos. There was even a pigeon sitting next to you on the railing! It was so cool i gave Drew a big hug for telling me to do this!
No one was interested in seeing the Burgos historical museum, so I went alone. Fantastic museum for 1 Euro! It was housed in a mansion built in the 1600’s, but by 1900, much of it was deteriorating, and they bricked places up to make apartments. Fortunately, the town got together and bought it, and it brought it back to its former glory. The before and after pictures are amazing.
We had dinner with friends from England, Ireland, and Canada last night at an Italian restaurant Drew found. La Mafia se siente a la mesa, which translates to The Mafia Sits At The Table. The ravioli I had was some of the best I’ve had… maybe because we have been eating a boatload of ham and cheese sandwiches which are delicious here. Anyway, a fun evening, and Steve taught the Irish his two cork trick,which is a must see,but due to Steve’s copyright issues, he wont share in this newsletter.
Our Camino friends have nicknames for us:
Elias from Cyprus calls us “Team USA”
Miranda calls us “The Boys”
Michelle from Texas calls us “The Midwest contingent”
Brenda Tim and Becky call us “The Band of Brothers”
The next morning, Steve and I did the groups laundry at a laundromat across the river. Good thing, because none of us had any clean clothes. At all.
Drew was a good sport and joined me at the Cartuja de Miraflores, a monastery of about 20 Carthusian monks on the outskirts of town. Built in 1442, it houses the alabaster tombs of King Juan and Queen Isabel… some of the most beautiful stone carving I have ever seen. To this day, the monks say they discover something new in the base of the tomb frequently.
Details from the base… outstanding!
Terry, me and Drew ended our exploring with a trip to the Museum of Human Evolution.
At first blush, this museum might sound a little dull, or perhaps cerebral. However, they discovered the oldest human remains in Europe at Atapuerca, the town we drove through earlier (Clint Eastwood movie) so now have this huge museum. It turned out be quite good! Turns out some British company was building a railroad through Atapuerca, and started digging through this mountain when they discovered human settlement from 850,000 years ago in a cave. So cool.
As we left the museum, we did reconnect with Drew. He got “ a little too into the exhibits” but we’re glad to have him back.
