Belorado – San Sebastian (21/03/15)

At 3am I was woken up disorientated and alarmed by a bright light shining Gestapo-like straight into my face. I felt like a lamped rabbit. Was I dreaming about car headlights? What was this spotlight being turned on me from an unknown source? Coming around I realised it was Senior Korean – the one who always looked sad and solemn, “fluting” around the dormitory, as David later described it with his characteristic colourful Co.Kerry turn of phrase, with his headlamp switched on. Clearly he felt that if he left the lights off and used his headlamp he wouldn’t disturb anyone, but his light beam swept across the room, blinding us like a World War II searchlight! What was he doing anyway? Turning over his damp socks on the radiator it turned out; I groaned and went back to sleep!

Cross pattee in Burgos cathedral cloister

The next morning it was time to leave the Camino and start heading home. I planned to be back in Belorado to walk Camino Part III as far as Fromista in October. The job for today was to travel by bus to Burgos, change and get another bus to San Sebastian. The following day we would get the bus back to Biarritz airport.

Leaving Belorado

We had breakfast in the kitchen and said our goodbyes to Vira and Michael. In the hall our Korean friends were just leaving and Chicken Village bade us farewell enthusiastically whilst his quiet friend bowed politely. We made our way back to the bar in the Plaza where we had been the day before, for breakfast. Michael appeared and ended up joining us, before he set off for San Juan de Ortega and we also chatted to an English couple who were walking the Camino. Whilst waiting for the 9.30am bus opposite Hotel Jacobeo the Madrid professionals emerged and our Nuclear Fire Safety Officer came over to say hello.

Breakfast in Belorado

The bus journey to Burgos took about an hour and carried us up through the wooded scenery of the Montes de Oca and the narrow Puerto Pedraja pass, which at an elevation of 1,095m had quite thick snow lying on the ground. We thought of Vira, Alex and Michael walking through it later in the day.

During the bus journey David and I were happily chatting about our walk and laughing about some of our experiences when suddenly a young woman passenger in the seat opposite suddenly turned to us and said “excuse me, I am trying to sleep and you are disturbing me!” We looked at her rather non-plussed, as we did not feel we were talking especially loudly, but we apologised meekly. We looked around and suddenly realised that there was total silence on the bus and nobody seemed to be talking. It occurred to us that perhaps there was some cultural rule that passengers on Spanish buses were not supposed to talk?

Beyond the Montes de Oca we descended to flatter land and entered the suburbs of Burgos, arriving at the bus station where we left our rucksacks in lockers. We had a few hours to kill before we needed to get the bus to San Sebastian, so we decided to investigate Burgos city centre as I wanted to see the Cathedral.

Burgos is named after the defensive towers of it’s medieval fortifications. It was founded in A.D. 884 by Count Diego Rodríguez Porcelos and due to it’s strategic position on the Camino and routes to the sea, became a centre of important commercial activity. The usual different merchant districts developed, similar to those at Pamplona and Estella and when they were amalgamated the town flourished becoming first the capital of the county of Castille and later the capital of the Kingdom of Castille. In 1075 it became an episcopal see, when the bishopric was moved there from Oca. In much more modern times the city has had a reputation for being austere and conservative, both politically and religiously, and was the capital of Franco’s government until 1938. Presently it has a population of about 175,000.

It was only a short walk from the bus station over the rio Arlanzón on the Puente de Santa Maria and through the magnificent 16^th Century arch of the same name which was finished in 1553, and into the Plaza Santa Maria in front of the cathedral. Here we went into a bar for coffee and cake to warm up as it was perishingly cold. Thus fortified, we were ready to examine the cathedral

The bridge and Arch Santa Maria

How can I even begin to describe this vast and superlative building? A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the foundation stone was laid in 1221, on the site of an earlier Romanesque church and royal palace but work continued on and off until 1567. Despite this it has a surprising architectural unity and is built mainly in the French Gothic style. The exterior is dominated by two spires of open stonework, which reminded me of Cologne Cathedral and indeed, I soon discovered that their architect was Juan de Colonia (John of Cologne) who built them in the 15^th Century. The principal façade is similar to that at Paris and Reims.

Burgos Cathedral

Stepping inside we were delighted to find a choir practising for Easter. The cathedral is so vast that it was hard to get any overall view of it. And each of it’s stupendous 15 chapels, the size of small church buildings themselves, would have been a major tourist attraction if any one of them could be transported to Ireland!

The South Portal

The choir practising for Easter

For me the most wonderful sight was the octagonal lantern tower over the main crossing with it’s delicate open starwork vault and plateresque details. Flooded with a silver light I can only agree with King Philip II who said when he first saw it that it seemed to be built by angels rather than men.

The crossing

Below the lantern tower lies the tomb of the legendary Spanish warrior El Cid – Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar who was born near Burgos in 1040. He was Commander in Chief for King Sancho of Castille who he was trying to recover the fragmented kingdom from his siblings, but also fought at times for the Muslim rulers of Zaragoza and established a more or less independent principality around Valencia. El Cid and his wife were only interred in the cathedral in 1919.

El Cid's tomb

It would take several blogs to describe the interior and I don’t have the time or energy to do that here you will be glad to know, but other highlights for me were the beautiful painted portal that leads to the cloisters.

The extraordinary gilded wood retable in of the Chapel of the Presentation showing the family tree of Jesse emerging from his loins, it’s branches curving up to the infant Jesus in Mary’s lap.

The Escalera Dorado or Golden Staircase in the North Transept.

The achingly beautiful octagonal Chapel of the Constables with it’s star vault and beautiful tombs of the Constable of Castille, Pedro Fernández de Velasco, 2^nd Count of Haro and his wife.

The baroque gilded grandiosity of the sacristy ceiling.

And the gilded retable in the chapel of St. James showing the saint on horseback as Santiago Matamoros – the Moorslayer.

We must have been inside the cathedral over two hours, but finally even I, who am renowned for sucking the marrow out of historical sites, had had enough. Apart from the fact that it was freezing inside the cathedral and the cold had seeped through to my bones, I also needed a rest from the sheer exuberant excess of gilding and grandiloquent architecture. David summed it up well as we left the cathedral when he shook his head and said “the only words that come to mind are sinful opulence!”

Statues of King of Castille's sons in cloister

Exhausted by a surfeit of history and architecture, we made our way to a nearby Tapas bar and revived and warmed ourselves with vino tinto and a delicious range of Tapas/Pintxos for an hour.

Bizarre worshippers on the portal of the Chapel of the Constables

I looked forward to investigating more of Burgos when I returned in October, but for now it was time to catch the bus to San Sebastian. We had only boarded the bus and I was talking to David quietly when the lady in front turned around and glared at us! We fell silent and resorted to watching Bugs Bunny on the bus video screen several times on a loop with earphones! Later in the bus journey we were joined at Vitoria by a rather unusual looking guy who was playing music on his mobile phone, but because he didn’t plug in his earphones properly, was sharing it with the rest of the bus, much to the lady in front’s annoyance and my amusement!

High Five with Burgos Policeman!

We arrived back at San Sebastian bus station where we had been a week earlier and which now seemed like a lifetime ago because of our rich experiences on the Camino.

After a coffee, we walked for 20 minutes or so down Sancho el Sablo Avenue, along Prim, Bergara and Idiakez streets to the green park-like space of Plaza Gipuzkoa, where we booked into the Urban House Hostel. It was rather basic but it was clean enough and we had a balcony overlooking the Plaza and could just spot the sea to our right in the distance.

San Vincente

We took a walk into the old town, and found an internet café where we could log online and print our Ryanair boarding passes for the next day. We attempted a walk down to the harbour, but the rain came on and became heavy, so passing the Church of San Vincente, we heard a choir singing Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus. We stepped inside and were confronted by it’s wonderful high vaulted ceiling towards which the music soared majestically upwards. In front of a beautiful gilded retable a bride and groom were signing the register- we had gate crashed a wedding; but no one seemed to mind or notice us, so we sat for a while and enjoyed the sublime combination of music and architecture.

Casa Vergara Pintxos Bar

Interesting types of potato on the Pintxos menu!

We rounded off the evening with a great three course meal in the Casa Vergara bar opposite the Church of the Holy Trinity. We had arrived early at only 7.15 and the barman had said the menu wouldn’t be served until 8pm, so we stood and drank a glass of wine each and watched plates groaning with all types of pintxos being brought out. David was becoming anxious when nothing had happened at 8.15, but I told him to hang on and all of a sudden a bottle of wine and other diners appeared and we had a three course meal that was nearly as good as the one at Cirueña!

David waiting for the food to arrive