Once again I realized that the monks at the monastery nearby just don’t know how to count – this morning it was 89 bells for 8:00 – maybe they’re all mostly deaf and only hear every 10th one or something.

Finally did yoga again for the first time in many days – my hips and lower back feel ever so much better.  The campground is right on the southeast edge of the city, and everything past it is parkland with lots of beautiful looking bike trails that I’ll have to explore later.  Burgos is a big stop on the Camino de Santiago trail and I’m sure many of the hikers make a visit to the cathedral in the old city.

We headed the few km into the old city to find the tourist office and hopefully get help there like we did at the one in Hernani.  Parked in an underground lot near the cathedral and walked around a bit – even with a map it took us awhile to find the tourist info office, which was almost hidden back from the square behind some construction fencing.

The lady tried her best to be helpful, but didn’t have a clue what the Vuelta de Burgos even was, let alone have any info on it.  They were out of detailed maps of the area so she ended up giving us six seperate ones as well as a couple of nice brochures of things to see and do.  Burgos is not only the major city but also the name of the whole area.

The Cathedral of Burgos is quite impressive, if not really my taste.  In 3 years time it will be celebrating is 800th anniversary!

The whole old part of the city is just beautiful, with lots of pedestrian-only roads and many trees and parks lined with statues.  

There is a large statue of El Cid on his horse right as you come off the bridge across the river into the old city.

There are also lots and lots of outdoor cafes and tapas bars.  

We stopped at one for a coffee, and I ordered a tostada with Iberian ham, tomatoes and olive oil.  It was very tasty, but so large I ended up splitting it with Colin. The cafe late was delicious (once I put some honey in it – still have a mini-jar that I carry in my camera case).

Back at the campground we sorted out where we want to be on each of the five days of racing the Vuelta a Burgos.  The maps we got from the info place were actually fairly helpful, as I looked up the official site on my ipad while we found the places on the maps we’d gotten and decided where we want to be for each stage.

After that we went shopping for a few things at Decathlon – an outdoor store that’s all over Europe.  I picked out some great sandals to replace the old flip-flops I got last summer in Angoleme – they were literally falling apart and were becoming dangerous to walk in as I kept getting tripped up by the flapping right one.

Went down to the cafe/bar again for dinner and asked immediately about the paella – again they said it would be available at 8:30.  Colin decided he wanted the croquettes again, so I went in to make sure I could get the paella and was told that if it was only for one person I could have it at 7:30 instead of 8:30, which sounded great.  Near to 7:30 I went to order Colin’s croquettes and my paella and was told that I could only have the paella if I was in the indoor restaurant – I really wish they could give a person all of the information at the same time.  They knew I was outside from the beginning and could have told me that rather than making me wait an hour and then providing the essential missing piece of information.

Once again, then, I got the calamari – you also have to ask for knife, fork, condiments, etc as they seem to think you don’t need them unless you ask for them I guess.

• Uncategorized