Day 12: Atapuerca to Burgos aka Burgers in Burgos

Today we started off early and it was quite rainy when we got into Burgos around noon. We’ve begun walking through the Meseta region (known to be the most boring portion of the Camino), which looks very desert meets House on the Prarie.

We headed straight for our hotel (Hotel Via Gotika €70 double room- including breakfast/great recommendation ), overlooking the cathedral, just 200m away. We were told the room wouldn’t be ready until 1 PM. Therefore, we dropped off our bags and headed straight for the Burgos Cathedral. The pilgrim’s price for entry was €7.50 each. This included a self-guided tour via a 80’s looking cell phone. The cathedral is both gorgeous and humongous, and truly the city’s center. It felt like we spent hours exploring inside. In my opinion, and not just the gothic vibes, some of the rooms seemed haunted. My biggest question was how many people died trying to build this place? I’m sure Google has an answer.

Upon leaving the cathedral, it was still pouring outside. We found refuge in a small café, where Klause got a beer, hamburger (Burger in burgos lol) and fries all for four euros. While my mom and I each got a pinxto and a drink to share, also €4. There we ran into Ana, who had just arrived into Burgos. It was great to see her. We recommended that she also stay at our hotel, which she said she would look into. Honestly, everyone deserves a night in a hotel and away from the albergue for some decent sleep and privacy here and there.

After the rain calmed down we decided to go check out the Renaissance Festival, which was pretty underwhelming. Considering that this is the biggest city on the Camino, there was hardly a crowd. We didn’t see anything worth purchasing other than some handmade earrings and fresh Manchego cheese to snack on (mmm). I should also say that I find people who get really into Renaissance festivals to be an interesting group of folk.

After exploring the festival and town, we found this random restaurant (cannot recall the name), where we got paella to share for €12 and sangria for €3. I’m happy to say that I finally got my mom on the sangria train. Since this place didn’t have Wi-Fi we decided to walk to another café to get coffee, and where I could at least get started on the new batch of postcards I purchased. Our room at the hotel was clean, beautiful with a wonderful view of the cathedral. We even got to take care of some laundry. Hoping for a sunnier day tomorrow.