Snapshots of Burgos, Spain

Snapshots of Burgos, Spain.

or

The End of the Journey.

This post is from the end of our walk from Logrono to Burgos, Spain. You can read more posts from this walk, or from other Camino trips. 

In my longtime obsession with the Camino, I have read quite a bit about the different cities that you pass through, so when we made our Camino plans, I knew that I wanted to have a whole day in Burgos, Spain.

Plus having an extra day built in had the added benefit of not making us feel rushed on the walk to get to Burgos. If we had needed to take a day off because of an injury or mishap along the way, we had this extra day to fall back on.

But since we didn’t need to use our “cushion day” on the trail, we had a full day in Burgos before we needed to take a bus back to Madrid, and I’m so glad we did.

We started off with a slow morning at our hostel, having breakfast with everyone who was headed off along the rest of the Camino. We wished everyone fond farewells. I sat long after the breakfast buffet had been cleared, having more coffee and writing in my journal, filling in the details I didn’t want to forget.

We opened the windows of our room to air out our packs and Kandace washed our smelly hiking clothes in the hostel laundry. For the first time in days, we didn’t smell of mildew.

Then we began to wander the rather gorgeous town of Burgos. The Arlanzón River runs right through the town, so we found ourselves walking up and down its shores several times as we criss-crossed around the city.

I always love a city with a river walk!

We wandered away from the Cathedral (though it was always in view), and then back towards it again.

We visited the Museum of Human Evolution, where among other exhibits, we saw the oldest human remains found in Europe. They were found just outside of Atapuerca.

We had entered the Old Town the day before from the east so we had missed this great gate that welcomes you from the west.

It’s actually a tower that we climbed up into. There were offices inside, but also some historically preserved corners where soldiers used to stand guard over the town.

We returned to the rows and rows of tapa bars for lunch, where we managed to find some new bites to try as well as favorites from the day before.

After lunch we wandered the city some more.

We made a stop in a pharmacy where Kandace introduced me to the wonderful world of French moisturizer.

We stopped in more shops for souvenirs, including a stack of postcards we later sat writing in the hotel bar.

We climbed the stairs up the north side of the Old Town behind the Cathedral.

They lead to several more old church buildings.

And then up to a park that overlooked the city.

Beyond the park is the medieval Castle of Burgos, which we wandered around for a long time. It was open and free to the public to climb around the castle ruins.

All along the walls we stopped for photos of the city of Burgos below.

Also, we photographed ourselves with our matching Camino shells in the castle ruins. I’ve had mine since I walked the Camino in 2015, a precious gift from my fellow walker LynEtte. And Kandace got hers that day in Burgos. So fun.

The cathedral seemed smaller from this height, though it still towered over everything else below.

The views in every direction were just gorgeous.

It felt like you could see everywhere we had walked over the last week.

We stayed in the park until we started to catch a chill. Then we walked back to our hostel where we ran into the hostel host from our first night on the trail. That hostel had closed now for the winter and the staff had all come to Burgos to find different jobs until it opens again in the spring.

We also saw our friend Tony, who had stayed back a night to have a rest day. He was returning from visiting the monastery, a sight we had missed and further proof that Burgos, Spain is a city worth spending a bit more time in.  Tony had invited everyone in his hostel room to dinner, which he was fixing in the hostel kitchen. We joined them for our last meal as pilgrims on the Camino, a fitting end to our week.

The next morning we threw on our backpacks, had a final coffee and headed off to Madrid to fly away. We so enjoyed every moment of our time in Burgos, Spain.

And every moment of our sweet Camino journey. Even the rainy, snow bits.

PS. Since I have no idea where all the places we ate are, here’s a great guide to food in Burgos.

This post is from the end of our walk from Logrono to Burgos, Spain. Thank you for following along! You can read more posts from this walk, or from other Camino trips. We’ll be returning to the Camino in 2020. Wanna come along?