Burgos

 Pilgrims on the 'Camino Santiago de Compostela' passes through Burgos. Todays pilgrims have fancy backpacks, expensive shoes and other accoutrement.

 Years ago I read about a soup typical of Northern Spain. I tried it at a restaurant at of all places, a cafe in Hendaye, France, on the border of France and Spain. I liked it and all this time I have been hoping that I'll eat it again. When I found it on the menu at this cafe in Burgos, I had to have it. It was just like I remembered it, good. It's called 'Fabada Asturianas' a white bean soup from the Asturias region of Spain.

 Our main object in Burgos was to see the Cathedral and when we had the spires of the church in sight, we were really excited.

 To get into the plaza where the cathedral was, we had to pass through this immense gate.

We had only an afternnon in Burgos. We almost missed our train in Madrid after going to Atocha train station when we should be at Charmartin. Our taxi rushed us over to Charmartin and we got there in time. There are other churches in Burgos and we managed to see two others.

Puerta del sol

Puerta del sol or kilometre 0, there's nothing there, just that all the buildings radiate from there.

The Prado museum

 A statue of Goya in front of the museum.

 The Prado

 It seems you can bring your paints and easel into the museum and copy some of the paintings. I saw two people doing it including this man.

After finishing with the Prado, we left with our heads spinning, so much art in a few hours, one cannot take anymore. But it was a great visit. After all these years of reading about the Prado, I was finally there in person.

Toledo, the city walls

As with most cities in the ancient world, they are built on a hill surrounded by fortified walls. Toledo is no different, its walls are still intact. The new city has built around it. There were other churches and monasteries within its city walls but time constraint did not allow us to see them.

A Jewish temple in Toledo

It was originally a Jewish temple but was converted later to a Christian church. While we see mostly decorative elements, we also see sprinklings of the Christian elements. Here a youg fellow was sketching in the temple and I took his picture.

Toledo, the city

We took the little tourist train that took us round the city walls. At the base there is a river and some beautiful bridges. As it rocked and rolled along, we tried to take as many pictures as we could without falling over. At some point at the base, it stopped, we got off and took more pictures. It reminded me of Sicily, the landscape and architecture is so similar. Except for the spires of the gothic cathedral, most if not all churches in Sicily have been rebuilt in the baroque style.

Toledo cathedral, the treasury

 A reliquary that is used to hold the sacraments. It's made of gold and is big and tall.

 This was its base, the room was small and crowded that one complete picture cannot be taken. I had to break it up into 2 frames. The sacraments are placed in here and the whole thing is paraded around the church. It takes lots of people to carry it.

There were a few valuable illustrated bibles and other silver objects making this a treasure trove of religious object d'art.