As you’d expect the cathedral in Burgos is of an incomprehensible scale so coming across this model was handy (sorry about the reflections).
We got up early, had a great breakfast in the hotel, and were in the cathedral square by 9:30 when a Picasso exhibition opened in a peripheral part of the cathedral structure. It was very well done and featured one Picasso’s anti-war pieces, the harrowing picture of a mother and dead child. Jane cried.
After pulling ourselves together we got tickets for the cathedral. It cost us €10 each to get in but if we’d had our pilgrim books with us it would have cost just €6!
Everywhere in mainland Europe now seems to run on QR codes, from menus to timetables to tourist guides. The cathedral tour QR code led us to a guide app which downloaded fine but the content bit was too much for our 5G connection. So we just wandered around somewhat overwhelmed by it all. It consolidated in our minds the concept of “cathedral thinking”.
Just to give some idea of the scale of things. Behind each of these arches, and these are just three of them, are chapels of extraordinary opulence.
Here are a few images to give you an idea of the scale and spender of these chapels.
After the Picasso exhibition and the stroll around the cathedral we walked briskly back to our hotel to check out and head for the bus stop. We got the #2 bus to the train station and were in plenty of time to catch the 13:24 to San Sebastián.
The train went through some lovely countryside.
However, the train unexpectedly stopped short of San Sebastián and we were all ushered off at Altsasu. We had to wait half an hour for another train, that came in on the opposite side of the platform, while the train manager made frantic half-whispered phone calls. No-one quite knew what was going on.
Clearly, we are now in Basque Country.
Was this all part of a mass kidnapping by Basque Separatists, we wondered? Turns out it wasn’t. But the train sent to our rescue was a rather run down local one. Although it didn’t stop at all the stations on the line, it went very slowly between them. We finally arrived in San Sebastián 45 minutes late.
We needn’t have worried about arriving late as the party in San Sebastián had only just started.
What an amazing place. There was eye-catching architecture right outside the station.
No derelict buildings here!
We dumped our bags in our accommodation and walked the whole length of the bay to the funicular.
Like the one in Viana, this one was more than 100 years old. There were great views of the bay from the top.
Aside from the viewing point, the rest of the summit was mostly fun fair – and absolutely packed, as it was the May holiday. So we had an ice cream and came back down.
It was still very busy at sea level but we found a table for two outside a tapas bar, a storm was threatening, but it held off.
By the time we’d finished, the beach had largely cleared and the tide had gone out so we wandered back to our accommodation along the sand.
We’ve had some fantastic and some very odd accommodation, some enormously spacious and some so bijou you can hardly get in and turn around. No luxury for us tonight – it’s firmly in the latter category!
With the holiday, everywhere was booked out, so we are in a small white box with barely a window. If you get out of the wrong side of bed you are in the shower and the loo is practically the bedside table.
We are going to get up early tomorrow, have a quick look around the old part of town, where our accommodation is, and then jump on the local train to take us into Hendaye in France, where thunderstorms are due!
