We had a nice and relaxing weekend in Bilbao and now Chantal and I have returned to Burgos to resume our trek. Molly went on to Leon to meet her daughter who arrives tomorrow. We had to take separate buses even though Molly´s bus came through Burgos on its way to Leon. So I am hoping she has arrived safely and found an albergue for the night. Chantal and I were not certain we would be allowed to stay in the same albergue as we had 4 nights ago but explained our trip to Bilbao when we arrived and they were very nice. Remarkably, she and I are in the 2 bunks adjacent to where Molly and I slept when we were here. Even the reception found that very coincidental and a bit humorous. We did some laundry right away as the hotel didn´t have laundry facilities. I went for a walk and the sun is scorching today. I made a loop around the old section of town walking the part of the Camino out of town to the old wall of the city and the former location of El Cid´s home. That inspired me to walk to the other end of the old city to see the statue of El Cid, something I didn´t see last week when here. Unfortunately it is in the middle of a busy intersection, but it is a pretty fantastic sculpture. It is remarkably expressive of the handsome warrior in full regalia, with cape billowing in the wind, sword held high and his warhorse moving proudly across the interesection.
The city shuts down, except for bars and ice cream shops, from 2 pm to 4 pm. It is frustrating if you are hungry as many of the restaurants do not provide food either. Many restaurants then do not begin to serve dinner until 8 pm, which makes for a very long time to wait for a starving pilgrim. There are usually some places to get a bite; tapas in the bars is pretty common; but you can´t plan to walk on that the next day. Reports from friends who have gone on ahead say the meseta (between Burgos and Leon) is very hot. Tomorrow I plan to head for Hornillos del Camino, a 20 km walk that is almost flat. I hope to get going very early but the albergues discourage leaving before 6 am. At least the location of the cathedral and this albergue are on the western end of the city so I should get out into the open country quickly. I feel so much better since my weekend of rest. I hope my body adjusts to walking easily again.
In Bilbao we visited the Guggenheim Museum of modern art on Saturday. It was a phenomenal building. Very confusing to walk through, yet the design certainly compliments the art. From the river the building is designed to look like a ship, a giant titanium ship. Inside, all the odd extensions from the outside become rooms for the display of various types of art. I cannot say I have a great appreciation for modern art, but there were parts of the David Hockney display that were very engaging. He mounted something like 9 cameras on a car and drove slowly through the countryside near his home. With 9 on each side he then was filming the sides in both directions, then they were displayed on 18 televisions for an incredible and peaceful though provoking and stimulating design of the natural world in various seasons. It was very interesting. Sunday, Molly and I took the Bilbao boat tour to the ocean, or rather to the breakwater. We were a bit disappointed that we could not go through the breakwater into the Bay of Biscay, but it was a very enjoyable trip. I took a photo of the view from the back of the boat as we returned upstream. The ocean in the distance was beautiful. For the most part in the afternoon we rested. Actually, the boat ride was so relaxing both Molly and I began to doze off just before reaching the city again (it was a 2 hour round trip). The extra rest was very much needed. We enjoyed lots of vegetable salads, something that can be hard to find when walking, and plenty of Rioja wine. It is back to the road tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment