Ah, just the tonic I needed after a long week. Two emotional funerals in two days, sigh! ... So indulge me a wee bit, OK?....
Thank you for your Burgos pix!
In June 1977 I arrived in Burgos by train, from Lourdes. I was a well-intentioned but very naïve first time visitor to 'The Old World.' I was 24, just out of grad school and doing the classic 70's young-American-with-a-Rail-Pass thing. I was headed for SdeC, but you couldn't get there easily in those pre-internet, pre-yellow-arrow, days. No-one was walking back then, of course.... A Burgos stop seemed convenient and, well, there was all that El Cid history and stuff, ya know....
By the time I got to Burgos I was exhausted on several levels.... The train station was not where it is now. It was fairly close into town but across the Arlanzon. I hailed a cab, and told the driver in my half-baked Mexican Spanish to take me (Ha!) to a hotel that took American Express. He took me to the Residencia Cordon -- which was actually located in the historic Casa del Cordon -- and has long since closed. ("Clients leaving in the evening should place their rooms at the disposal of the Reception at Midday otherwise the following night will be charged.") No sleeping in the historic Casa now!
I won't go into detail about my exploration of Burgos the next day. I toured the cathedral, hiked up to the castle, toured Las Huelgas. (Boy, has that place gone upscale since 1977!) I had a grand time. That said -- my impression of Burgos was not all that good. Burgos in 1977 seemed, well, ... quiet, tired, stale, and depressed. No sense of urban vitality. Lots of clergy in cassocks visible on the streets, lots of uniformed guardia/soldiers. Very few foreigners, and ZERO pilgrims.
I've been back many times since then, and grown to love Burgos. That café terraza in the lower left of your first pic? -- that's the Café Bonfin. Decent enough place for a glass of wine, and some morcilla. View of the plaza can't be beat, which is what you actually pay for, of course..... I'll be sitting there in September, God willing, when I begin my next (last?) walk....
Pax. Fr. J.