Wyoming?

Bye-bye to Bilbao and the coastal region. On this dreary, wet and windy day I left the coast and headed inland. I'll have to check my geography to figure out if those were actually the lower parts of the Pyrenees that I went through today. It was a 'purty pitcher', not in spite of the fog, mist or clouds but because of all that. When the train was up pretty high we were kind of in really low clouds &/or fog and I kind of nodded off. When I woke up I might have guessed I was in Wyoming. The terrain looked exactly like the middle part of Wyoming between the praire of the mid-west state and the mountains. I think this might be the first wide open space I have seen on this journey! It's not quite Big Sky big but it's close.

And that has been my introduction, sort of, to Burgos. I arrived just before noon and went looking for the TI but let myself get side tracked to the catherdral. I had received a tip from one of the people at the Maritime Museum yesterday that this was a 'must see' place. Right call on that one! This one is pretty grand and pretty old. . . kinda. There's been some kind of church or chapel on the spot since 1221 or something. This one has been the most extensive as far as what's still there and what you can actually get to see. Several chapels with incredible alters, a choir with 103 individually carved seats. It took about 100 years to complete the seats. And, my favourit bit-a papamousca. I'm not sure it's spelled right but it it a piece of medieval sculpture that looks a bit jester like. It's attached to a clock. At the top of the hour it opens it's mouth. Papa is a kind of slang word for 'eat' and mousca is 'fly' so every hour the jester eats a fly. I was surrounded by magnificent displays of devotional art taking decades or more to complete and I picked out the clown! But I wouldn't have seen it if the audio guide hadn't mentioned it so somebody else liked it, too!

The train ride, the cathedral tour and lunch at a downtown family restaurant was pretty much the day. I had plans of other stuff here at the hostel but the facilities are limited so this will pretty much be it. (Free interet again!!) This is just a one night stand here but I will have all of tomorrow to explore more of Burgos because I´ve got a night train to Portugal.

This is another nonhostel hostel. Maybe that's why it's spelled hostal. But I´ve got a single room and don't even have to go down the hall for the bathroom. These hotel/hostels have TV in the rooms. I saw Monk in Spanish last night. And on the joyous note, I'll bit an hasta la bye-bye from España.