Day 17: Burgos and Zaragoza

There is a knock on the door as we pack to leave for Burgos. Ana has asked Gema to sell us goat cheese that she makes. Gema has come with the cheese. She charges us 12 euros for the cheese; it will be fun to try it. 

We are off to Burgos to see its cathedral. We leave the green mountains and rolling hills of Prioro behind and soon are in a vast flat farming area. It will be a very dull drive to Burgos; mostly flat and straight. Rick Steeves recommends a parking area near Plaza Mayor. We follow the GPS with few problems (not no problems) and end up in the underground garage. When we come up the stairway, we are in the Plaza Mayor and only blocks from the cathedral.

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I am very tired of cathedrals, but Ana loves them. Jaded as I may be, the Burgos Cathedral is surprisingly beautiful. Far better than the one in Madrid. It is modeled after Notre Dame in Paris and one notices the difference early on. I am not too interested in chapels that surround the main body of the cathedral. They strike me as fund raisers aimed at  the rich and the desperate. But overall when one considers the eras in which these have been built, they are in every way amazing. I am eager to see Gaudi’s cathedral in Barcelona, which is of our time, making it potentially quite different. 

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We find a cafe on a lovely boulevard just away from the cathedral. It is Saturday and people have dress up and come out to celebrate the weather and life itself. We have a goat cheese salad and come tapas, which is lovely on this sunny afternoon. I have underestimated Burgos and Leon. I liked them both more than Santiago de Compostela.

We must now drive nearly three hours to Zaragoza. It is about halfway to our next stop Andorra. I have read that it has a nice Moorish palace, so I have booked a room for one night. Between these two cities, the drive is booringly flat and tiresome. It is a long three hours. We call the hotel Sauce to confirm our reservation. I have picked it as being walking distance to the palace. Our reservation is confirmed and the desk tells us to drive up to the entrance and check in; their will be valet parking when we arrive. That sounds good. 

We are off the expressway and into town without too much problem. We cross a river and come down a busy main road to the center of town. The GPS says turn right and we do to find ourselves heading down a pedestrian street. I would have balked, but the hotel said to drive to the entrance. We are driving walking speed waiting for Saturday night revelers to move to the side. They do only reluctantly. Just last night about this time in Leon, I was a pedestrian looking at a car plowing through a main pedestrian street, wondering if the driver was drunk or lost. I am that driver now. I shake my head and keep going ever so slowly until the GPS says arrived! We turn right and park in front of the Sauces hotel. I am greatly relieved, but not for long. We must park the car ourselves a quarter mile away in a public ramp. It will not be a simple drive. We follow the directions and somehow it works out. The car secure, we come up from the garage  to find ourselves standing in the most beautiful plaza we have ever seen in Spain. In three days, this has happened in Leon, Burgos and now Zaragoza. The Basilica of Zaragoza is the corner stone of this square. It is enormous and with many towers. A spectacular site lighted in the darkness of the evening. The square is alive with activity. The temperature is warm, a beautiful night. 

We walk several blocks back to the Sauces hotel and freshen up. We find a very nice restaurant  only a few blocks away and enjoy a good dinner in its plaza under the umbrellas covering the outdoor seating. I have Rabo de Torro, bulls tail meat stewed, the bones removed, and served over mash potatoes. It is as good as I remember last year in Cordoba. Ana has lamb chops. The day has ended well.