Burgos... excursion #2

As the weekends dwindle down and my to-do list grows (a rare occurrence this semester), we had our second excursion. For the trip, we visited the city of Burgos and the archeological site of Atapuerca, a few minutes outside of town. During our 3 hour bus ride, we made a brief stop to take pictures of a “dolmen”- monuments built during the Neolithic age. No one is certain what purpose they served but many dolmens accurately mark Summer Solstices and some lunar-cycle tracking. Built from 5000 to 500 BC, the concept of engineering these monuments and getting the large rock on top of the others is the greatest feat.

Next stop, Atapuerca Archeological site, considered to be the “cradle” of the first Europeans. This is where I should pretend to remember every scientific detail and the countless species, remains and lineages discovered at this World Heritage Site (actually declared by UNESCO). Or I could look at the cheat sheet they gave us, summarizing all of the lectures, but due to my own languor, I’ll spare you these details and skip to the parts I found interesting…. The site was discovered during the 19th century when the mountains were being excavated to construct a mining train. Last year, they believe to have discovered a pre-historic human species not yet documented. Needing much more evidence, it will be years before they can prove the new species. At the archaeological park, we were shown how tools were created from rocks, and how fire, houses, and bows & arrows were made. This subject matter isn’t my forte nor could I spend days upon days there, but it was interesting and educational.

After the site, we had a typical 3-4 course lunch then headed to Burgos. Side note- I’m going to miss the extremely large lunches in Spain. I hardly ever eat the typical enormous lunch; it would be depressing to cook a huge meal and sit by myself, staring at the wall (or better yet, staring at the TV pretending to understand Spain’s version of E!). So, when we have the opportunity to eat together, I love it! Not to mention, I’m full for practically the next week… or at least until we see gelato :-)

The city of Burgos is very pretty. Just south of the Basque Country, the people are much friendlier and the weather was warmer! I love gothic architecture (architecture is hard for me to spell these days… it’s arquitectura in Spanish… q? ch? e? a?... it gets me every time haha!) Consisting of pure gothic architecture, the Cathedral was inspired by Notre Dame and has been added to numerous times since it was built in 1221. The cathedral boasts (and I use that word intentionally) to contain 7 remains -yes 7 individual bones- of the epic Spanish leader “el Cid”. Other parts of his remains are in Germany, France and other parts of Europe. I was a little humored by this great “showcase”. I wonder if Burgos has a leg? A hand maybe? Haha. Moving along, Burgos contains hundreds of monasteries and 1,000 altars, 37 of which are in the Cathedral! Burgos is also in direct route of El Camino de Santiago - the Way of St. James- leading to Santiago de Compostela. During the Middle Ages nearly half a million pilgrims made this walk to Santiago to visit the reported remains of “the fisherman-evangelist St. James”. Receiving an indulgence once the walk was completed, it was a “ticket to heaven”. Saturday afternoon we walked a very small, 3 hour, portion of the Camino. The entire trek can take 24 days!

After lunch :-) we left Burgos, our group headed back to San Sebastian and the Bilbao group headed back to Bilbao. It was great to hang out with all of them again and to see and learn everything about Burgos and more Spanish history.

History in this region continues to, let’s say, surprise and entertain me in a way. Not only do the Basque like to argue that the Virgin Mary was from this region, God revealed Himself to sheepherders, another pre-historic species was discovered in Spain but apparently another picture of the “woman” in the Mona Lisa is in the Cathedral in Burgos. The name of the artist is not DaVinci, but in some “translation” it can be seen as Leonardo DaVinci. I don’t remember the way the name is transformed, excuse me, translated but it is all together humorous. Not to mention, Basque culture was extremely pagan until many years after the expansion of the Romans. I’m not discrediting the archeologists or artists but it’s a little comical that no one else has heard of these revolutionary theories. Wasn’t the Mona Lisa infamous because it was completely unique?

Sunday, I attended my first and last bull fight. This post is pretty long, you might need a coffee break or something, so I'll post a new one later about the bull fight. Also, there is this thing called class I have to attend right now...