Burgos

We got up early and said goodbye to Pamplona and our delicious little cafe with the fresh squeezed orange juice and exquisite cafe con leche. Our first stop was Santo Domingo de la Calzada. This stop is often overlooked because pilgrims are trying to make it to the next stop for the day but it’s full of history and delight! According to the Codex Calixtinus, a miracle occurred here when a young pilgrim who had been wrongly accused and sentenced to death was founding still alive, hanging from the gallows. When his parents ran to tell the governor who was getting ready to eat a chicken, he didn’t believe that the man was still alive. The story goes that he exclaimed that if the man were truly alive, the chicken on his plate would get up and live. Miraculously, the chicken got up and to this day, to commemorate that miracle, a live chicken lives in a gilded cage in the Cathedral! Also, all over the town, you can find little chocolate chickens and images of chickens.

We drove through the Rioja region and the meseta and stopped in Burgos for the day. The Burgos cathedral is spectacular and we spent some time learning its history as well as learning about El Cid, the Spanish Christian conquerer who earned the respect of both the Christians and the Muslims during the Crusades. He and his wife are buried in the cathedral. The lookout in Burgos has the remains of a fortress that was destroyed by the French. We added another pilgrim in Burgos!