Rest Day in Burgos
Distance: 0 miles / 0km
Elevation: +0ft, -0ft
I got to sleep in today! I didn’t wake up until around 8am, and it was so nice to have no alarm, no snorers, and no place to be in the morning. After I woke up, I took my time getting up and ready for the day. I had a few things I wanted to do today, but the city is fairly small and I had all day, so I wasn’t in a big rush.
It was drizzling and a little cold this morning so I first went to a coffee shop and got a Café Con Leche. I passed a cool coffee shop yesterday that I wanted to go to, so I went and got a second coffee and then a croissant for breakfast. I sat outside under an awning and watched the rain for a while.
Then, I headed over to the Museum of Human Evolution. A small town along the Camino that I had passed through, Atepuerca, is known for having a number of ancient human remains found there and is a huge archeological site, so the nearest city, Burgos, had a big museum dedicated to it. I also found out that on Wednesdays they have free admission which is super nice. I’ve gotten really lucky with the timing of being in Burgos, with the free cathedral visit yesterday and the free museum entrance today.
I spent about 2 hours walking around the museum and it was a really fascinating place with a bunch of exhibits and interactive portions. I think my favorite part was the life sized models of different pre-human species (Neanderthals, Australopithecus, Paranthropus, etc). The whole museum brought me back to my human evolution class I took during freshman year of college and it brought back a lot of memories!
After the museum, I walked around Burgos for a bit. I checked out a sports shop, wandered around, and eventually decided to go to the Burgos castle which sits on top of a hill that has a nice lookout area. It was a bit of a climb to get up there but wasn’t too bad. I sat up at the top and enjoyed the view for a while and then eventually walked back to my hostel.
It was about 3pm, and this point and a lot of shops were closing for siesta (the mid-afternoon rest hour), so I figured I may as well go back and take a break for a few hours too. I spent some time relaxing, showering, and enjoying the rest day. At around 7pm, I got up and headed out again and went to the municipal albergue where I picked up a pilgrim credential for a guest joining me in a few days 😉 and then walked around the town some more and popped into a few pintxos bars for dinner.
After dinner, I stopped by this ice cream shop I had passed a few times that always had a massive line out the door, but it happened to be pretty quiet when I got there. I got a small cup with kinder & ferrero rocher ice cream and sat on the steps of the Burgos cathedral to eat it.
After I finished the ice cream, I spent some more time exploring areas around the main square I hadn’t seen yet and then went to the grocery store to buy some snacks for the road and breakfast for tomorrow. I headed back to the albergue and got ready for bed. It felt really nice to have a rest day and my feet are definitely feeling a lot better, even if I still did a fair amount of walking today. I’m excited to get back on the road tomorrow!
