Sept 8: Burgos Cathedral (the outside)

We were so impressed with the Catedral de Santa Maria in Burgos that I am going to break this blog into 2 parts.  The first part consists of pictures of the outside of the cathedral, which is just incredible.  The church and surrounding square is actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The church was started in the 13th century, and has been added on to for hundreds of years.  What we could take away from the walking tour is that every local spiritual leader who could build up enough power/favor would then "request" that a new chapel be added so that he could be buried there.  So for centuries, they just kept adding more and more onto the church until it eventually dominated the square within which it sits.  They even tore down some other buildings to make room for some of the expansions.

The middle photo was taken at night, when they light up the whole church.  This view is very similar to the view we had from our hotel.  Once we arrived in Burgos and saw the outside of the church, when we were checking into our hotel we quickly agreed it was worth the additional 10 Euros to get a room that looked right out onto the church (and for those of you who know what a tightwad I am, you know it must have been pretty impressive to get me to part with an extra 10 Euros).

The photo at the bottom was taken from the castle that is up on the hillside overlooking Burgos.  The castle provided the protection that allowed Burgos to really develop as a city.  Hopefully the photo gives you an idea of how big the church is relative to the rest of the old city.  It also provides a better view of the flying buttreses towards the left side of the church.  By the way, in all of the bigger cities we are finding that the old part of the city is much more quaint and where we spend the bulk of our time.  The streets are all very narrow with cobblestones or other inlaid patterns, and a lot of the second story windows have planters with flowers.  We've seen this scene so frequently that Linda has actually stopped taking photos of them (which says a lot, because she is a shutterbug), because they all start to blend together unless there is some historical monument that differentiates them.  Still very picturesque, though, and great to walk around in, and also for stopping at some of the outdoor cafes for tapas or dinner.

Speaking of Linda, she gives a big "WHO DEY" to all of you fellow Bengals fans on their victory over the Ravens.  While we couldn't watch the game, as soon as we completed our sightseeing on Sunday, we quickly went back to our hotel room and signed onto Bengals.com to find out how they did and get a recap of the game.  Sounds like it was very exciting, particularly the 4th quarter.  Glad to see the Bengals came out with the "W", particularly a divisional away game.