Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar, Zaragoza
Burgos Cathedral. July 2015
[from FB post: July 22, 2015}
My 4 hour train journey really seemed to take me all over N. Spain before I finally got to Burgos. The first hour or so was dull leaving Aragon, but then we got to Navarra and things started changing.... more green more hills. The train passed through Pamplona. What a lovely setting, I have to go back there. Then after Pamplona wow.... it was like I was in a different country and I think I was -- all the signs changed to Spanish and Basque! It was all cloudy and misty and green. Nothing like the hot, dry Spain I am used to in the summer. Finally we came out of the mountains and rain and into somewhat drier Burgos. I LOVE beautiful train rides!
A brush with northern Spain
There was no way to get from Zaragoza to Burgos except by slow train across an arc of northern Spain. I had already become spoiled by the Spanish high speed rail network, so I was more than a little bothered that I had a four hour "normal" ride ahead of me. As noted above, leaving Zaragoza we entered more of the dry moonscape surrounding that city, but as the rails slowly tracked northeast, the land became more mountainous and a lot greener. Once the train hit Pamplona it had become a fully different country. If I hadn't been locked into hotel reservations in Burgos, I would have detrained and explored Pamplona on the spot. My ex-colleagues from KSA, Chuck and Lisa, who later traveled all over Spain by car after a failed Camino attempt, spent time in Pamplona and loved the city. It remains high on my list of "must visits" in Spain.
After Pamplona we were solidly in Basque Country and, as I noted, the signage changed to bilingual Spanish/Basque. Basque language - just wow. After bouncing between Spain and Italy frequently where many words were very nearly the same, Basque was like someone wrote down Uzbek in Latin script. It was fascinating - I made a mental note "gotta return to Basque Country" (and I did). The mountain scenery was gorgeous. This was nothing like my preconceived image of Spain. The train passed through pine forested mountains and endless tunnels - I was glued to the the train window.
We arrived in Miranda de Ebro for a longish stop. Out of Basque Country and back into very Spanish Castilla y León, Burgos wasn't that far away. Then the rails passed through a remarkably short but stunning canyon in the mountains carved by the River Ebro at Pancorbo with two hilltop castles facing each other off on either side of the steep valley. Suddenly I had returned to "Spain" and its rolling wheat fields. The change was dramatic. It was now not surprising at all that the Basques had their own language and territory. They were literally walled off from the rest of Spain.
I was excited to arrive in Burgos as my friend Adrian FVdR's family was from there and he had often spoken of time spent in that place visiting family. In fact, the main reason I was stopping there was because of Adrian's glowing recommendation. In Burgos I learned a lot about the Camino. I admit, it did tug on my adventurous spirit to try. Who knows? It still may be in the the cards? That unavoidable train ride ended up being one of my best in Spain and influenced my future travels. Amazing how something we dread can end up not only being wonderful, but changing our lives in positive ways!
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