Still great weather. A beautiful day for a walk along the promenade. All along the river running through Burgos is a lovely walkway, quite wide, lined with beautiful trees, lots of grass, stone-laden walks and frequently with statues celebrating historical heroes of Burgos.
The second “must see” in Burgos was The Cistercian Monastery of Huelgas. It’s outside the town center, giving us a great chance to enjoy the promenade on our way. The Monastery is another impressive structure, mixing romanesque and gothic elements, but no match for the Cathedral. Yet it is still interesting for contents of its museum. We followed a tour, but the leader spoke mostly to her Spanish audience, although she did offer some small guidance to those of us who speak primarily English.
After the monastery visit, we went back toward the main bridge crossing the river, found some lunch, and then visited a much more modern museum dedicated to a much older history – The Museum of Human Evolution. Spurred on by recent (last 50 years?) findings by archeologists in nearby Atapuerca, this became an important center for archaeologists and anthropologists. The Museum of Human Evolution includes three buildings: an auditorium/ entertainment center, a museum, and a research center. We spent hours in the museum, modern and very well designed. It was fascinating and educational. We could have spent hours more – on another day, if our feet were not so tired.
We learned that Janine and Gil were in town, so we made it a point to meet them for dinner. We’ve really enjoyed their company, and we’ll be so sad to see them leave tomorrow. We had noted in the past that Gil has an unusual name. It’s just “Gil,” not short for Gilbert or anything else. Well, Evan noted on the map of Burgos that among the other four or five churches in town was one named Saint Gil – in Spanish, of course, it’s “San Gil.” So we walked with Janine and Gil through town to visit the Iglesia de San Gil where Gil could connect with his namesake and do a “selfie.” Then we walked and found a place for dinner and said our goodbyes. We will leave it up to Gil to complete the research and let us all know the history of “Saint Gil.”
