Perigord and pinxtos: From cathedral to ferry

We drove the inland Santiago Camino from Chaves via Leon and Burgos to Santander to catch the ferry to Plymouth: a $A1,000.00 a night deal, without meals, on Brittany ferries. Leon and Burgos have two of the most extraordinary Cathedrals in Europe, both big draw cards with the pilgrims of old and, to a lesser extent, with the pilgrims of now.

There were masses of pilgrims enroute on this, the traditional inland route, heading for Santiago, some weeping at the portals at their first sight of each cathedral. Poor blighters! Wait till they get to the door and have to pay just to see the altar! Both cathedrals are extraordinarily beautiful. But, I still love Sagrada Familia best in the world! Go Gaudi!

Leon is remarkable for its height. It seems to vault some six stories and has so much extraordinary stained glass that the walls appear as glass which gives the entire structure an edgy fragility as there is so little brute strength in its spare pillar and stone supports.

Burgos cathedral is remarkable for its phenomenally carved interior altars, but more especially for its decorator iced-cake exterior, where rock drips like spun sugar from steeples in the sky. But both cathedrals have become so completely commercialised, these days, that it is difficult to feel much sense of sanctity about either of them. They have an air about them of detached autocratic paying museums. A couple of inner chapels allow free entry but most everything of importance is pay at the door, and pay through the nose. Even for the pilgrims who have worn their feet to blisters and blood getting there. Religion seems to go through these cycles, and this type of commercialism seems to happen during its uglier downturn phases. Ah well: all things have their day and Leon and Burgos’s cathedrals best days have very likely passed. So be it.

Leon downtown has a characterless air about it, with somewhat modern thoroughfares and what historical charm it has: glorious cloisters, brilliant nave - comes at a price, while this pervading sense of money-grubbing about most of its ancient character buildings: museums, churches and the cathedral -- is completely off-putting.

Burgos has more ground appeal and is a friendlier city. It builds on its fabulous peregrino history, highlights its remarkable city gates, marks its characterful calles and tree-lined avenidas with well-signed historical markers (in many languages), and although commercialism is alive and well in Burgos it is nowhere near as crass as in Leon.

The inland roads from Chaves to Santander were pleasant, if bland, autoroutes with some exceptionally long slow straight climbs in them but nothing scenically remarkable like some of the twisting vertical and switch-back mountain roads we’ve travelled these last two months. One tunnel, though, was 2.6 kilometre long and rates as our record length this year. Good roads, sane traffic, green scenery, easy driving – from a passenger perspective, though, just a bit of a snore.

Santander, we’d supposed, would be solely a ferry stop but we ended up really enjoying our time there. We arrived in time to negotiate an earlier ferry: which we did for no extra charge, which quite amazed us in this day of fees for breathing.

We camped just out of town on another hill during another famous feast, this one for St Peter, believe it or not! and had daytime fireworks and night time festivities. Play it again, Sam! Added to which, of course, we were there for the final of the European Cup and watched Spain win with ease. We had been supporting Holland, because we support Rene, who is Dutch, and his countrymen played their earlier games brilliantly. We’d pretty much lost interest when Holland were defeated by Russia, but elected, nonetheless, to watch till the bitter end.

On my computer, I might add! Which for a miniscule amount -- less than $A100 on eBay one fun day- I turned my computer into a travel television with the purchase of a tiny little USB connector, the size of a flattened finger, along with a mini-stick aerial on a teeny tiny cord. It worked wonders when we needed news. Some nights, this trip, we’ve had anything up to 40 channels to choose from. I am so besotted with modern technology. I hope our kids and their kids have some sense of the astonished joy that our generation has just playing with these gadgets that they continue to produce just to improve their leisure world. Gadgets that despite being tiny, can produce such awesome effects, relative to size. I am charging our laptop on an inverter which Pete and Lyn (Wonderful, both of you!) attached to our leisure battery with two tiny pigtail wires that convert the battery from its 12 volt output to 240 volts. I didn’t even know what an inverter was, or did, this time last year, but now, after much internet research on how best to run our laptop while we were travelling, I reckon I could, now, argue the benefits of pure sine over modified sine waves for computer usage-- with some ease.

Santander turned out to be fun. We did the fate-thing. If we saw an accessible boat heading somewhere we hopped on it, not having a clue where it was going, for how long, or for how much, and we ended up having a great day on some tiny ferry boats, crossing from stop to stop and exploring each stop: eating icecream, drinking beer, nibbling pinxtos, walking, talking. Our last taste of Spain. We will miss it. The Santander to Plymouth ferry is huge, rather glossy for a channel ferry, with lots of mirrors, stainless steel and glass. The trip across is nineteen, gentle, engine-throbbing hours and a very comfortable overnight ensuite cabin made for a pleasant crossing. In the morning, after a lovely evening meal and a good night’s sleep, we arrived becalmed. Pete and Beck are not really sea lubbers, so this was a good outcome for us.