After the cathedral, I took some pictures of its facade before climbing uphill to see the city from above. Then I went to the Museo de Burgos, another combination archeology-art museum housed in an old palace, or actually three, connected palaces. The rocks were boring. The art was mostly religious. At the end there were some modern pieces, but they weren't that great either. The walls of the palace had been plastered-over and I couldn't really see the structure well. Also, the guards followed me around because they really didn't have anything else to do.
Next I walked back across the river to the older part of the city to wander the pedestrianized streets. On the way, I passed some signs directing tourists to hotels in Burgos (these are common in Spain). Two hotels were listed and then the sign said "otros hoteles" (other hotels) with an arrow. I was somewhat puzzled because the sign was not specific. Are all other hotels located in one area? Are these all other hotels in Burgos? Castilla-Leon? Spain? Europe? The World?
In the old section, I walked by a statue of El Cid, an 11th century military leader from Burgos who fought against the Moorish troops and is a Spanish national hero. Behind the statue was the start of the shopping area, in which I could see Claire's....yes, the same store I shopped at when I was a tween. Disgusting.
After wandering for a bit I went to the Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos, a modern art museum. A German artist, Martin Assig, had an exhibition of paintings and sculpture which I didn't really like. There was also an exhibition by a Swiss artist named Ingo Giezendanner. He does black and white ("it's enough for me") drawings of cityscapes, some of which are large, mural-sized, while others could easily fit in a small sketchbook. He came to Burgos to do some sketching before creating a large-scale piece about the city. He likes to incorporate the local atmosphere into his work.
After the museum, I made a grocery store run for some dinner and fruit to last me through the weekend. On my way back into the old part of the city I saw a man digging through the garbage. I thought, great!, I can give him the rest of the deli turkey I'm not going to eat (there were six slices, too much for me for one dinner). However, when I finished eating, I couldn't find him. I went on an hour-long quest to find someone who was either homeless or hungry, but had no luck. Earlier in the day, women were begging for money, but at 8:30, even though it was bright out and crowds of people were walking the streets, no one was begging. I even followed two men, but one went into a candy store and the other entered a bar for a beer. It's actually quite difficult to find a homeless/hungry/poor man in a crowded Spanish town because many of the older Spanish men look so disheveled that I couldn't tell if they were poor or just unfashionable. I certainly didn't want to offend anyone. I couldn't even find a stray dog to feed.
At 9 pm the main plaza began to fill with people. I had seen signs all over town for a demonstration called, "Tomorrow they could kill you." I didn't understand what it was about, but figured I would go anyway. (Hey, I like a crowd!) A woman explained to me that the demonstration was more of a memorial. A 20-something bar bouncer was killed (I think he was beaten) by two drunk guys who wanted to get into the bar. The bouncer would not let them in because of their drunken state. As she was telling me this story, she made sure to note "and they were all Spanish, too." As if this somehow made the story sadder or more ironic. It was as if she was surprised about the lack of immigrants involved. It was shocking to her that Spanish could do this to another Spanish person. People gathered in the plaza to light candles and then marched with the candles to the spot where the guy was killed. We were supposed to march behind a banner and organizers did a good job of keeping people in place. I quickly discovered that my camera meant I could do whatever I wanted. I jumped right in, alongside the newsmen: a guy with a hand-held, but professional video camera, and a photojournalist. Because of my "professional" camera I was allowed to be in the thick of things and the organizers never told me to step aside or anything. They never asked me where I was from either. Clearly not the brightest lights: what self-respecting photojournalist would wear army-green, parachute, snapped up capri pants and carry a Longchamp? Really?
On the way back to the bus, I bought 11 cents worth of dark chocolate and called it a night. It was a great trip. Northern Spain is quite a bit different from its southern half. I noticed things like grocery store prices were higher the further north I went. I attribute this, the higher cost of living, to the fact that Northern Spain has a better economy than Southern Spain: Andalucía's unemployment numbers are about 1.5 times the Spanish average. At least that means my rent is so cheap I could easily afford this trip! I didn't think I would make it to the north before leaving and I'm really glad I did. It was worth spending three nights on buses to experience and see all I did. I know it was a quick trip, but I got enough of a feel for each place and have no regrets.
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