Barcelona to Burgos (Monday, September 29th)

Today we left Barcelona, destined by train for Burgos in the region of Castille and Leon.  We took a taxi from our apartment to Estacion Barcelona Sants, arriving in good time for our 9:30 am departure. We passed through security (luggage scan) without issue and were then met with a wall of people blocking access to the control point for platform 3 and 4, and of course we needed to get to platform 3.  A helpful gentleman told us that the 9:00 am train to Madrid had been delayed and that is what all the people were waiting for, and he suggested that we stay to the right of the crowd and try and get closer to the front of the throng, which we did.

As time edged closer to 9:30 we became more worried about missing our train, but a young woman standing next to us, Marta, offered to go to the front and find out what we should do.  Marta came back and told us to wait as there were many people for Burgos in the crowd.  Eventually a railway official called for Burgos passengers to move to a different area, so we moved, but not without Marta's business card so that we could let her know how we got on. 

The train trip to Burgos was 6 hours at speeds up to 248 km/h, but it did not feel that fast, as the track in very smooth.  After we left Barcelona the terrain became almost desert-like, with very stunted trees and was much the same all the way to Burgos.  We munched on the sandwiches that we had brought on board, and enjoyed watching the four older Spaniards across the aisle from us, who seemed to have enough food with them to feed an army, and they consumed it all!

The only reason that we chose Burgos as a stop was that it was halfway to Lugo, and we wanted to avoid a 12 hour train trip, but we were very pleasantly surprised.  Burgos is built in a valley on the Rio Arlanzon, with ruins of a Castle on the hill above.  The cathedral is one of the biggest in Europe, and is situated on the Camino de Santo Domingo (Way of St. James), so sees lots of pilgrims and other visitors, but more on that next time....

We had a little trouble finding our apartment, but eventually we found it and got settled in. We then wandered the streets to get orientated and to find a grocery store, by which time we were ready for an early night.