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Published: October 27th 2011
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Andy riding shotgun on the bus.Burgos is a town northwest of Madrid and the name has the same meaning as any town that you may know that ends in “burg” or “burgh”, like Hamburg, Pittsburgh, Edinburgh, etc. One person said that it means a fortified place and one person said that it had to do with a castle on a hill. I think it’s the former, personally.
Driving into Burgos, the first thing you notice is the Cathedral on the hill, which is very interesting and beautiful. When I posted a picture of it on Facebook, a friend commented that it reminded him of the Cathedral in Cologne, Germany. I can completely see what he means. As we’ve been exposed to all of these wonderful buildings, I have been trying to not only capture images of the buildings, but of the details, the special faces in the stone that you may not otherwise see. So, keep an eye out for that. ☺
Yesterday, the 26th of October, we arrived in Burgos, checked-into the hotel (after a little bit of a wait because we were a little early), and then I went wandering with Max Zimmershead. We just started walking in a direction, I took
Green Man?
This fella seems looks like he probably spouts off at the mouth often. several pictures and we went into a bar where they had a brand of beer called “Damm” and had “Damm Lemon”, which was basically a lemonade beer. Now, before you say, “Ewww!”, give it a try. It was really good. Then we went to a bar called “Boston” (I mean, come on! How could we NOT?) and had San Miguel Selecta, which was a slightly spicy beer. Quite decent. No baked beans in this Boston, though. As we were strolling, some rain started to fall and we made our way back to the hotel in a light rain.
We took a short nap before doing a sectional with all of the basses and baritones. We went over some trouble spots and worked as a unit, with our leader, Ryan Nakagawa, helping to give us some direction. I think that we did some good work.
Some of us then spent some time in the lobby enjoying the free WiFi to keep in contact with our Facebook and e-mail. After a little bit of time (maybe 10pm), Max, Dan Cudworth, and I decided to go find some food for “cena” (dinner). We looked at some restaurants close to the hotel
Cathedral
Burgos Cathedral. Ain't it something? and cathedral, but they were expensive. We meandered into areas that seemed a little more “local” and found a place called “Aquimismo”, where the food was quite good. Some croquetas, tortillas, bocadillos, and a couple other things I can’t remember. Now, for all of my dear friends at home, you have to understand that tortillas in Spain are nothing like tortillas that we are used to in California. Tortillas in Spain are very similar to a frittata. Egg and potato, mostly, often with onion and sometimes they’ll add ham and cheese or spinach, etc. Cena was only about ten Euros each, including beer. We returned to the hotel in the rain, again (none of us with an umbrella on us) and did the internet thing before hitting the hay. Oh, and it’s COLD in Burgos. I don’t know how to do the math, but I saw a sign that said eleven degrees, Celsius.
I woke up this morning earlier than I expected to, but that was OK because I was able to take time to get some good breakfast, which was fruit, meat, tortilla, eggs, and some sweet items. There was a chocolate torte thing that was rich and
Home
The pigeons seem to be comfy. amazing. Several glasses of orange juice, a cup of coffee, and some water (it’s DRY here!), then we got ready to head to our morning tour.
The tour guide, Luis, was very charming with a lot of information (which he may have repeated a little too much, perhaps) and he referred to us as “jovenes” (young ones). The first stop was a monastery, which we had to take the bus to. It was called “Cartuja de Miraflores” and it was really a very special place. Some of the iconography was beautiful; some was made with gold that Columbus brought back from America. The acoustic was quite nice, so we sang Ubi Caritas, again, which in this space was just right. I felt moved by singing that text and melody in this sacred space. “Wherever two or more gather in My name, there I am.” (paraphrased) This concept is repeatedly proven to those of us who have the honor of singing in such a wonderful group as The Choral Project.
After the monastery, we headed into Burgos for a walking tour, which took about 40 minutes. Again, Luis was very informational and showed us some wonderful aspects of Burgos, including
Ready
She was ready for the weather. a really cool statue of El Cid, who was a very influential person in Spain several centuries in the past, helping Spain to repel many incursions (forgive my history, but I don’t know much more than that – my mother-in-law would know all of the fabulous details). I will upload various photos on here from the tour, but I have to say that Burgos is a charming, lovely place and I would encourage anyone to come check this place out. OH! In the middle of the walking tour, we took a small restroom break, but the restrooms are in the restaurants and bars, so Daniel and I went into a place called Restaurante Don Nuño and ordered a couple of Coca Cola Lights and I saw this dessert on the counter. The guy said it was “Leche Frito”, which means “Fried Milk” and I thought, “Sounds good to me!” It was about the size of a generous lemon square, was like a custard with a lite egg coating, lightly fried and then sugar sprinkled on it. He heated it up in the microwave, where the sugar caramelized a bit, and then he added a little nutmeg. OMG. It was SO
On Water
I've decided that this guy should be called Jesus. yummy. I could eat that stuff hourly for 360 days straight (and look like I used to – even bigger, I suppose – LOL).
When the walking tour was done, Daniel needed to go check out the logistics for the concert in the Cathedral, so I joined Kristen Baxter, Randy Chastain, and our bus driver, Manuel for a small lunch. At the restaurant we ended up at, we ran into Jan Clayton and Eric Tooley’s mom, Kristen (Kristin?). The food was good – after some confusion over the menu, Manuel made an executive decision and ordered for all of us. There was Serrano ham, chorizo (little different than what we get in California), bread, morcillo, peccadillo (?), pimiento relleno, and tortilla. Also there was beer and wine around the table. The entertainment was better. Manuel is a real character and has found a great deal of fun with Kristen B. It’s a good thing that Kristen is a very good sport and amazing to be around. My Spanish has been getting a real workout, but with Manuel it was a joy because he’s really funny and made the afternoon fly by. Luckily Manuel knows a bit of English, so
Work!
These poor guys have a rough job of holding-up the Cathedral... where my Spanish lacks, we were able to (mostly) work it out.
At 16:30 (4:30pm), we had rehearsal in the chapel where we were to perform this evening. Rehearsal went very well, so we broke for a bit to get ready for the concert. The concert started at 20:15-20:30 and we sang to a full house. Since the concert was in the Burgos Cathedral, it was an all-sacred concert, including three spirituals. The concert went exceedingly well and we were very appreciated by this audience. People – both in the choir and in the audience – were crying at the end because the performance was just so very moving.
After the concert, we headed to dinner at a place called “L’Arruz”, which served a soup, a main dish, with a salad, and finished off with a light, sweet flan. It’s a good thing that we’ve been walking so many places, or else I’d be in big trouble.
It’s time for me to sign-off for the night and tomorrow we head to Zarautz after a little more time in Burgos. The Tolosa music festival starts for us when we get to Zarautz!
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Nate
non-member comment
Looks like fun!
Looks like you guys are enjoying yourselves. I love reading the blog and seeing what you're up to. I especially love the pictures. Keep 'em coming. :-)