Tue, May 30 - A Lunch to Remember

Convento de San Marcos in daylight

Bob needed some rest and slept in until nine.  We had coffee and a pastry and then walked to the Bernesga River behind the Parador.  There is a wide walkway on both sides of the river, much greenery, and  beautiful bridges.

Tree Sparrow with Cottonwood Fluff for a Nest

White Wagtail

  It was a gorgeous day with deep blue skies and big fluffy white cumulus clouds.  We walked a ways looking at mallard ducklings and a few other birds until noon when we returned to the hotel to change for Lunch!

Three months ago Bob booked a table at Cosinandos, a one-star Michelin restaurant, for lunch today at 1:30.  We walked over in about ten minutes and were the first to arrive at the lovely sparely furnished room seating only about 25.   They offer just a tasting menu, which we ordered with matching wines. 

Sangria

Wonderful Cod and Peas!

We started with a glass of Sangria and a tiny chorizo sandwich, followed by a bowl of tiny cubes of cod in a pea purée wth tiny, incredibly sweet, whole peas.  Then prawns

Great Pigeon on a Stone Plate

in chick pea juice.  The next was my favorite: pigeon three ways: pate on a cracker, pigeon and mushroom risotto and rare slices of pigeon breast. We also had skate wing with asparagus and a very flavorful beef loin with a blue cheese and sautéed endive. Dessert of pine nut cake and pineapple ice cream arrived in a cloud of dry ice steam!  All in all, excellent food and wine!

A Happy Camper!

We staggered home for that great Spanish custom, the siesta!

Mon, May 29 - Driving to León

It rained through the night, but as we were eating breakfast it started to clear and we thought we could see snow on the tops of the mountains, but on closer inspection it was the sun on the brilliantly white limestone.  We walked along an exercise track through the woods and birded a bit as there seemed to be a little more activity after the rain, but we didn't see the pretty Eurasian Bullfinch which was featured on a hotel sign and which Bob needs!

Clearing Skies from our Room

It was raining when we checked out at 11, and the weather cleared and rained the rest of the day.  We took  back roads to León, our next destination, by driving west on the CL-626 through Guardo, Cistierna to La Robla, seeing many pretty towns, scenic overlooks, and finally reaching the N-630, a large highway leading into León.

Limestone Crags

Clutching the GPS and my maps, I did manage to guide us into León, a bustling city, through several roundabouts, suddenly entering into a large plaza on the other side of which stood the massive Convento de San Marcos.  This building which contains our Parador, was built in 1513 as a refuge for weary pilgrims on El Camino de Santiago and now is a very sumptuous hotel. 

Wall of the Parador

Our Living Room

Our room wasn't ready so we sat in the bar and had our Welcome drinks of beer, wine and a dish of olives and eventually were taken up to the fifth floor.  Bob had booked us into a junior suite which has a large living room, hallway and bedroom and a balcony.  The entire hotel is to be closed in October for a complete renovation as some aspects are a little rundown, so he got our suite at a good price, but it is still pretty plush!

Walking in León

We walked a mile to the walled old city where all the major historic sites are located (except our hotel), wandered around a bit, and return to rest for dinner.  The dining room opens at 8:30 and when we arrived was filling up quickly as the hotel caters to large bus tours of Brits and Americans. The food was excellent!  We split a starter platter of huge grilled forest mushrooms and artichoke hearts. 

Amazing Mushrooms and  Artichokes

Then I had a Leonese dish of sweetbreads in a delicious picante tomato sauce.  Bob had roast lamb which arrived as a slab of ribs with wonderfully flavored skin of which he ate every bit!  It came with a salad of slivered onions, carrots, tomatoes and lettuce - very difficult to find a simple salad in Spain that doesn't contain tuna, eggs and other such ingredients, so he was very pleased.  After dinner we stepped outside to see the Convento illuminated which was pretty spectacular !

Historic Part of the Parador

Front of the Parador at night!

Sun, May 28 - Butterflies and Wild Flowers

View from our Room

Last night we woke up at 3 AM to lightening and thunder and a bit of rain.  The storm moved off but the lightening continued to put in on quite a show!  But in the morning the sky had bits of blue, so we took off to look for hiking trails in the Park.

We dumped a bag of laundry off at Recepción and picked up a cute little Parador backpack containing our "Pic Nic" and set off up the CL-627 north. The highway was lined with snow poles which is why this parador is only open spring through fall - not enough snow for skiing, but too much for tourism.   

Mallow species

Lotus species

We quickly found an overlook for the Senda Peña del Oso (Bear's Rock Trail) with carefully designated parking for cars and bikes and took off on a road through the woods.   We reached  a meadow backed by a large limestone outcropping containing a small stone hut with a thatched roof in which farmers used to overnight while their oxen fed and rested in green grass, before returning to work in the fields.  

The Farmers' Hut

Unfortunately, no Spanish Brown Bears!  They are pretty scarce, but it would be great to see one!  This area is famous for butterflies and we saw quite a few, but birding is very difficult as the birds rarely show themselves.  We were surrounded by song but hardly saw any movement.

We walked a mile out, returned to the car, and drove on to the village of Vañes to another well-signed trail head, El Rablón, the big oak.  We hiked through woods of scrub oaks and meadows full of wild flowers, heard a bell ringing and passed a herd of very stocky horses: one stallion, several mares and some cute foals.  We found a well-built shelter for hikers and apparently also for horses as there was a lot of manure inside! 

El Rablón

 The trail became quite steep, the trees larger and we finally saw El Roblón, the big oak, an 800-years old, quite battered, but still beautiful tree!

It was looking more like rain so we returned to the car (about a two and a half mile round trip) and opened our "Pic Nic" bag which contained fruit juice, chocolate cookies and a delicious baguette full of large chunks of tuna, grilled red peppers and olive oil which we rapidly consumed!   

We continued up the road through an incredibly narrow stone canyon and up to the Puerto Piedrasluengas, a very scenic mountain pass with a hazy view today of Los Picos de Europa, a spectacular coastal mountain range that we visited many years ago.

Well-signed Hiking Trails

It was almost 4 PM so we returned to the parador and found our laundry neatly folded in a charming basket!  We napped and then at 7 took the elevator down to the bar and terrace, and although it was raining, found the tables under the overhang were full of Sunday family parties.  We went into the bar and had a rum & coke, for me, and a sensible straight coke for Bob.

"Candy Cane " Orchid

At 8:45 we returned to the dining room, full of the Brits, as the locals seems to have gone home.  We weren't too hungry, refused the bread and split an appetizer of leeks and roast peppers with cheese sauce, then duck with prunes and orange

sauce for me, while Bob had roast veal and veggies.  .We split a chocolate dessert and a bottle of red wine (our idea of holding back!) and returned to our room listening to the much-needed rain outside.

Through a very narrow  Mountain Gorge

Sat, May 27 - Driving to.the Parador de Cervera de Pisuerga

After going to bed way after our usual time, we slept in until nine and took the lift down to the breakfast room, and had a really great meal. Practically everything you could imagine was available: a table of yogurt, fruits, jelly cubes, a table of meats, breads, and cheeses, plus a table of pastries, and eggs to order!   It's a wonder we didn't waddle out of there, but we had a little restraint!  We checked out and drove out of town using Google's instructions which led us around eleven roundabouts and north out of town on the A-73.  

Burgos is a lovely small city with lots to do; we wish we had had time to visit the highly recommended Museum of Human Evolution and the Museum of Books!  If we're ever back here we'll stay longer.

Rather than going straight to León, the next big city on the Camino, we're heading north to a parador built inside the Fuentes Carrionas Nature Preserve for a little birding and walking.

We drove on the N-623 into an area of high plateaus  with limestone crags and ridges and deeply incised by impressive gorges cut by the Ebro river system..  We walked around a  field covered with low vegetation and copses of scrub oaks which should have been very boggy considering the the amount of mosses and lichens we saw,  but it was completely dry as northern Spain is experiencing a bad drought this year and this area is in the center of it.  Still, we saw quite a few flowers - our flower guide is not organized by flower colors which makes it very difficult to ID plants - thus the unlabeled pictures!

Several areas at about 3000' elevation had tall snow stakes along the roadside - pretty frightening to contemplate, even on a warm muggy day like this one! 

Eurasian Griffon

Village of Pesquera

 On the side road to Pesquera de Ebro we found a pull off with a well maintained trail overlooking a a beautiful gorge and then entered the pretty little village of Pesquera itself, which seems to be a destination spot as it had a parking lot outside of town filled with a bus and quite a few cars.  We drove through the narrowing streets, found the church and on the other side of town, after crossing the Ebro on a ancient one lane stone bridge, decided  we'd better turn around and head towards our parador as it was mid-afternoon.  We drove west toward the N-627 over more high plateaus with occasional isolated villages and worked our way into the mountains to the parador which sits overlooking a reservoir with a distinct "bathtub ring" this year from the drought.   We sat on the wide, crowded terrace with our welcome drinks, cokes and ice on this warm afternoon, as large family groups enjoyed their weekend outings.

  

A Castle overlooking a Village

Drinks on the Parador Terrace

After a short walk around the grounds, we relaxed until 8:30, the opening of the dining room.  We, plus probably all the Brits in the hotel, came in for dinner at the same time!  We had leeks with cheese, cod with sauce and caramelized rice pudding for me and beef carpaccio, octopus with garlic mashed potatoes, and apple cake for Bob,  Octopus is a popular dish in northern Spain, but since I have recently finished Sy Montgomery's Soul of the Octopus ( a wonderful book!) I will find it impossible.  The locals will arrive for dinner long after we're asleep!

Fri, May 26 - to Burgos

Soaring Arches of
Sto. Domingo Cathedral

Live Cathedral Chickens in the Cage Above!

We're only an hour from Burgos, our next destination, so we took it easy this morning, just walking across the street from our Parador to the cathedral and walked around inside.  It is amazing that this small town (pop. 6520) has such an impressive church.  Great, soaring stone arches, golden altars, and in one corner a glass-fronted cage with a live, strutting white cock and hen!!  In the Middle Ages a family of pilgrims was walking to Santiago when their son was falsely accused of stealing and promptly hung!  His parents continued on to Santiago, and on returning, found their son alive but still strung up; his parents appealed to the judge who said he would cut the boy down when the chickens he was eating came alive...Santo Domingo returned them to life and the judge cut down the boy.  Since then, a pair of chickens have lived in the cathedral!

"Chicken" cakes in a Sto.. Domingo Bakery

We packed up, checked out, and drove out of town over the old medieval bridge and saw our first white stork nesting on top of a tall brick chimney - a sign of good luck!  We drove on a two-lane fast highway, N-120, watching a steady stream of pilgrims/hikers walking along the Camino.  If they are doing the full route it is officially 486 miles.  It became very popular in the late 20th century, but pilgrims have been walking to Compostela ever since the 9th when the bones of Santiago (St James) were discovered there.  If I had better knees, I would love to do it as one walks through lovely countryside from village to village eating tons of wonderful food that one burns off right away!

We entered Burgos, a city of 200,000, and, with luck, just avoided entering the old city with its warren of little streets , crossed the Arlanzon  River, and found our hotel and a parking spot right in front of restaurant Cobo Vintage where we have a reservation for tonight!

We have a lovely room in this NH hotel - a chain of small,  very nice European and Latin American  hotels.  This one is the old Palacio de La Merced, although the hotel part is very modern, you suddenly come upon old stone walls and arches.  We relaxed a bit and then walked across the river lined with leafy trees, through a huge stone arch into a splendid large plaza with shops,  apartments, and a very beautiful large cathedral!   We bought tickets, joined a crowd and went inside the cathedral where we  were each handed an audio tour device to listen to short essays on what we were seeing.  And, as there are many chapels each with its own architect, gold leafer, wood carver, stone mason, let alone who's buried there, there was a lot to see and hear about.

There was a collection of really fine paintings which must have been recently cleaned as the colors were magnificent. In the middle of the cathedral was a big slab under which the local hero "El Cid" is buried along with his wife.  He apparently fought for whichever side was paying more, but battled mostly against the Moors and so is a hero.

Choir Seats

El Cid's Casket

Around 4, we heard a clap of thunder and saw it was pouring outside; when it lightened, we thought we'd better head home, buying some gelato, on our way to keep us going until our dinner at 9 PM.

Glass-fronted Apartments in the Rain

Our Gelatoria

At nine we headed half a block to Cobo , a restaurant that has recently received a Michelin star.

We decided against the tasting menu as you get many tiny bites of exquisite food but it is difficult to remember what you have eaten.  Our Spanish usually holds us in good stead, but with exotic foods it is really impossible  to figure our the ingredients, so we got menus in English and Spanish.  They were very accommodating and gave us half portions of each other's dish so it was almost like a tasting menu.   We got three breads, and a tiny ceviche of fish in a spicy sauce.  I got white asparagus in a warm and cool sauces and Bob had beans and chorizo. 

Hake Fish with Seaweed

For our mains we got half orders of delicious hake fish with a light tempura and sauces and of Mallard duck with two preparations which, although excellent, served to remind us of our wedding night when my father gave us a cooler of frozen wild duck breast to cook for our first meal...I had no idea what to do with it and served it almost raw with a few buckshots left in for good measure!  Not my finest culinary hour!!    We had an almond cake and a chocolate dessert.   Wonderful service, but I'm getting tired of reading that, say, beets are one of the ingredients of a dish only to find maybe three tiny cubes will accompany the fish or whatever!