10. Day 6 - Santovenia to Burgos.

The best laid plans ........
Today's plan was pretty straightforward and relatively easy. A 27k ride with just one climb early on. So we head off full of the joys of the Camino, 5k's downhill, round the corner, round another, round another then stop just to check we have taken the right track. But we hadn't.  Check our books, check a map in the middle of a village and with great confidence push on. Cut a long story short we are on the wrong track but found some interesting sights along the way including an old mining village now in ruins. Anyway we push the bikes up hill and down for about an hour, climb over the Matagrande at   1078m (which we would have had to do if we had been on the right track), then relax as we wind down into the outskirts of Burgos. A quick coffee then another hour pottering along bike paths through the city and we are our hotel by 2.30.
A milestone reached - we now have less than 500k to go. 495 to precise. our hotel is called NH Palacio de Merced is on Arlanzon Rio (river) , right opposite the Cathedral de Santa Maria. The cathedral dates from 13th century. it is mostly Gothic in style with renaissance and Baroque features to form a uniquely Castilian style. The magnificent Gothic spires were added during the 15th century. Inside the main and numerous smaller chapels are full of a mind-boggling quantity of religious art, and sculptures/artifacts. it is considered to be Spain's finest cathedral and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Burgos was founded in 884 and has it's origins in the Castilian king's attempts to defend their kingdom against the Muslims. Franco was proclaimed head of state here in 1936.  Our hotel is truly amazing and was built in 15th century and  was originally part of a church.  One of the specialties of the region is black pudding which was part of our delicious Tapas dishes for our meal tonight. This was followed by almond cake - another local delight and finished off by brandy and coffee. As you can tell, we are doing it tough!