Leon and Burgos: Day 3

Third and final day of the Leon and Burgos trip! First, we woke up in the morning, had breakfast, then loaded the bus for our awesome bus driver to get us a bit closer to the cathedral. I must say, all the bus drivers we've had are absolute pros and what they do. Driving is pretty insane in Spain, and it would not be an easy task to drive a bus, especially in the tiny little streets that have cars parked on both sides. Sometimes I thought for sure that we would scrape against other cars or sides of buildings, but we never did! It was a miracle! When we got on the bus, I had a bit of a scare. The first night of our trip, I had gotten 100 Euros out of the ATM, but when I got on the bus, I realized that it wasn't where I thought I had left it. I frantically thought of every place it could be, but I only remembered putting it in my pocket, and it wasn't there. I couldn't check my backpack, either, because it was in the bottom of the bus and we were already going. The whole time we were touring the city, I was really worried! 100 Euro is a lot of money... More like $130. Not a good thing to lose! However, after many prayers, I asked the bus driver when we got back to open the hatch, and I found it in my backpack. Whew! I am so blessed! :)

Like I mentioned before, today we got to tour the cathedral at Leon. Very cool, just like all the others! What I liked about this is that we didn't have a tour scheduled, so we were able to wander off on our own to enjoy the beautiful aspects of the cathedral. My friend Lexi had a travel book of Spain that mentioned this cathedral, so she read us some of the cool facts about the cathedral, and we were able to go explore them on our own.

This cathedral was a bit dim, and it had a ton of extremely detailed stained-glass windows. Apparently, this one was built in about 40 years. That's unbelievable to me! To see the intricate detailing, you'd think if took hundreds to thousands of years. Like the other cathedral, though, this one was added upon by different people with different styles, so some of the aspects were different. This was most apparent in the stained glass windows. Some had many panels with many different events going on and smaller pieces of colored glass, but others had larger panels depicting only one event. I don't think I would have picked that out on our short visit there, so it was good having that resource.

After the cathedral tour, we headed outside to a cloister that was connected to the cathedral. Apparently the tickets that our professor bought were for both things, so we figured we might as well take advantage of it! Outside we found a different view of the side of the cathedral, and some relics of what used to be on top of the cathedral, like this spiral turret. I don't know why it's not still on top, but it was neat to see it up close. After walking around the courtyard for a bit, we gathered with the rest of the group and got to go inside some of the doors that led out to the courtyard. Inside were more relics that were arranged into a museum setting. We couldn't take pictures in here, so I don't have any to show! There were a lot of figures with different symbolism, mostly of Christ and Mary. It seems a little weird when you don't know about it, but once you learn the significance it's actually really cool.

Next and last stop after a few more hours of driving was another castle in a city called Coca. The sun had just started to shine through the clouds, so we all climbed up on top of the castle and basked in its warmth! It's been so cold, so whatever sun we could get was paradise. We were all exhausted, too, so it was nice to have a moment to relax. This was a really pretty castle, though! What we were seeing was actually not what it really looked like, because much of it had been destroyed, so they recently restored it. I liked it a lot though! Profe. Hague went and got us our tickets, then we headed inside for a tour. They've since turned this castle into a school, and people actually attend it! We all that would be super cool to go to school in a legit castle, but we quickly changed our minds once we realized how absolutely freezing it was inside.

We decided that this castle
only belonged to women,
because this sign was
everywhere!  Girl power!

Castles don't retain any heat. At all. I think I've mentioned this before, but I don't understand how people could stand to live in castles or to use their cathedrals or churches, because they're absolutely freezing! Even when it's cold outside, the castle is ten times colder inside. The only thing I could think of is having fireplaces every 10 feet or so, but we only saw a few, and absolutely none in the churches or cathedrals. I wish I could go back in history and see the everyday life of these people. It's so cool to see and to learn about! This tour was a bit harder to understand than others have been. Our tour guide had a different accent because of the region that she was from. I didn't think that made a huge difference, but I'm surely learning that it does! My favorite accent so far has been the Segovian accent. It was the most clear, and people slow their speech down and don't slur their words as much. This tour guide did the opposite of everything I like, so it was nearly impossible to pick out what she was saying! When this happens, I usually just smile and nod my head like I know what's going on. Throwing in the courtesy laugh when you think she's told a joke is always appreciated as well!  Finally, we were on our way home.  I was so glad to finally get back.  Traveling is awesome, but it sure does take a toll on your energy level.  I still had a great time though!