Spain 2011 Day 3 Wednesday May 25

Spain day 3 – Wednesday, May 25, 2011 – Segovia, Burgos, Vitoria – 288 miles

Barcelo-Gasteiz Hotel, Avda. Gasteiz, 45. 01008

http://www.barcelo.com/BarceloHotels/en-GB/Hotels/Spain/VitoriaGasteiz/Gasteiz/Home

GLOBUS: "Head into beautiful Castile, “the province of the castles.” Cross the rugged Sierra de Guadarrama on the way to Segovia, famous for its Alcazar and the 2,000-year-old Roman aqueduct. In Burgos, see the magnificent limestone Cathedral of Santa Maria, where the legendary El Cid is buried. Afternoon arrival in Vitoria with time for a stroll through this ancient Basque city’s delightful historic center. (Breakfast, Dinner)”

Bags out of the room at 6:45am Breakfast at 7am; depart at 8:00am for Segovia to see a huge Roman aqueduct going right through the town. You can’t drive through it anymore as it was in danger of falling and it is really very tall (2,952 feet long and 114 feet high in two tiers) with no clamps nor mortar--amazing. We walked uphill to the town square, very small and quaint, then had a nice salad in the bus stop, just right for midday.

Then on to Burgos with its humongous Gothic cathedral where El Cid was buried; there was a huge bronze statue of him in the middle of the plaza where our bus stopped, and near where I stopped to have an iced tea after a very very hot walk around the town square and tower. Rather plain town, not very interesting, except for the cathedral. There is also a “white castle” looking gate building that leads out to a broad park, which was a former river filled in with grass. This seems to be common in many cities, as the rivers used to flood, and now they have added green space.

Then back in the bus for a long ride to Vitoria or Gasteiz in Basque language so all signs are in two languages; it is the capital of the Basque Country, but not much else in the town. Before dinner we took a short walk to the old town, with a square (Plaza de la Virgen Blanca) with kids camping out to demonstrate although they were probably still taking their siesta. They must go out at night to yell and cause a ruckus, but we haven’t seen any action so far. Apparently they keep the demonstrating kids in one square so as not to disrupt entire cities. There was another smaller old square next to it (Plaza Espana), with kids playing and people sitting around in cafes. (Not sure I got the names of the squares right)

The hotel was nice, although not as nice as Madrid, but we had dinner there (included) set up in a separate room for 20 or us, so I got to know a few more people. Every day a few more names make sense.