On the fourth day we left the País Vasco (and the Rioja) behind us and went straight towards Castilla y León. Visiting Burgos on our way to Salamanca. I wasn’t really blown away by Burgos, although I had some high hopes for this place. The only place that was worth visiting was the cathedral and the Mirador del Castillo if you love sights over cities.
Salamanca on the other hand was way too touristic, but we enjoyed the city. Maybe the weather was a greater influence than we think, because after a few clouded days, we finally had the sun breaking through. We visited the cathedral as well and, by night, we booked the Ieronimus tour (only in Spanish – but for those who don’t understand Spanish, you get a small booklet with a translation in English and maybe French or so as well). The Ieronimus tour took us to places inside the cathedral we couldn’t visit alone. We got to walk over the roof and saw a little light spectacle as well. Kind of bizarre, but nice.
Our sixth day of the journey we spent visiting Ávila, El Palacio Real de la Granja de San Ildefonso and Segovia. Of all the places we went to, Ávila was the nicest place to be. Not too busy, rather small and it was so cool to walk over the Murals. We didn’t do the whole walk, because we couldn’t afford losing too much time if we wanted to visit the two other places as well. But the ancient Murals were kind of nice. I have to say… other than that, there was not much to be done in the city. Although there were a lot of restaurants and they all had a delicious scent coming from them.
El Palacio Real de la Granja de San Ildefonso was kind of disappointing. I expected it to be kind of like the villa Ephrussi de Rothschild we visited back in France, but it was the worst version of it. None of the fountains was working in the garden and the house itself wasn’t anything special either. Maybe we came to early in the season for this place?
Segovia on the other hand was the most touristic place we visited today. With lots of school buses who dropped of a whole bunch of classes. But I liked this city as well. Especially the Aquaduct. How could we not? He cathedral was also spectacular to see (but we didn’t visit it) but the other main attraction was the Castle, which is said to be the inspiration for Walt Disney when he talked about Cinderella’s castle. I didn’t see the resemblance… but on the other hand… I don’t know Cinderella’s castle very well.
Before we left Castilla y León on the seventh day, we stopped over in León. And yet again… not impressed with this city. I have to say… the northern regions of Spain did not surprise me when it came to the cities. The nature on the other hand, that’s the real reason why you have to visit this places.
Around the world in a lifetime 