I may not be walking the Camino to Santiago — Burgos is one of the stops on the Camino and a pilgrim hostel is around the corner from our hotel — but I have made two mini-pilgrimages in the past two days. Yesterday to the Real Monasterio de las Huelgas, founded in 1187 by Alfonso VIII and his wife Leonora, and today to Cartuja de Miraflores, founded in 1442. Each monastery was outside the city and involved a beautiful walk. Today’s walk was two miles each way following the Rio Alanzon, that winds through Burgos. Remarkably, today’s walk was completely within a large city park. Trees are greening, birds singing, and well behaved Spanish dogs frolicking. The Cartuja — a Carthusian monastery — was atop a small hill in a beautiful setting. In the monastic chapel are tombs of the parents of Isabella (as in Ferdinand and…), Juan II and Isabella (of Portugal). The altar here is one of the most beautiful I’ve seen in Burgos, and I have seen dozens of dozens.
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