Burgos Cityscape © 2013 Mufidah Kassalias
Burgos is hitting the headlines as one of the top travel destinations for 2013. At the end of 2012 it was crowned gastronomic capital of Spain 2013, and more recently the New York Times referred to it “an ancient city with a fresh face and culinary buzz” in its 11th of January article, The 46 Places to Go in 2013.
I first learned of Burgos a couple of years ago through my half-Spanish, half-English friend in whose apartment we’re staying whilst here. And, as my only prior experience of Spanish culture was a 3-day trip to Barcelona in 2007, during which we spent much of our time exploring all things Gaudí, I’m now appreciating life and culture in a very different city.
In this ancient capital of Castilla, the Gothic Cathedral dominates the city with its many spires visible from much of the city. Being on the Camino de Santiago, it already attracts many thousands of pilgrims every year as they trek through the streets en route to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. They’re easily spotted with their hiking boots, backpacks and walking sticks. Plus the scallop shells that most sport on their carried belongings.
As the gastronomic capital for 2013, Burgos has some unique dishes and excellent regional wines to offer the food connoisseur. Not to mention a plethora of good restaurants and tapas bars.
Burgos culinary specialities include the famous Morcilla de Burgos (black pudding), Queso de Burgos (a soft white whey cheese) and Cillar de Silos, one of the many fine wines from the Ribera del Duero. Having tasted all of these, I can highly recommend them. And, of course, visiting the city of Burgos to sample their delights — as well as the delights of Burgos generally.
Mmmm, boquerones-sardines- love ´em,Ribera del Duero-in -heaven. Pretty cold up there now is´nt it Mufidallah! :)
That’s funny that you know about boquerones and Ribera del Duero! But I guess it’s all those years living in Spain :-) Yes, it’s cold here, but so far not much worse than England. Although it looks like it’s going to snow again this weekend.
Sounds like you are in the right place, Mufidah!
For the time being, yes. As someone who loves food, I’m usually pretty good at quickly sourcing out the best places — wherever we are!
I came here to post a comment about this past weekend’s article in the New York Times but I see you’ve already found out and turned that information into this blog entry. By the way, did you know that the name Burgos is of Germanic origin? It’s the same as the burg we have in English. The original seane was ‘fortified high place’, and later the word came to mean ‘town’ and ‘city’, as we see in names like Pittsburgh, Johannesburg, Luxembourg, Nuremberg, etc.
Yes, the same as the ‘burg’ in Edinburgh where I lived for many years. Apparently Burgos was once a lot of small villages which came together, adopting the collective descriptive word as the name of the town itself.
P.S. Thanks, too, for thinking of stopping by to let me know about the NYT article. :-)
You are obviously both good judges of places !!
Thanks, Helen :-) We’re both food lovers and generally good at quickly finding what’s good wherever we are!
Sounds very interesting! :) Great clicks, Mufidah. Have lots of fun in 2013.