You lose, you win

San Esteban de Gormaz had always been meant to be just a stop over to get us to other places, very much like Palencia. And it turned out to be just that. A bed for the night.

Sometimes you just about miss the honey pot because you simply don’t know where it is. In our case it was in the next town on the way. As we left San Esteban half 10 after a quick supermarket breakfast (you know… fresh baguette, ham, cheese) we headed East first and rolled through Burgo de Osma ten minutes later… jaws dropping.

Old castle up on the hill to the right (okay San Esteban had one too, but the one in Burgo was in much better nick!), old medieval town wall with church and buildings crammed inside and the main road through town we were on was bustling with people and lined with busy cafés. Bummer. Missed a treat there.

Headed North shortly after and into another nature park with the road leading along the river Duero which gives this region its name if you’re into your wines (Rivera de Duero).

Stopped in the village of Covaleda and found it bustling with people. Had a coffee and a juice at one of a handful of busy cafés. What a nice place. The whole area we’d just ridden through on the very nice CL-117 with lots of woodland all around and mountains in the distance was full of hiking routes and you would probably struggle to find any other than Spanish tourists. The area was offering waterfalls, monasteries, mountain tops and a couple of GR long distance trails.

Headed on to eventually join another N-road straight into Burgos, our next destination. It wasn’t too bad and had a few corners to keep us entertained. To add to it, we hit some pretty strong winds halfway through and really had to grip the handlebars tight to keep the bike upright.

Just before that we saw a huge number of birds of prey circling up and down and around a small spot somewhere by the side of the road. Some if not all of them eagles. Must have been dozens and it was quite a sight to behold. We had no idea why they were there?! Even a dead cow wouldn’t attract that many would it?

Rolled into Burgos just before 4pm sweaty and hot. The strong wind had made 28 degrees seem nice and cool, but now we were all hot again.

Checked into the Marriott hotel (la-di-da!), had showers and headed into town.

Wow, Burgos. Very nice!!! Just wandered around for a bit, had a beer and coffee at one of the plazas. Even now in the dead zone before things open for the evening it was rather nice walking around. Cafès were open and getting busy, nice little shops, pedestrianised streets, etc.

Walked around the impressive cathedral (first gothic cathedral in Spain) and as we headed uphill to a viewpoint found a Brew Dog, ha! Would’ve been rude not to, so we had a couple of beers first.

Back down we found an Asturian Sidrería and had a bottle of course. Awesome. Then over to our chosen “gastro bar” for the night: Norte. Thanks to TripAdvisor for this one. It was fab!!! Great cocktails, great food, great service.

Feels like we’re almost back to where we started

One last beer at a metal pub we found earlier. Pure chance I had my Motorhead shirt on, haha. Get in!!! It was heaving with people everywhere now, but in a good way very relaxed atmosphere and the balmy temperatures helped as well.