another long trip

this was our last long, more-than-an-overnighter trip. we went to León, Frómista, Burgos, Covarrubias, and Santo Domingo de Silos... all in a three-day time period. León y Burgos were some of my favorite places we've been to so far. i guess it's hard for me to say that because i've loved everywhere we've been so far. but some of these sights were to die for.

Thursday: we took off in the morning and drove to León. the bus ride was fun: filled with sing alongs to high school musical and styx, and discussions about each of our individual lists of things to do before we die (i made one right then and there). when we got there, we went to visit the real basilica de san isidoro, to see the sarcophagi (sp?) of a lot of the past kings of león. there was some beautiful artwork there and a museum and a really old library filled with ancient books and manuscripts. the fresco on the ceiling of the tomb room was incredible--it was totally well-preserved and had a lot of scenes from the Bible and Jesus' life.

after that, we went to the cathedral there.. and i think that it has to be the highlight of my trip. it was the most beautiful building i have seen in my life. basically, some of the most incredible stained-glass windows i have ever seen covering all of the walls and illuminating everything. it was BEAUTIFUL, the kind that makes you gasp as you walk into the building. dad, i suggest León as a place for us to visit so we can come see this cathedral. because all of the cathedrals are impressive. they're HUGE! they're larger than life; you look at them or go inside them and think, "how on EARTH could people have built something this large/grandiose/ornate thousands of years ago without technology or anything?" but after a while they all start to run together. and it also gets annoying when they're as big and as confusing as hogwarts and there's no way you could walk around the whole thing without getting lost. this one was still huge, still inspiring, but a lot more reasonably sized and not overboard. all in all, i give the cathedral in León an A+.

we went to visit the museo de arte contemporaneo in león but it was closed. it was a really cool multicolored building though, and maybe if we come back here we can visit it, right, dad? after leaving león on friday, we headed to frómista and saw another small little church there. and then we headed to burgos and visited the monasterio there (about 7 of us got totally 100% lost on our way there but we eventually looked into the sky and realized you could see the monastery in the distance... another reason you should be aware of your surroundings). monks and nuns still live there! who knew that people still did that? i kind of didn't realize it. but there they were. and then after that, we went to the castillo de burgos, which sits on the top of the hill overlooking burgos, and gives you a beautiful view of the city. there were some awesome gardens there too, which we explored and walked through. the cathedral there really is an impressive sight as well (it definitely is one of those that falls into the category of the overly large and grandiose cathedrals. i mean, it's absolutely stunning how large it is, but once you get inside, it's just too big!). we hiked back up there on saturday morning to try and watch the sunrise, but here's some advice: check the weather forecast before you do something like that. it was too cloudy for us to see anything. ugh. but the best thing was on friday night: a huge rock concert smack dab up next to the cathedral. hahaha... what a venue!

saturday, we went to covarrubias, this tiny little town with another little church (population 630ish) and then to santo domingo de silos, an even tinier little town with an even tinier little church (population 311, according to the lonely planet book). we got to watch the monks do their gregorian chant in santo domingo de silos, though. don't worry, they produced an album in the 1990's that reached the top of the pop charts in the UK. impressive, right?

okay, well, i'll add some pictures after this. it was a great trip. we were exhausted but it was really fun at the same time.. i'm so happy to be experiencing all of this!