Abroad in Spain: Travel Blog

I’ve noticed something since returning to Spain a couple of weeks ago: everyone is gone.  What do I mean by that?  It’s simple, really: August is “vacation” month in Spain and lots (and I do mean lots) of Spaniards go to the beach, the “pueblo,” or another country during this month. 

Now, it’s not at all a bad thing that Spaniards leave in August, but I kind of wish they didn’t have to close down entire stores for the duration of their absence.  It’s a little inconvenient to walk down the street to your favorite bakery and find a sign on the door that says that they have closed up shop for the whole month of August due to vacations.  Of course, I guess everyone — even the baker — needs to get away and relax a little, right?  Speaking of relaxation for the baker, I wonder how the owners of little “mom and pop” stores in the USA go on vacation?  You never see shops closed there. 

Here’s a little something fun for this August “vacation” post.  How about if everybody who reads this writes a comment about their most recent and/or most memorable trip?  I’d be interested in hearing about the great places that you’ve visited and the corners of the world that you’ve found yourself in.  Continue reading this post…

The cloister of the monastery.

I just got back from visiting the Monasterio de Santo Domingo de Silos and thought I would share a little information with you about the monastery and the monks that live inside it.

The monastery is located about 45 minutes outside the city of Burgos in a quaint little village known as “Santo Domingo de Silos.” It’s home to a group of Benedictine monks. Certain parts of the monastery are open to the public and visitors can pay three Euros to have a guided tour. On the tour you will see things like the beautifully landscaped cloister of the monastery and some very interesting (and very old) religious sculptures and carvings which line the walls of the complex. Continue reading this post…

I was just surfing the internet today and came across a really good resource for people traveling throughout Spain and the world.  The site is called Wikitravel and is set up somewhat like Wikipedia in that it can be edited by anyone; however, instead of providing encyclopedia entries, Wikitravel provides travel guides.  I typed a few Spanish cities into the search engine on the site and was able to get some pretty good information on tourist attractions in the cities that I had searched for.  You may want to check it out — perhaps the site can help you plan your next trip to Spain (or anywhere else in the world for that matter). Continue reading this post…

A diver emerges from the water after exploration of the Pozo Azul in Covanera.

On my recent excursion to the Cañón del Ebro, one of the stops that I made was in the village of Covanera, located just outside of the city of Burgos, at a place called the Pozo Azul.  Basically, the Pozo Azul is a bluish colored karst spring that has a submerged cave underneath it.  Indeed, the cave below the surface of the water is said to be the longest submerged cave in all of Spain.

The Pozo Azul is quite famous in Spain amongst cave divers and, to my surprise, a diver ”appeared” from the blue depths after I had been at the location for about five minutes or so and I was able to snap a picture as he made his way out of the water.  Once he got out, he told me and my travel companions that several of his fellow divers were still beneath the surface wrapping up their exploration mission and that diving in this location is not uncommon.  He also explained a little bit about this history of the area and said that the bluish color is due to the way the sun reflects off the surface of the water and the rocks. 

I thought it was really cool to actually be able to see and talk with one of the cave divers who frequent the area and learn a little more about the history of this karst spring.  It’s also pretty interesting to think that they began exploring the cave in 1964 and still to this day there are unexplored areas.  I would definitely recommend a trip to Covanera if you’re ever in the Burgos area.  Continue reading this post…

Here I am at a lookout point over the canyon. You can see the Ebro River behind me... I'm squinting from the sun, but that's ok.

I wanted to share with everyone some pictures and stories from a recent trip that I took to the Ebro River Canyon located near Burgos.  I took the trip with some other teachers from the school where I work and, honestly, before going I wasn’t really expecting a lot.  You see, before we went, the other teachers told me that this would very much be a “rural” trip — we would be visiting small “pueblos” in the countryside and walking along rural routes.  Since I consider myself a “city boy,” I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this trip very much… but I went anyway.

After going on the trip, I have to say that I was quite impressed.  The villages that we visited were all very pretty, the landscape was very green (I didn’t even know things got that green here in Castilla y León), and I had the opportunity to see something that is a little less “touristy” and a little more “Spanishy,” if you know what I mean.  Plus, it was nice to leave the city behind for an afternoon and get a breath of fresh, country air.

Really, I think the pictures from this trip speak for themselves.  Below, I’ll leave a few more pictures for you to take a look at.  If you still want to see more, you can check out my “Pueblos of Burgos” album on Picasa.  Continue reading this post…

Guides talk about a human scull found at the Atapuerca site in Spain.

If you read this blog regularly, you probably already know that this week there are several Italian and Turkish students visiting my school.  Since I’ve kinda become their “official translator/guide” for the week, I had the chance to take them to the Atapuerca Archaeological Site that is located just a few kilometers away from the city of Burgos. 

Before going on this little excursion with the students, I was kinda grumbling to my friends about having to go.  Honestly, I didn’t think there would be much to see at Atapuerca and I felt a little as if I had better things to do with my time.  I was wrong.  Continue reading this post…