Thursday, December 11, 2014

Palencia, Spain - Septemeber 2014

Everyone you meet in Spain will tell you that the village or town they come from is the best in Spain.  It has the best cathedral, the best food, the most delicious wine etc.  Most of the times I just smile and think you don’t hear that in Canada.  I like the city I am from but I by no means think Barrie is the best city in Canada.  But here people are very proud of where they come from and it is nice to hear.  Now on occasion someone is actually right though, I mean one of the cities has to be the best right?  Well when Daoiz told us that Palencia had the best cathedral he wasn't kidding.

We hoped on a train to Palencia to spend an afternoon wandering around one beautiful Saturday in September and we happened upon the cathedral accidentally.  We had walked all by the river and turned up a street to this huge building.  We didn't realize what it was at first because we were looking at the side of it so when we walked around and saw the gorgeous arched doorway we knew we had found something amazing.




Every cathedral is beautiful.  The art work, the architecture, the tiny details in each turn, stained glass windows, the 30 foot ceilings and statues are breathtaking.  But Palencias cathedral stands out in my mind as the best one we have seen.  It took us over an hour to see each room and admire all the artwork.  Also they have a crypt you can go down into so that is right up my ally.  You can’t really see anything but just being down there gives you intense feelings.  I recommend going to Palencia if only for the cathedral.  You will not regret it.




The rest of the city was just a city really.  Not much going on that we found particularly interesting.  We did enjoy some delicious coffee and pastry on a lovely patio though. Somehow we can always find delicious coffee; Must be the millions (hyperbole) of cafe/bars in every town no matter the size.




The train station there is very busy so I recommend getting tickets early and not just arriving at the station hoping to get on a train.  We have had a few instances there in which we ended up having to wait for over an hour for a train that was not full.  The ride to Palencia from Valladolid is around 7 euros each and it takes about 45 minutes to commute in between.

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