Travel with Kevin and Ruth: A quick stop into Burgos for another photo match up

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

A quick stop into Burgos for another photo match up

Some of you were curious as to what it was that brought my father to Europe. He did two trips, one in 1954, and one in 1957. I'll tell the story based on my memory of events, although I might get some figures wrong. I should probably ask my mother for clarification if she remembers, but here it goes...

His mother (my paternal grandmother) came from the northern part of Czech Republic, close to the German border. She arrived in Canada by herself sometime in the late 1920's, met my grandfather, and my father was the first born (in 1929) of six children. I think the fact that his mother was from Europe probably instigated some of his ambition to see that part of the world.

He would have turned 25 years old on January 29, 1954. He had been working as a radio operator in remote locations in Canada. He did a long term stint (I think about a year) on an island off the British Columbia coast just south of Alaska, and then six months on the DEW (Distant Early Warning) Line in the Arctic. He also did a few months near Gander, Labrador, but I don't remember the dates.

Anyhow, he once told me that working in these places meant that you had no opportunity to spend money. He had been essentially alone at the post in B.C., but had some co-workers at the Arctic base. There was still not much to spend your money on, however there was alcohol, cigarettes, and card games. He didn't drink or smoke, but he played cards fairly well!

After his six months in the Arctic was over, he had enough money that he decided to go to Europe for a year. He hitchhiked and stayed in youth hostels. And he had a camera, and he took a lot of slide photos. Based on the ones that we have, there are 189 photos from that 1954 trip.

Can you imagine the logistics of doing something like that back then? How would you know how much cash to bring? How would you carry that much cash? I remember travelers cheques, but did they have such a thing in 1954?

A couple of years later back in Canada, he entered a newspaper contest and won what was a substantial amount of money at that time. I think it was around $3,000 which would be the equivalent of about $30,000 today. His mother had never been back to Europe since she left in the late 1920's, so he used some of that money to take his mother and his youngest brother (then 12 years old) on a trip to see relatives in Germany. So that was how the 1957 trip came to be.

We have 75 photos from the 1957 trip.

So yesterday, we made our way into Burgos to match up another of his photos from the 1954 trip.

Burgos is a fairly big (pop 176,000) modern spread out city, with a fairly small older central area. There are two main attractions... the Santa Maria Arch, and the cathedral. We're getting "citied out", but we still wanted to be able to match up this one photo.

So we found a parking lot where we felt safe leaving Max for a couple of hours and walked from there into the central area.

Scenery along the way.

What a beard this dude had!

Odd way to trim the trees!

Oh, there's the cathedral, so we're getting close.

Dad had taken one single photo in Burgos... of the fantastic Santa Maria Arch.

Arco de Santa Maria 1954.

And the view from the same spot in 2023.

From the same angle, there's now a light post in the shot that wasn't there before.

I took a few steps to the left to get the shot without the light post...

The original Santa Maria Arch was built in the 1300's, but it was completely rebuilt in the 1500's.

Amazing.

Walking through the arch, you are greeted with a view of the fantastic cathedral...

Burgos Cathedral.

Zoomed in on the tower.

Ruth at the water fountain.

One of the other city gates in old town.

Carved wood doors.

Wow... what a mural!

Statues.

From there, we hiked up to the castle. There's not much left of the castle itself, but they said the view was worth the hike up, plus we needed the exercise!