The city of Burgos in Spain was the first one to welcome the Cultour is Capital Blogger Experience. The videographer, Emiliano Bechi Gabrielli, and the bloggers of The Crowded Planet, Margherita and Nick traveled, to experience 6 different cities (Burgos, Matera, Rijeka, Košice, Gelsenkirchen and Ham) to live first-hand 6 different itineraries based on transformative tourism experiences, carefully planned by the work of TraCEs TLabs. The objective of this journey is to do a pilot test so that bloggers live the transformative experience and have a first-hand narration of the adventure in our new and coming soon platform: Game of TraCEs.
A city made by women
The experience in Burgos was scheduled for two days. It was a journey across centuries through the stories of the women who have contributed to the economic, social, and cultural development of the city. Burgos has a century-old fascinating history intertwined with the fate of some incredible women figures. They discovered the most special places in the city through the stories of women from the past, the present, and the future time.
The itinerary for the first day was a wine tasting with Pilar Cruces, a local entrepreneur and founder of Lust for Wine. Then a Cassette Self-Publishing Workshop called “Music for children who believe they are not musicians” with the artist Sarah Rasines, and a visit to Cab, Contemporary Art Museum. Afterward they had a guided tour to the cloister and chapter room of the Monastery of Las Huelgas with the official tour guides of Burgos to learn about the life of the Abbess. And to finish the first day, they arrived at Paleolítico Vivo, a prehistoric safari nearby Burgos and a project to bring large herbivores back to Spain, where they experienced the atmosphere of prehistoric women, their skills and role.
The second experience day took place with Sara Hernando from Camino Travel Tours, an agency specialized in preparing bespoke itineraries along the Camino de Santiago. They explored Camino-related sights and reminisced together about their Camino experiences. Then, they visited the MEH, the Museo de la Evolución Humana, with a very special guide: Aurora Martín, museum coordinator and archaeologist with 40 years’ experience working in the Atapuerca archeological site, who explained the story of human ancestors with an innovative feminine approach. They finished their day with a guided tour of the city center with the Asociación de Guías de Turismo de Burgos. They walked around to discover Burgos through the lives of many famous women – like Jimena, the wife of El Cid, and Margarita de Austria, who became both queen of France and Spain, as well as regent of the Netherlands. Not to mention Isabel I of Castile, a revolutionary figure who was one of the first to challenge gender roles.
The bloggers concluded that this blogger’s experience showed them the importance of women in history and their relevance to the present and future.
