Song of the Day: Waves – Dean Lewis (yes, again)
Today we put the harsh day of yesterday in our rear view as best we can and celebrate a birthday.
To start, we “unwrapped” all the toys I had bought for Maverick yesterday at the pet store in the mall….aka I took them out of the bag and surrounded him with them. And then we set off to enjoy our rest day.
We walked down to the old part of the city where we grabbed some breakfast right on the plaza outside the cathedral. Unfortunately, the front face of the cathedral is undergoing some repairs or renovations of some sort so it was hidden from sight. As we were sitting and relaxing for breakfast, I was approached by a woman. She came and sat and was so excited to see Maverick, though to be completely honest I’m not sure if we had met her before yet. She seemed like she knew us and I think that she may have been a pilgrim we met very, very early on? Sometime in week one??? Or maybe she just follows Maverick’s Instagram or keeps up with our posts on the Camino page on Facebook. We’ve gotten a few of those, too. Either way, she was great company and it was also her birthday today so we enjoyed breakfast with her before setting off to explore some more.
We walked all outside the cathedral and you can truly get a feel for how massive it is simply from how long it takes to get around the exterior. I urge you to definitely take a stroll around the whole thing, the backside of the cathedral to me was even more stunning than the front side. I also enjoyed the neighborhoods back that way. We found our way to an ice cream shop/cafe where I left Maverick outside to go in and get some ice creams for us. I asked for mine and then his separately, but she went to put his vanilla in the same cup with my chocolate so I had to explain why I needed to separate cups. She looked at me incredulously and asked as if the thought was foreign that it was for a dog?? I explained that yes, he loved ice cream and it was his birthday today so he got to have some ice cream. She still looked at me like I had three heads, but put his vanilla in a separate cup. Smiling to myself, I went back outside to bring him his ice cream and give him some birthday love. Not even five minutes later, the young girl from behind the counter came out carrying a dish of water, explaining she thought he might be thirsty and laughed as she saw his ice cream was already gone. They may not understand dogs like we do, but they’re still in love with Maverick.
After, we found a quiet side street where I could leave Maverick tied in the shade and slip into the cathedral here. Personally, I enjoyed the inside here much more than Burgos. It just had a different feel to it, a more real feel instead of just a tourist attraction if that makes sense. It seemed to be more filled with light from the beautiful stained glass windows, too.
After touring the cathedral, we wandered aimlessly around the city, taking in some old city walls, the beautiful architecture of various buildings in the city, and grabbing some lunch. We met a fellow pilgrim for dinner outside the cathedral where we hunkered under an umbrella while the rain poured down around us.