A 'rest' day

 When I planned the trip, I had a very open agenda. When to finish, what to do afterward and even how to get home. 

The only thing I had booked was a plane ticket home because I thought the Spanish authories woul appreciate that I wasnˋt going to stay in their county foreve. 

Once I knew when I would finish (today), I changed my plans accordingly. Howeer, havin a free day today -- well, it's hard. You are so focused on walking, finding a bed, "foraging" for food an when you have total freedom - I'm not so good with that. 

My hotel is very close to the cthedral, but far enough away to aoid the crowds and the noise. And I found a little cafe right beside it this morning where I had breakfast. And it was NOT a pastry!!!! Yogurt and fruit!!! A nice change because I now have to wean myself off those pastries. 

My Camino friend Arturo suggested I visit the Cathedral Museum and to go someplace special. More on that in a mnute. so after breakast, I waited at the door of the museum so I could be sure to get a ticket. 

Most of the stuff in the museum is in spanish, but I got the gist of it. Lots of old stones, took years to build the caheddral (150 or something like that). And then I went to see the tapestires. What is amazing is that even afer hundreds of years and many of them being tossed into storage of questionalble situations, they have survied relatively intact. They are so huge and it also amazes me that they had this technology available to them. 

The yarns of numerous colors, the intricacy of the designs. It's truly a feat when you look at them. 

The tapestries are hung, so I imagine they are heavily backed with something to preven them from pulling at the worn spots. Imagine living in a stone castle where the tapestries provided warn and ertainly absorbed sound. Just tlike quilts on the wall at my house!!!

Ooops -- no pictures allows of the tapestries. 

Imagine this -- there is a cemetary on one level. I tried to eavesdrop on some of the english tours to see who was buried there. their bodies are entombed in the floor with a full overing over top that you can walk on. Kind of creepy to walk on a grave, but it's done. The mst recent burial was 2021 if memory serves me correcly, but many of the graves are so old, you can no longer read the dates. 

There is a balcony that overlooks the square so that was cool to see everyone buzzing around - taking photos. etc. Not a huge police presence, but they were in the square all day. Just rouinte business I suspect. 

Then I had some time to kill beore my guided tour. Of what. The roof of the cathedral. No way!!!! Yes way -- the roof - of course I had to be there. Thanks to Arturo for leting me know that. 

It was mostly in Spanish, but some translation in Englihs, but I didnt care - it was so amazing. 

So up the steps we wentn - up an up and up. And next thing you knew - we had existed onto the roof. Now the roof if quite safe and while you could misstep an fall, you couldnˋt fall of the roof as there is a railing all around. But the roof is made up of slabs of some rock that are uniform but in rows and you had to bbe mindful not to misstp. And just before he new roof (restored in 2021), met the old part (the edge of the railing)is a deep trench for drainage. 

The only saety tip we got was "mind the gap". I LOVE the Spanish! Not afraid to let people live and those that donˋt listen - well, hthatˋs their problem. It was amazing. We got to walk over the entire roof of the main part of the athedral - the part where mass is held. In the form o a ccross if that makes sense. We wandered up and down and into all parts. Jus fasinating as the weight of the roof would be astronomical. Plus the views of the city were great. 

Then we went up one of he towers. Iˋm not sure what itˋs called in english, but it was NOT the clock and not the bell. The view up there was even more amazing and now th people in the square looked like ants!!!!!

Then we were done. That was certainly worth while. I ound a cafe to get soemting to eat. Good grief -- food is NOT heap. I probably spen more on food today than I did in a week on the Camino. But no worries. 

I needed a nap and then went bak out. This time I went INTO the catehdal with the inent of staying for masss at 7:30. Iˋm not catholic, but what the hek - they always do a blessing fo the pilgrims. They did communion -- very efficient. It was beautiul. 

From where I sat I could see the organist -- way up high and out of sight for most. He seemed so nervous. the second he inished a song, he was up walking around!!! What was tha all about

Then I gabbed some more foo - yes - probably eaten more today than I have in weeks. But all light stuff. Mosty veggies - but expensive. 

And while I was eating, I remembered that I need to blog so here I am!!!!!

My feet and legs and blisters were fine today. No issues with climbing all those stairs. No issues walking, which is a blessing because the last two times I attempte this walk, I came home "disabled". It was so nice to walk around. 

So you know I'm not good if I don't hae a mission - I was plananing on doing something else while I was here, but I changed those plans. 

The sentene for the day - I spent a lot of the day waiting, but you know what? Patience is such a lost art. We want everything and we want it now. Being able to wait is a skill and I'm glad I"m honing mine. 

On that note, I'm out of hrere. Have a super day

And sorry for the spelling mistakes!!!!!

Ciao!!!!!!