Pruning Rosebushes - Day 14 (April 27)

Today was a day of rest, theorectically. It may have been rest from walking a path in boots and a backpack but we still spent most of the day walking around the city of Burgos.

Our first order of business was to get our clothes washed as virtually everything in our packs was dirty. Given directions to a laundromat by the concierge at the hotel had us on our way, map in hand. Evidently we are not capable of reading a map or following directions as we spent the next hour trying to find this establishment that was really only about 15 minutes away. Yikes!

We did however pass a sporting store where I purchased a pair of socks, another item on our to do list for the morning. Happy that we had our clothes where they needed to be and new socks on my feet, we headed back toward our hotel to find something to eat. We found a delighful little coffee shop right next to the hotel that had a wonderful breakfast torta with potatoes and ham. I spent some time there getting somewhat caught up on my blogs and then decided that I would take care of the next item on our housekeeping list - to get my hair cut as it had become quite unmanageable.

My haircut is what gave title to today's blog. First off, when I entered the peluquero a woman pleasantly greeted me. Although she did not speak English and I obviously do not speak Spanish as evidenced with my gafas/boligrafos error of an earlier day, I managed to communicate that I needed my hair "corto" shorter and thinned out. The thinned out message was accomplished through hand motions demonstrating the current bushy state of my hair

Things started out quite well with a wonderful massaging shampoo followed by vacuuming by some kind of device to remove the excess water. At that point a second woman came into the shop and she started to work on cutting my hair with quite a frenzy, I thought accomplishing what I had hoped for. That is when things turned. Suddenly a third woman came in, one who appeared to be the owner of the shop. She whipped out some hairstyle pictures for me to choose from and whisked away the lady who was working on my hair and so my fate was left in the hands of this new stylist.

That is when I began to feel like a rosebush being pruned. You see, every spring when I prune my rosebushes, I take a little off and then a little more and a little more until suddenly I think there is nothing left. Well.... that pretty much describes my hair - there is nothing left. Or at least nearly so. My hair has not been this short since I was 12 and had a pixie cut! Luckily, just as the rosebushes grow back, so too will my hair.

In addition, she must have thought my face needed some work because she also applied some lotion to it before she sent me on my way, having that embarrassed look of a recently sheared sheep. I am glad I have my trusty Tilley hat to make me feel like something is on my scalp!

Catedral de Santa Maria

After my shearing we headed to the Catedral de Santa Maria as we heard it was absolutely amazing. I really don't know how to describe this interesting church built in the gothic tradition. Although I took many pictures, they are inadequate representations of what we saw. The church was comprised of 21 chapels, each commissioned by different bishops and aristocracy of the time. The artistry expressed through paintings, carvings, stained glass was unbelievable. I cannot even begin to imagine what it would cost to replace the items that existed within this sanctuary. Despite the ostentatiousness of these chapels, I could still feel the intent to provide homage to the creator.

Just up the hill from the Cathedral was a castle so we made the climb up the hill to see it only to discover that it was only open on the weekend. It did give us a great view of the city below, however.

Chapel in Catedral

By now we were hungry so we went back to our hotel to ask for a recommendation for dinner. The concierge not only recommended Don Nuño but made a suggestion on what to order - the Cordero Lechal or milk-fed lamb. Angelo, the young man from Brazil, was sitting in the lobby so we invited him to join us. It was a wonderful meal and even better company as we conversed with Angelo.

Afterward we decided that we would check out the tapas bars again. Yes we seem to be bottomless pits from our days of walking. We were so excited to see our German lady camino friends. They had just arrived in Burgos that day so are running about a day behind us. We hope to see them at some point when we arrive in Santiago.

Before we left home I had a discussion with my sister about items we were bringing on the camino with the ultimate goal of trying to keep the weight of my pack to a minimum. She said that she didn't know if she could go without mascara. Well, I too feel quite naked without this doctoring of the lashes but I decided that it was something I was going to go without. This leads me to the reflection that on the camino all that superfluous stuff doesn't seem to matter. In the morning before we head out for the day, I just give my hair a quick combing, brush my teeth, rinse my face, put on my hat and away we go! I must say it is a little freeing and I have not missed having my mascara, except for a brief moment after my shearing today. There seems to be little focus on the trivialities of life on the camino.

 

Lesson for the day: Trivialities are just that - trivial.

 

 

 

 

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