Had a more frugal repast this morning but still set us up
well for the day. Walked across the bridge and up the central access road to
the centre of town. Much busier than our first foray yesterday arvo as it was
not Siesta time. Pete and JR did mass whilst Eric and I sat in the main town
square and had a couple of coffees whilst we waited for the boys.
We then meandered down one of the myriad laneways that
abound on our way to the Camino passport office where we paid our 2 Euros each
and are now official Camino walkers.
We then had a disappointing lunch (Eric will expand) before
it was siesta time again. After siesta we headed into town looking for a
particular jamon restaurant we had seen previously but it was still closed at
about 7pm so the other three lads went off to Maccas for dinner. I passed on
Maccas and wandered back to the hotel via the river which was most pleasant.
Boys arrived home and we went across the road to the pub and had a nightcap (gin
and Tonic for me).
Catch train to Sarria tomorrow. Only two days till the walk
now .
Eric:
Lunch today was disappointing; a first for this trip.
Undercooked, grainy paella with tiny prawns and bits of chicken. Don’t trust
the picture.
Later, instead of settling in for a siesta, John and I decided to
check out León's Museum of Contemporary Art. For someone not nearly enlightened
enough to appreciate art from this time period, it was at least refreshing to
see some pieces that didn't look like they were made by a pretentious 8 year old.
After the disappointment that was lunch, we decided to get
something that we at least knew would be better than the paella.
John: Little to add again – obviously he who blogs first blogs the
mostest. The cathedral is magnificent if
suffering from the elements. The museum had a lot of performance art which
leaves met totally cold and an installation commenting on the destruction of
rivers which could have been sponsored by Bunnings - massive piles of river
rocks and metal swarf artfully arranged – impressive from a size perspective
but can’t see it as art.
Peter: At Leon I spotted the first of many Camino Pilgrims. So far
there seems to be two dominant cohorts – fit sinewy Octogenarians with leg calves like Pop Eye the Sailor
usually with a North America accent and
exuberant Youth from all corners of Europe. Both Cohorts can be readily
identified by the sewn on Shell – the Symbol of the Camino but more prominently
by considerable sunburn coupled with a pronounced limp in one or both of their
legs. If at the conclusion of the days walk they were mostly in Sandals to air
the blisters or alternately their feet were held together with generous
bindings of surgical tape Its tough on the Camino and our turn is to arrive
soon.
The dominant feature of the Leon Skyline is the Santa Maria
Cathedral. This Cathedral is replete with an Organ which at the time of testing
sounded more like a scolded cat but given that we were there in the “Festival
of the Organ” it obliviously attracted large audiences to its concerts.
My hat goes off to the Catholic ICT department that
installed stand alone credit card machines for restoration donations at the
Cathedral. Will this replace handing around the plate !?
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