26 September Leon and Sarria – More Choo Choo

Col: Checkout time is very civilised in Spain (Noon).Train leaving Leon at 2.20PM for Sarria so we spent the morning looking around parts of Sarria we hadn’t seen and our first chocolate con churros (which was very filling but scrumptious). Did some supermarket shopping (sunscreen and water) to prepare for tomorrows adventures. Before departing Leon ducked over the road and had a final meal (lunch) at the little pub there. JR, Pete and I had roast potatoes and bacon and croquettes (which are deep fried mashed potato mixed with some form of yummy cheese which were eagerly devoured. The risk manager was getting very flustered about this time as we weren’t at the station yet so off we toddled. The train journey took us up into the hills/ mountains of northern Spain and it was certainly a spectacular view along the way. I still had some time to read my excellent book – River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay – and unfortunately I have now finished it so it is on to the Kindle now. After arriving in Sarria we did our usual walk into town and found a comfortable drinking hole and had a couple of very fine beers and then wandered back to our very new and pleasant hotel for our three course included meal after a very funny evening and a couple of bottles of white wine before hitting the sack.

Eric: Sarria. Distinctly different to the university town that is León. Here the smell of manure and sight of chickens foraging welcomed us, as if to foreshadow the coming days.

John: Having got the guys to the station on time the train was, of course, late ! Fortunately this didn’t translate into missing our connection at Sarria because the risk manager probably wouldn’t have coped very well having become somewhat over excited when told over breakfast by some passing Americans that the only way to Sarria by train was at 02:00 and that Sarria was after Lugo on the line and they had been told this by the passport office so our tickets to Lugo wouldn’t work. Now this is quite wrong – Lugo is after Sarria on the line and trains stop there on a regular basis but there are few trains TO Sarria. Anyway it was all good in the end and we got to Sarria – along with about 20 other pilgrims. The risk manager needed a few drinks to calm down when we finally got there – and even that didn’t go well when he ordered vino blanco and got vino tinto – more headaches – however Col manfully stepped in to fix the problem and managed to pay for the risk manager’s shout . We have now decided to stick to English - Spanish only seems to get us into trouble. And a polite “Habla Ingles” plus looking lost and hopeless seems to work well with the fairer sex – well with Pharmacists anyway.