Enjoying God's Goodness: Leon, Spain

Oh, my! I wrote my blog for the day and posted it....now it is nowhere to be found. Guess I start all over again. We had a nice dinner on the patio at El Jardin del Camino last night. A very nice grandmother from Paris joined us. Her name is Ana and I had greeted her several times along the way, but she never seemed to want to talk. I assumed she didn't know English and my French from high school is long gone. But we had a very nice dinner conversation. She started the Camino last year and hopes to finish this year. She has 7 grandchildren - some in Canada and some in France. Was great except for the pesky flies. They have really been bothering us these days we have been in the breadbasket of Spain.

When we went up to the doom at 8:45 the lights were out and many were already sleeping. Sorry, I cannot go to bed at 8:45. I'm just getting used to eating dinner at 7:00 and now they want me to go to bed early on a full stomach! Oh the joys!

We decided in the end to take the bus into Leon from Mansilla. We had breakfast and made the 8:00 public bus into the city center. Lots of working women and school children were on the bus with us. It took about half and hour thru traffic to get there. We got our bearings and headed into town. On the way we helped a young Pilgrim find her way out of town on the Camino and she shared with us a good place to stay...in a University dorm. When they have room they rent to Pilgrims. It was interesting because the guy did some kind of a security scan on our passports. We must have passed because he gave us a private room for the night and let us leave our backpacks for the day. Was nice to get around town without them.

We got to the information center by the Leon Cathedral when it opened and got a walking tour plan for the city. We started out at the Cathedral and cloister. It is very pretty but very different from the one in Burgos. I like the outside of Burgos but the inside of Leon. This one is considered a jewel of Spanish classical Gothic architecture. They give you a headset guided tour which is really helpful...almost too much information. It seemed to me that this church has a lot of beautiful, priceless artwork, but it their view of it is more spiritual and it is more about honoring and glorifying God rather than the men who made it or donated it to the church. The church is much more simple...not as much ornamentation. It does have 1800 square meters of medieval stained glasswindows...magnificent. Only one other church (in France) has more. Really well done. The cloisters were just as pretty and simple as the sanctuary.

From there we walked down behind the church along a long section of the old wall...much of it still in tact. Leon's history goes back over 1000 years. From there we made our way to The Collegiate Church of San Isidora. To get there we went through an old city gate....inside the plaza was filled with students, mostly university but some younger as well. Lots of activity and interaction going on...probably a trendy place to be. The church itself was again, simple but elegant. At the back of the church lies the Pantheon of the Kings of Leon - the vaults were decorated with 12th Century frescos. There is a museum associated with the church which houses a collection o ancient manuscripts.

A few blocks away we discovered the Palacio de Los Guzmanes and Casa de Botines, which is extraordinary - a creation of the Catalan architect Gaudi. Truly amazing. By now it was time for lunch. Andy and I decided, as we wandered around trying to find a light lunch, that we prefer the smaller towns and villages where there aren't as many crowded winding, twisting small streets and not as many choices! But we did end up in a nice little bar and had a delicious hot sandwich with cheese and ham. Have I mentioned that they eat a lot of ham in Spain? A lot. It was good and a nice change from plain cheese and ham. We watched a young Mom try to eat her lunch and manage three young children. The oldest one dumped allllll the toys out of the bag on the floor. The younger one had her bread in one hand and try to managed 2-3 toys with the other hand. The third one was in Mom's lap. Kids are pretty much the same!

After lunch Andy was happy to head back to the room and read the news and rest. Nancy was ready to find the remaining buildings of special interest on the top 10 list we had been given. Nothing new there! So I set off, camera and map in hand. I made my way to the Convento de San Marcos, the former motherhouse for the Order of the Knights of Santiago. This place is amazing. I needed to use the brand new easy to use panoramic picture feature on my phone to get a picture of the whole thing. There is a modern luxury hotel in the old momestary part of the building and a museum in the old church. Well worth the walk to see it.

I also visited three churches (San Salvador del Plait del Rey, Nuestra Señora del Meecado, and San Marcelo). Plus, the Town Hall in Plaza Mayor and the Palico de Los Condes de Luna. It was a great afternoon. It was a nice change of pace from walking all day with the backpack. Some think sightseeing detracts from the experience of the Camino but I enjoyed it and learned more about life in Spain through the years and how different groups, individuals and churches responded to the Pilgrims. I am interested in reading more about Spain's rich history.

I made my way back to the San Francisco park near our dormitory, also named San Francisco, and enjoyed a monument to Francis of Assisi and the school children playing in the park. Earlier I had found two large grocery stores...we are used to shopping in little corner stored in the towns and villages so these seemed sleek and modern.

We found a nice little place to have dinner on a little side street. The owner and his wife served us, using pictures to answer our questions about the new items on the menu. He was so proud...told us that it works for English, French, Italian..etc..and then laughed really hard at his joke. On the wall by our table was a large chart of 44 different Toros in Spain. Can you image so many? We saw the big Toro Ring and pens for the bulls on our way into town. We have heard that bull fighting isn't as popular as it used to be as people/groups are objecting to the animal cruelty.

After dinner we walked up to see the cathedral all lit up...just beautiful. A few minutes after we got there, all the lights on the church, in the stores, and on the streets went out. Took a few minutes for them to come back on...was fun to see the church light up slowly as the bulbs warmed up and glowed. Lots of restaurants on the plaza and hundreds of people walking the streets. The place was just coming to life at 9:15 on a Wednesday night. Really a fun experience.