And so to Leon

Hi,
The road out of El Burgo is straight for about 13km. I presume it must follow the same track as the Romans built a few years ago. The land surrounding us was as flat as it had been for the past 150 kilometeres and we made good speed, about 6km/hr, reaching Mansilla de las Mulas at 19km along the road.

Tried to get some coffee at a local market cafe but we were ignored in favour of the locals, most of whom came in after we had arrived. Left with a few glares and moved on. When we came into the town there is a monument to the Camino perigrenos which has three human figures arranged around a cross. One of the figures is prostrate on the ground, a pose supposedly designed to show tiredness. More like desperation for a cup of coffee which has still to arrive.

The next 20km was a bit of a slog though again the chatter, patter and occasional curse at the heat, made it all seem a lot easier.

Finally arrived in Leon to see the cathedral spires and headed that way to get a bed for the night.

Booked into the local convent albergue, us and 70 others. Good place but the number of toilets and showers allocated to men reflected the gender bias of the institution.

Leon is by far the most beautiful of all the towns visited thus far. Narrow streets link smal squares which were full to bursting with people having lunch, a main meal of the day in Spain. The place was really alive and the tourists for once were outnumbered by local people.

On the outside the cathedral is not so different from most other cathedrals but on the inside it is outstanding, much better than Burgos. It has been designed tp have enourmous stained glass windows and the effect is overwhelming. You are bathed in colour from the moment you enter the building. There are side chapels galore and the central chapel is huge. The thing that impressed me most was the carved choir stalls. The detail and workmanship are to be seen to be believed. You could look at them for ever.

Well we didn´t because we needed to get to the bus station to get a bus timetable for Mark who was leaving us the following day. This took us through the main section of town and past another Gaudi palace. The street was designed as a boulevard containing a whole range of shops which, it was suggested, would delight any shopaholic. We did not buy anything, had to save the pennies for the peregrino menu.

Having sorted mark´s bus journey out we returned to the dorm for a well earned rest (after all it had been a 39km walk).

Went to dinner and against Mark´s wishes, we ordered another peregrino menu. We all had a "varied meats" starter followed by some other forgetable dish followed by an even more forgetable dessert. Mark was not a happy boy and when when the waitress asked if he enjoyed the meal he took the chance to so No! in such a definitive manner that the lassie was less than chuffed. After that one Mark swore that that was the last peregrino menu he was ever going to order. Didn´t even have time for a beer before we retruned to the convent for a bendiction service.

One old nun explained all that was to happen in the service to the gather congregation. She only spoke Spanish so we were no the wiser. We were then taken into a private chapel for the service. This was a great honour and is only given to those walking the Camino. The chapel was quite large (for a chapel that is) and superbly decorated.

All the nuns filed in (about 10 in all) and the benediction commenced, again all in Spanish though we did have English translations. Very moving stuff and just the ticket to send us all off to bed.

If you want to visit any part of the Camino, Leon is the place to go (and you don´t have to have the peregrino menus).

Next morning mark headed off for the bus and Greg and I head off for Villafranca del Camino anbd then onwards to Astroga the following day. Astorga and points west in the next installment.

Hope you are all enjoying this belated travelogue. At this stage (5 days on) I am having a hard time remembering where I am never mind where I have been. Will get the memory banks sorted later today.

best,
Arthur