León – October 18, 2017

So, not much improved overnight. Vic is still attached to her porcelain friend, and not feeling well. Since we are only two hotels and three days walking from our goal of León (what do these accents do for the Spanish anyway? It doesn’t seem to change the pronunciation a bit – at least not my pronunciation) we decided to shut down and move on to where Vic could see a (preferably English speaking) doctor if this condition didn’t clear up soon.

Kate, the Andaspain contact, was able to change the itinerary – cancelling the hotels, getting us in early in León, and seeing our luggage got rerouted appropriately – all in a trice and without complaint. Well done! It was even easier when we found that the inter-city bus made its only stop right at the hotel’s door. For 5€ each we covered three days walking, instead of a 60€ taxi. Of course the bus depot in León is in no-wheresville so it takes another 7€ taxi ride to get to the hotel. At any rate all I can say about Spanish busses is that they are convenient, clean, safe (seat belts!), and damn cheap.

As to the hotel, it is lovely again, right next to the cathedral – you can touch the cathedral wall out the window. Of course it is across a street, but it’s a metaphor, isn’t it? Or is it hyperbole?  I’m never sure.

Vic is still not eating much so I am sitting here nursing my 1.5€ bottle of wine for supper. Did you know that when you eschew the 1.45€ bottle of wine in the supermarket because it has a screw cap, and go for the 1.5€ bottle because it has a cork, and then find it is actually a plastic cork, and your little corkscrew on your knife just removes a very short core of plastic, and you have to carve away the whole cork in little bits before you can get at your 1.5€ wine, life is very discouraging? Not as discouraging as Vic’s life perhaps.

So, to León. Can I wax rhapsodic about León for four days? Why not, the cathedral alone is worth it. But more of that later. The city is lovely, as cities go. It still has that medieval appearance, but has been tarted up for the tourist trade, at least in the center. It is not nearly as grotty as some of the other cities. It was founded in 70 AD by the Romans as a home for the 7th Legion – Le{gi}on – get it? In 988 the Muslims removed all traces of the Roman wall and structures. It became Christian again very quickly, and this cathedral (the third on the site in 300 years) was begun in 1205 and completed in less than a hundred years – something of a record, it seems. It had a lot of royal and papal financing to make that happen.

Tomorrow – a tour of the cathedral! And maybe the Senior’s Tiny Train Tour. Incidentally, our hotel internet is blocked by our server in Canada as being sketchy, so it may be difficult to publish a blog.