Day 20 - Leon

At a glance:
Cultural highlight: Casa Botines, A Goudy designed building now a Goudy Museum. And a tour of The Church of San Franscisco of Assidi by a Franciscan monk.
Food highlights: Nougat Ice cream and Apple and Cheese ice cream.
Kilometres walked: 14.37
# of steps: 17,911
We packed up, checked out of the EC hostel and walked into Lyon proper. As checkin to the Hostel Quartier León Jabalquinto was at 2pm we decided to have coffee and visit the Goudy museum.
Casa de Botines was set on a large plaza on the outside it was characterized by round towers and 4 floors and a slate roof. It could easily be a castle. Goudy spent considerable time in the 1860's in Leon designing the structure ( one of only three buildings built outside of Barcelona) to accommodate the alluvial floodplain, align with the celestial sky and fulfill both a practical and spiritual function. The first floor was originally a fabric centre and a bank. The second, third and fourth floor were residences joined by spiral stairs. The third floor showed some of the furniture of the period including chairs tables and desks. I was also impressed by a reconstruction of a dental office with frightening looking drills. The fourth floor was mostly paintings of various eras from the 10th century, thtough to Picasso and up until modern impressionist work.
One interesting display centered on a spiral with weights hanging from lengths of string. This was meant to show what building angles could work from the inside out. Back outside the museum was a sculpture of
a lion (Leon's namesake) coming out what looked like an underground septic access drain.
At a bit after 2pm we navigated to Hostal Quatier Leon and checked into a very nice room on the first floor with 3 white sheeted beds. My foot was dressed and chilled by a gel ice pack found in the kitchen fridge. We met Paula who wanted to meet at 4:30 so after a shower and foot rest we wandered over to the St. Francisco monastery for a tour. We joined a small group and a very kindly monk showed us the alters that had come from the Santa Maria Cathedral, the doorway with brightly coloured wooden pieces representing the different nationalities and a cross. Part of the monastery was used as a trade school for auto mechanics and engineers while other rooms were used for needy families. There was also a display of art from from persons with leukemia. The inner garden or cloister was quite peaceful and had a labyrinth of hedges, roses and fruit trees.
After the tour finished one tourist was moved to a have a confession with the monk. Outside the church was a statue showing St. Francis the patron saint of animals. Although we didn't attend the later mass, I was moved by the gentle and kind spirit of the monk.
Paula had had a late lunch so didn't want dinner but Liz and I were ever hungry so found a bar with dinner choices. We have come to realize that although the streets are full of people at 7:00 pm, nobody really eats until well after 8:00 pm. So we did some street wandering ourselves and finally landed upon the Green Corner restuarant and bar. Liz had an Ensalada Roussa ( Russian potato salad) and grilled chicken and eggs
and I had an Ensalada Mixta and Pollo Milanese (Grilled chicken). The dinner was OK but nothing to write home about.Read more