Day 22.0 - Exploring León

I had an enjoyable rest day in León. It is a really nice city, a decent size and similar to Hamilton back home with around 200,000 people in the area. But the old centre is packed with lovely parks, beautiful buildings, interesting alley ways, and restaurants everywhere. It only takes about 15min to walk from one side of town to another.
I played tourist today and even rode the city tourist train, the diesel car with a couple of open carriages behind. It was pleasant.
I visited Plaza Mayor, but closed with construction work.
I went to the basilica is San Isidoro and then next door to the museum. They have “The” Holy Grail on display, if only Indiana Jones knew about it. I doubt it’s real, it was gifted about a 1000 years ago and parts of the cup date to Romans. No photos allowed.
Took a wall round the old medieval city walls plus a view from the top. It’s interesting how people have infilled the walls with homes through the years. Also saw the ancient Roman city gate, the Castle Door Arch.
Had a look from the outside at Gaudi’s building, the Casa Botines, but wasn’t interested to see the art inside.
Paella for lunch, which was ok, but walked out to the Panderia La Masera Confiteria, an amazing pastry shop, which made a nice afternoon tea in the San Fransisco gardens, with leftovers for breakfast tomorrow.
Popped into a 200 year old pharmacy to get some voltaren tablets, still has the original shelves and ceiling, very nice.
Bumped into a few pilgrims and arranged to have dinner with Nora and Cass, I hadn’t seen either for quite a while. It was a very pleasant evening.
So far so good with my new Merrel Moab boots, tomorrow is the big test.Read more