Day 15 (18-Aug-07) - Leon

What luxury, what bliss!!! – or is it??? How would our legs cope with a day of seeing no action?

With the day to do with as we pleased we intended to get up around 07:30 – 08:00 after which we wanted to have a quick breakfast followed by a visit to the Cathedral, having already caught a glimpse of it last night and looking forward to seeing it from the inside.

Breakfast took a little longer than anticipated as we found a place where we could have an internet connection whilst munching our way through our food, drinking copious amounts of tea/coffee.

Following this drawn out affair we finally made it to the Cathedral, and well worth the visit that turned out to be! Spectacular stained glass windows, beautiful sculptures and many pieces of breath-taking religious art were to be seen. Even for the non-religious the high vaulted halls exude the strong beliefs of those that do have a strong connection with God.

A quick visit to the tourist office later and we were on our Q-guided tour of old Leon. As we hadn’t really been able to absorb too much of the history or culture en route we felt obliged to do so now by paying a visit to the Basilica and its museum, which includes an old library some hand-written bibles with intricate illustrations dating from the 10th century, and the size of small coffee tables. If only we had carried larger rucksacks….

Of course, ensuring we recover our strength for the rest of our trek forces us to imbibe fluids and other solids at regular intervals. So, a light lunch and carafe of Sangria later (at which time it was already nearing 15:00 hrs) we headed back to the hotel for a “quick” snooze, which would put us in good stead for another night on the town in Leon.