Day 19 : Leon

Day 19 : Leon, originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

During the daytime you almost don't meet any Spanish people in those towns and villages - you basically only meet foreign perigrinos (actually, the word 'pilgrim' originally did mean 'foreigner'). But in the night time it is the other way around - as soon as dusk sets in (and the temperature starts to become pleasant) all local people seem to leave their homes and flock together in public squares, bars and restaurants, or simply in front of each other's house. Great for social contact, less great if we, pilgrims - and clearly foreigners -, try to sleep in the meanwhile with our windows open since the hotel had no air conditioning. The Spanish chit-chatting goes on till loooong after midnight. Sure you can put earplugs but then it feels as if you sleep in a submarine - not a great sleep inducing thought either. In the early morning then you finally might fall asleep but not for too long since you better get up before the sun gets up in order to avoid the heat in the afternoon. In other words, a bad and a short night.

We comforted ourselves in the morning that (unknowingly) we might have learned some Spanish while so-called sleeping. We'll put this free sleep-learning program to the test in Leon, our next destination.

Luckily that it was only 58 km on quiet (except for the last 16 km) and relatively flat roads - relatively flat, since nothing is flat here in Spain, not even on this 800 m high plateau. It was a monotonous and dry landscape that we pedaled through and upon arrival in Leon we realized that we hadn't taken any single picture on the way...

We drove straight to our next historical Parador. This Parador San Marcos is one of the best and most splendid of Spain. The origin of the building goes back to the 12th century, with the purpose to shelter pilgrims on the Camino to Santiago. Later in the 16th century, it was converted into a Monastery and embellished in the marvel of the Plateresco Art, as we know it today.

This is a 5-star Grand Luxe Parador, but we feel OK with that :-) in the first place because it was originally intended as a shelter for pilgrims (and we qualify for that description), secondly because we deserve for it after 19 consecutive days of biking, and thirdly and last but not least, when we got married 25 years ago I only could afford a four day honeymoon to Paris in a cheap hotel - I even couldn't afford a decent lunch for my beloved food-loving spouse (imagine how much she loved me); so now, after 25 years, the time has come to make up for it :-)