Leon is one of my favourite cities in Spain.....perhaps because of the Parador, the grandeur of it and how glorious it felt to stay here after walking for miles. For years since I have wanted to bring Jeff here to this hotel.......it is still great but it is never as great the second time as often things aren't . We checked into our room, I was a teeny bit disappointed it didn't face the garden which is finely manicured with beautiful little box woods but otherwise it was good. ......until we start hearing the horrid music of the carnival just past the square. Serenity and peacefulness was gone.
We quickly unpack a little and head out to take advantage of daylight and explore. We head for the old town area which is about a 15 minute walk. .......on the way we cross a road where a group of motorcycle guys are waiting at the light.....we enter old town and find ourselves at the San Isidro Collegiate Hotel (another of the pilgrims 4 favourite spots) I insist Jeff has to see it and we walk through the entrance and courtyard to the office and ask if we can have a walk around........the inner courtyard was under some type of construction so not looking it's best but the hotel/converted from a convent was still spectacular ! As we were entering into the courtyard roared all the motorbikes we had just seen. On our way out we stopped to talk to one of them, a group of 9/10 from England on a massive ride across Spain to Portugal and back to England on the 24 hr ferry. Sounded amazing!
Next we went to the church that is attached to the hotel/convent and then sat at the boccadia restaurant/bar in the sun.....where the pilgrims had sat before.....Jeff was getting a feel for our pilgrimage. We wandered back to San Marcos square for a little rest in our room......finally deciding we really couldn't put up with the awful noise of the carnival and asked to get our room changed......we were shown to another 2 Rooms which for various reasons were not suitable......until finally the hotel put us in The most glorious suite overlooking the square!!!! Truly amazing! A lovely breeze is blowing in from the little balcony fluttering the curtains ....I could get poetic!
After moving rooms we again head out in another direction , right turn out of our hotel across the centuries old bridge and we wandered through the grassy park areas along the river. It is Sunday and virtually everything is closed, including most restaurants.. We had missed the Saturday market and the Saturday light show on the church in old town.
Dinner we reserved in our hotel dining room which is quite formal, we ordered a traditional Spanish stew to share (forget the name!) ...not to be ordered again.
We were discussing our trip so far today and Jeff told me his most enjoyable part so far was the drive we made to Orisson in St. Jean Pied a Port . Even though the trip was harrowing on the extremely
narrow road, winding and with sheer drops the beauty impressed him very much. He even got out of our taxi, much to our drivers confusion, and jogged down the road for awhile just to get the whole essence of it. I was so glad we had taken the time to make the trip, we very nearly didn't as we had arrived so late in the afternoon, light and fog were threatening. After driving it I can not imagine how we walked it!
Tomorrow we will do some more exploring including right here in The paradore, the walls are filled with art, statues, and history to be read.
Despite a few blips along the way we are loving Spain.
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