Tuesday, 7 June
Our day began with mid-morning churros from a very ‘real’ establishment out in a less busy and more modern part of León with fewer shops. The clientele at this late hour (the place had opened at 6am, presumably catering to early risers nipping in before their morning shift) amounted to a few old men ruminating at the bar. Everything was an antiquated shade of plastic, and there was next to no decor.
To our (somewhat feigned) surprise, the churros con chocolate were delicious – the former freshly fried, just a little bit gooey on the inside and excellently salty, the latter piping hot, thick with cornstarch and pleasingly lightly sweetened. It was the perfect start to the day after a refreshingly cool walk by the small tree-lined river which runs through the middle of León, and we lingered longer than we might have expected to do.
From there, we took ourselves to another attraction across the river from León old center: the Parador. Like most Spanish cities of any size, León has one of these fancy hotels housed in a fancy building (usually, but not always, an old monument). In this case, it was the Convento de San Marcos, an important example of ‘plateresque’ (‘silversmith-like’) Renaissance architecture in Spain and the former headquarters of the Order of the Knights of St James (Santiago).
It was fun to explore the church and museum also contained in this lavish building – free to us as ‘students’ – and we marveled at the swankiness of the vaults, the preponderance of shells and Santiago crosses and the hilarious life-size Jesus and Mary dolls piously displayed on the altars in the side chapels.
After poking our noses around the rather lovely hotel lobby and bar for a bit (we would have had a drink on their garden terrace and snuck into the old cloister, but we couldn’t find the way in), we walked back to the center in suddenly beaming warm sun. We needed a bathroom (to change into shorts!) and so pitched up in a tapas bar behind yesterday’s San Isidoro. We tried a small glass of the local lager on tap (not sure if it was a corto or the next size up). It was good, but the sliver of tortilla it came with – unusually spiced with herbs and jamón – was even better, maybe the best we’ve had.
It was getting pretty hot, and we were low on energy, so we ended up sitting for ages in the shade at the back of the main cathedral, outside a mediocre Turkish restaurant. When the waiter wouldn’t allow us cheapskates to share one menu del día, we decided not to eat there at all, which ended up being a good choice (judging by the tapa brought with our drinks). A tapa not making us wish for a ración is somewhat of a first in León! Wanting to do something useful with our afternoon, we set to planning the rest our our stay in Spain (our flights are booked back from Santiago on the 17th). But no spoilers…
At 5, we went back to San Isidoro, wanting to see the museum (open in the mornings and from 5 to 8pm). As we had by now come to expect, the audioguide was frustratingly, hilariously badly translated, in an accent almost too think to understand. That said, it’s great that almost everywhere gives you a free audioguide in one of several languages (and the friendliness of almost all the Spaniards we’ve encountered makes up for their monoglot nature!).
The museum, based around the early modern cloister adjoining the church, featured many gems, including some early medieval reliquary chasses and a golden weathervane rooster which somehow found its way to León from Persia in the 7th century! The definite highlight, however, was the Royal Pantheon located in a semi-open vaulted chamber. Unfortunately for these royals, though, their sarcophagi on the floor are near-forgotten trip hazards these days: everyone’s eyes are on the ceiling, which in covered in remarkably well-preserved Romanesque frescoes in rich browns, ochres, blues and creams.
We recommend waiting for a gap between guided tours of schoolchildren and then lying on the cold stone floor to gaze up at Bible stories such as the Last Supper, the Nativity and the Massacre of the Holy Innocents. We left visually exhausted, but it was a great treat.
Wanting to save money on dinner, we got our own tapas of ‘to go’ anchovies (you know you’re in Spain when), bread and 99% chocolate from the supermarket. Having consumed this on a bench in a convivial square, along with copious water from one of the many drinking water fountains around, we wandered through the old town one last time.
At a very popular tapas bar – more of a hole in the wall serving cheap glasses of wine along with generous free patatas con picadillo – we struck up a conversation with Robson, a very friendly engineer from Saõ Paulo. He was incredibly tanned, wiry and gregarious, and he was doing the Camino Frances for the first time (though it seemed like he’s been everywhere else in the world!). It was our first extended conversation with a new pilgrim friend, and it was lovely to chat about backpack weights, Spanish towns and free tapas, as well as where to visit in Brazil and the UK, the 18 million (!) population of his home, and – surprisingly – Romanian wall paintings. He said he’ll hit us up when he comes to run the London marathon in October.
– Bea