Is there anything better than a Spanish town on a sunny Sunday afternoon?  Leon is truly a beautiful town of about 130,000 people.  In many ways, it remind me of a smaller version of Barcelona.  There is an old commercial part of the city, with numerous bars, cafes and shops.   The streets were packed with Spanish families, enjoying themselves.  When we lived in Barcelona, Linda and I loved going on long walks through the city, and we did the same thing here today.

Last night, we ate in the old portion of the city  and it was packed.  In particular, we saw many groups of men, in their mid 20's.  We found out that these were mainly bachelor parties.  I believe mentioned in the Burgos posting last week that May is the month of weddings and communions.  In addition to the bachelor parties, we also saw a couple of wedding parties last night.

At the hotel we stayed yesterday, there were 8 communion parties going on.  It's really something to see all the little girls in their fancy communion dresses.  And today, at the Parador we are staying, there are many more communion parties.

This afternoon, we toured the fantastic Leon Cathedral, which was built in the 1300's.  Incredibly, Leon was only a town of 5000 people when this was built.  The stained glass in the Cathedral is very impressive, particularly since it was a sunny day.

In a previous, post, I mentioned the business model of a church we toured, where they charged $3 to get in, then an extra $1.50 to turn the lights on for each individual exhibit.  The Leon Cathedral charges $7 to get.  Then, there are extra charges for the museum ($4), cloisters ($4) and the tower ($5).   It's quite a business, but the upkeep on these things must be horrendous.  One other interesting approach- in the middle of the Cathedral, there is a kiosk that accepts credit cards to make donations to the church!  I have included a picture of this as well.

The Parador we are staying at is an impressive building.  I've included a few pictures here, one with Linda our front, and of me in one of the courtyards.  I truly can't figure out how the Spanish govt can keep up the Parador system, because the maintenance has to be huge.  In any case, they are terrific places to stay and we enjoy them greatly.

Even though today was technically a down day, we probably walked 8 miles, touring the city!  However, there is a big difference between walking 8 miles with nothing on your back compared to carrying a 20 pound backpack!

Tomorrow, we have a 20 mile walk to Hospital de Orbigo.  For the most part, a flat walk, hopefully without too many sharp rocks!