Girls on Tour….

Leon to Villa de Mazarife – day 22 – 20.72km

Actually, I cheated a little and only did 10.7km as the bed for the night was at the halfway point and a shuttle backwards, so I thought I’d give the legs/feet a rest day before a big 30km day tomorrow…of course I am here too early and cannot get into my room!

So back to last night…

Walked to the cathedral at 6pm to meet friends for dinner and a quick tour of the inside of the cathedral…..

The photos don’t really do the leadlighted windows justice

It was more of a museum – rather than a functioning church…. With all the alcoves iron fenced off….€7 for about a 15 minute run around…

The inside courtyard, was rather impressive…again fenced off from the public…the Dinner…I was starving…but as usual most restaurants do not open until 7-7.30pm, however we did find one…and there were 7 of us…

The options were interesting…beef (raw) and a hot plate to cook to your liking…

The smallest lamb chops I have ever seen, felt guilty eating these “little lambs” just served with fries, no veges!

Fast forward to this morning….breakfast at 7am – actually got eggs and bacon today, so a good start! Was meeting Jean at the Paradour de Leon…so was a 30 minute walk from my hotel….chilly start this morning and not sure I had layered up enough…but walked smartly pretty much along the river…

These Spanish, people art, statues are dotted around this city too….

Through some parks…following google to get me to the meeting point at 8am…

River views…and the lions….

I’m guessing the symbol of Leon (lion) guarding the bridges….to….

The Paradour…one of those structures one can’t really miss…the history of this building is rather multi coloured….

Built in the 12th century as a convent and hospital for pilgrims, San Marcos ended up being one of the main headquarters of the Order of Santiago.

It is, however, a building with centuries of life, a multitude of uses and historical episodes, During the Civil War and the first years of the dictatorship, the building was used as a concentration camp, becoming one of the harshest prisons in the northwest of Spain.

Over time, the memory of those who suffered in San Marcos has been rescued thanks to research and testimonies.

It is now a very posh hotel!

Here as I was waiting for Jean, Hipatia walked past…a lady from Guatemala , also walking alone and heading to the same place as us…so now we were three…A Kiwi, an American and and A South American! .., just as we were navigating our way out of the City…the wind got up and the skies started to cry….surprised us all as we’re not prepared for a wet day!

We spied a LIDL…one of those supermarkets in Europe that sell everything….we hoped…and opening in 15minutes! We took a coffee…

Then queued up with the locals, at 9.00am, opposite this butchers…full of hanging legs of something (definitely not the tiny lamb I ate last night! )

No Jackets available and no ponchos … but Hipatia suggested rubbish bags – A roll of them for €1.49!!! We then attacked three with my scissors (emergency 1st aid kit) and made our own….

Ponchos….as we left the rain was really coming down….next thing we needed was an umbrella…which we found in a sweet shop (kids ones) so off we trotted looking like we had raided the trash cans…but very happy as we had wind and rain shelter! Around the 6km mark, just before the church of the Virgin del Camino…we found a work outfitters shop with lots of wet weather gear!!! Where Hipatia (who had a jacket) bought a Poncho, and a Jean and I (who didn’t have jackets) got the best buy of the trip – €25 for a warm, hooded,waterproof jacket!!!

We left there, after some time, we really were mucking around, and as we were nearing the end of the towns…we took a coffee (and free cake)…just enjoying our day…

This little chilly puppy, tied to a door handle looking rather miserable…as we were now both warm and dry!

Here, the last post before hitting the Camino track, stood the Saunctury of the Virgin del Camino…

Hard to see, but there she is in the middle!

And out on the track…

Past these Bodegas… the ancient fridges for food and wine storage…

To reach Villar de Mazarife, via Oncina de la Valdocina, we took the alternative Camino route, now deserted as we were so late in the morning…everyone else would have been way ahead…we were glad we were three!

We passed the kilometre to go “Milestone ”… almost 300….from 800! Wow, where did that go! (For us all mostly under foot)

About an hour in, we reached my destination…note the matching jackets! I stayed at my Albergue and the girls carried on…

Roses Roses, even in the smallest of villages, and this one is Small…no option but to eat dinner on the premises tonight which suits me….as I want to transfer or taxi before 7am to meet the girls for a long day tomorrow! We will have to get our serious walking heads on.

I’m really getting into this walking every day…even if not for the whole day….Forrest Gump comes to mind!