Today was a rest day. We certainly appreciated this one – hair cuts, a little shopping for gifts and lots of walking (yep we are mad!!). Again, another little gem in Spain that I had never heard of or at least must have confused with Lyon in France. This city of Leon with 170,000 inhabitants is beautiful. We are staying in a monastery that is part hotel and part functioning monastery with 100 religious folk still living on the site. We took a tour of the monastery this morning to discover that the buildings are still used for university Examinations and that certain times of the year the rooms in the accomodation are closed down to allow for retreats for various religious orders. The money that is paid by guests is used to maintain and restore the buildings.
Leon was established in about 300 AD and in the collection of the museum attached to San Isadora, where we are staying is said to be the Holy Grail. The walls of the ancient city remain in tact in certain sections and we were able to walk along them…amazing.
We went to the Cathedral of Leon and spent a couple of hours there . The Cathedral is beautiful and to my thinking is the most beautiful I have seen. It is not the largest of Gothic cathedrals that I have seen but it was completely built in 50 years and has not had additions and so is a text book definition of gothic architecture. My proofing of Jordan’s essays on flying buttresses and German medieval cathedrals came in handy today.
What is amazing is the stained glass and there is SO much of it to look at. The photos that Lori took are transfixing. We spent ages just looking at the light pouring in. We have said so many times on the Camino, how could it be that the architects and builders and artisans were able to create these amazing temples over 700 and 800 years ago. They are still standing and still drawing our breath away.
From the sublime to the ridiculous. When we had finished at the Cathedral we headed down to Gaudi’s building in Leon. The man was a genius and SO ahead of his time. A couple of the photos that are included in the blog hardly do justice to the level of design and drawing and most importantly building that this genius was responsible for.
We finished the day by eating dinner in a great little place (for the second night) and heading back to our rooms to prepare for the massive walk tomorrow of over 30km and…..it is raining. Of course it is raining!
Next career – travel writer and photographer? Or maybe with your ever developing expertise with photographing architectural detailing and texture – Architectural Digest or Architectural Review.
I am particularly enjoying your photographs – are they contributions from you both?
I agree … Watch out Paul Theroux! Your blog and photos transports me there; it’s magical!
Hey Sue – there is a mixture – the stained glass was from Lori – really enjoying taking the photos and we have both commented on the fact that everything is on an iPhone!!!
Hey Chris – so retirement in my head is shaping up to retrace Theroux’ book Pillars of Hercules…..that should fill a year I’d say. There are SO many photos now that I PROMISE I will never bore you with them – but the choice at the end of each day is always fun!!!
Have decided that as I have not put ANYTHING on Facebook – which was the promise to myself -I’m going back at the end and am going to chose the best photo or the most memorable spot from each day and post that ….no words!