Leon (Th 26 Sep)

Leon's another of the handful of cities along the way, with soaring cathedrals, old towns, squares and tons of people.  It makes for a great gathering place for peregrinos, as many stay a couple nights, some bus here to miss the Meseta, so it's a great place to meet some Camino friends you haven't seen in a while.  And we did: a woman from Denmark from day one, two young women from the San Juan islands, Joe, from the US, who walked the Appalachian Trail and others.  Great to reconnect.

Here's a map of our route so far.  The red dots are where we stayed each night.  Santiago, the green dot on the left, beckons.  I'm a little concerned that, with our trajectory, we're going to miss it!

A couple from France with interesting rigs. Strange to our eyes, but we've seen more of these than umbrellas:

Our guide book suggested we consider taking a bus to Leon, as this stretch is considered dangerous in parts, such as a short stretch where you need to walk on the paved shoulder of the road. But it was short and the shoulder was wide.  We had always planned to walk to Santiago, so glad we did this part:

Nice rivers along the way:

Interesting locals:

And unlike the previous couple of days, lots and lots of pilgrims.  A real surprise:

Getting closer to the city and a special bridge makes crossing the highway very easy:

Letter carrier, delivering mail on a bike, pauses to pose for a picture (thanks!):

Just before entering the city proper, we encountered a police roadblock.  Slightly intimidating... They asked if we were pilgrims and we said yes, so they waved us over to a table, to welcome us to the city, record what country we were from, gave us a map, and highlight the route we should follow.  Nice welcome.  We asked for directions to the municipal albergue, but was told it was closed!  So, we decided to go to the convent, with 144 beds, and see if they had room.  The woman in the centre of the pic is Fran from Bosron.  We'd walked with her into the city.  She recently retired from over 30 years in affordable housing initiatives in the Boston area:

Leon's a pretty city, interesting architecture, pedestrian friendly:

The Cathedral:

We stayed in a convent near here.  I was schooled by with sisters in their habits, but quite a rare sight now in Canada.

The convent building is on the right and is sectioned off into three parts: the albergue, a classy hotel and the convent.  Four large dorms -- two for women, two for men, which made it a little tricky for us -- we carry only one tube of toothpaste, one soap, etc. and had no way of communicating with each other, but it worked itself out.

Larry's a big fan of the architect Gaudi, who did most of his work in Barcelona.  Wild stuff.  He did one building in Leon, an early work and tame by his later standards, but still signs of his creative genius:

A bronze sculpture of the architect, sketching this building: