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A soothing walking day, today. No more urban stimuli. Just the road, the sky and our thoughts. We walked across a moor (paramo) but not before we exited León through the ugly urban fringe. But the paramo was mostly beautiful, high skies. The temperature has dropped and we felt the cold for the first time on our trip. Our flock of pilgrims are all now a day ahead of us and we wonder if we’ll meet again.

So today I was thinking. About many things. When in León during a Sangria drinking session, the young ‘Camino sisters’ (from NZ, Canada, Aus and Ireland) asked the classic … do you believe in God? 

I then read a piece in The Conversation about the secular and the sacred.

http://theconversation.com/friday-essay-popular-musics-search-for-the-sacred-in-a-secular-world-101117

It struck me that life is about both and both can be part of our day and a part of our interaction with others. I thought about the Acknowledgement of Country said at the start of meetings at work… this is an opportunity to merge secular and sacred… secular in that there is work to be done and sacred in that we need to afford respect to each other and enable each of us to have a voice and each of us to be heard. I think the AoC is a good way to bring secular and sacred into a complementarity. They don’t have to be in tension.

So today was day two of rest and recreation in León. It had a treat in store for us.

We got up early at 9.30 and headed to the museum of Saint Isodoro Cathedral. Little did I know that this would be the highlight so far of my touristing component of the Camino. We were taken to a medieval library of priceless manuscripts and choir music, all on parchment, illuminated and in complete order. One of the Bibles was 960 AD. It took seven years to write by two monks. The last page sported an illustration of them toasting The End! Good on them.

We then moved into the original scriptorium, where they worked on the manuscripts and found ourselves surrounded by recently restored 16th century frescos, only recently completed. We saw the conservation process and were in awe of the love and care bestowed on these gentle masterpieces. Emily, I thought of you.

We then moved onto the most valuable item in the museum, the Chalice of Doña Urraca….. considered the true Holy Grail.

Here is the Wikipedia description:

The Chalice of Doña Urraca is an artifact kept in the Basilica of San Isidoro in León, Spain.[10] The connection of this artifact to the Holy Grail was made in the 2014 book Los Reyes del Grial, which develops the hypothesis that this artifact had been taken by Egyptian troops following the invasion of Jerusalem and the looting of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, then given by the Emir of Egypt to the Emir of Denia, who in the 11th century gave it to the Kings of Leon in order for them to spare his city in the Reconquista.[11]

And here is a Smithsonian clip on the discovery of its provenance.

https://www..com/videos/category/history/do-we-finally-know-how-the-holy-grail-disapp/#u3CyRY6fjw758SwD.03

The rest of the day was uneventful, really. It could only go down after meeting the Holy Grail! 

 

So today we slept in. Wow. What a treat. We have a little pension room with ensuite. No need for ear plugs or eye mask and no pilgrim russelling at 4.50am in preparation for the day.

We dropped off our washing and set out to explore León, now in full festival-swing.

Our visit to the cathedral was awe-inspiring. Unlike other cathedrals, this one is different in that the entire building is just one genre – Gothic with no updated genres of archecture interfering. Elegant, tall columns, rays of sunlight through enormous stain glass windows of nature and biblical characters. Simple with an alter that lets the stain glass above tell the Christ story. It’s beauty is enough to evangelize!

I particularly liked the dead bishop who defies gravity in his sarcophagus, and the very lucky one who got away! 😜

We then explored the markets and ate a huge lunch of meat and chips, before retiring for siesta.

The food has been way better than my expectations of just meat and more meat. We eat mostly pilgrim meals which are usually three courses and a bottle of red for about Aus $17 each. The olives, cheeses, meats, salads and desserts are great. Here is a selection… we aren’t going hungry!

We spent the evening catching up with Deb and Al and the Camino sisters. Lots of Sangria! Great night.

We have been gone a month now. It seems too short a period of time for us to have done so many kms. But it is starting to feel like we have been gone a while now.

Today should have been an easy day. It was short on kms but we were warned it would be a challenge as we walked into León through the always unattractive, urban fringe of a big city. And so it was, with the additional detour due to road works. We had a add a whole km to the day – a long detour for walkers. I saw the first servo and my first KFC.

Our flock dispersed and we walked alone. It was nice to just have our time to ourselves to think. We reformed in Leon and had a great evening after a siesta in a hotel! We will rest of three days and spoil ourselves with amenities, food and sites. In fact our need for washing is critical. I did the Gaudi tour in my PJs!

We are over 60% complete. Unbelievable. We have all but completed the Meseta and will begin to do some more up and downhills from here on.

León has one of only three Gaudi buildings outside of Barcelona. We had a wonderful tour last night and marveled at his architectural genius.

We found ourselves in the midst of a night market. Very exciting. Everyone dressed in period clothes. Yep, even including the hunting bird.

So today we continued along the alternative path through farmland and off the beaten track. We are now part of a flock of pilgrims. Tony has a certain magnetic appeal. He is the pilgrim with the app that works by GPS and doesn’t need a WiFi. ‘Follow Tony coz he knows where to go’.  So we have Deb and Allan, Sarah, Anya, George, Torr, Jacob, Marcel. 10 of us meandering together, stopping and starting, laughing and imagining. At one point we got buzzed by a helicopter. We all had a different, but always imaginative response:

1. SAS soldiers about to land to take up a defensive position against the Locsl resistance.
2. A 007 moment where a helicopter lands and a stunning, female assassin emerges and strafes us.
3. A police search for an escaped prisoner
4. an aerial  search for a secret bunker

And then Tony burst our collective bubble and said it was probably a low flying NavEx (Navigational exercise). Military man.

The day involved walking another Roman road, used by Ceasar Augustus and then later by Charlemagne. Shared it with some seriously big farming equipment driven by the locals.

We were glad to get to our final destination.  It has been seven days without a rest. And we are starting to feel weary. But I did observe that each day is less painful than the day before. We get more resilient as we progress. Feet are toughening up.

We spent the afternoon touring the town with its defensive wall still in tact.