Camino 1: Leon (Friday 25 October)

It’s Chaucer’s birthday: how extraordinary!

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tender croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(So Priketh hem Nature in hir corages),
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages

After yesterday’s downpour, I was hoping for better weather so I could scope the town and walk some of the camino. It held of for most of the day, but every now and then a shower came down to remind me how miserable it could really be if the weather turned nasty.

I walked down to the bullfighting arena (sponsored by Pauliner, no less) and found my way to the first camino marker. Very tasteful, I’m sure, but I’m assured that the markers out in the country are a good deal more obvious! Leon, once you are on track and in the old town, is camino-central. Sometimes it is being like in another world, or taken back in time.

The cathedral was the marvel that Caz said it would be, the little churches along the way all had their interest.

At the Cathedral, I got my first stamp on my Credential, the first of many, I hope.

I did the local thing for lunch — beer and tapas standing — and had a bilingual chat with a bloke whose Westie I had admired. He asked me to hold the little fellow while he got his drink and tapas, and I found him a picture of Merlin to compare.

In the evening, I had a couple of beers while writing up the blog, then walked down to the Bendictine Monastery for compline and the Pilgrims Blessing. It wasn’t until 9.45 pm, so I was pretty hungry, but Mother gave us the pilgrims blessing (nice touch). One of the other nuns gave us a talk before hand — in Spanish — but I heard enough to understand her message: the real pilgrimage is the way of the ‘corazon’, the heart. Familiar words.

Dinner in a restaurant on the Plaza Mayor, nerves, difficulty sleeping. Must be time for a pilgrimage.