We walked behind the Parador to the river at 7:30 to do a little birding; it was cool and almost clear. We saw a Grey Heron in the water, but not much else. León has quite a bit of graffiti, but as with everywhere else on our trip, practically no trash. Every town and city is amazingly clean and recycling bins abound...And No billboards! It's really a pleasure to travel here!!
We stopped in our hotel for breakfast. Bob had a version of eggs Benedict and I stayed with a baguette with tomato sauce and Spanish ham.
It was nine already and quite a walk to the Cathedral so we had the concierge call a taxi for us which whisked us across town to the beautiful building. Although not as massive as the one in Burgos, this cathedral began construction in 1205 and only required 50 years to complete, so it has a beautifully uniform appearance as opposed to Burgos where every rich family over the centuries has constructed its own large chapel resulting in a more chopped up look.
The high, soaring grey arches form the skeleton of the cathedral and the spaces in between the ribs are filled with 125 tall, thin, gorgeous stained glass windows, plus three huge rose windows and many smaller decorative ones. We were lucky to be there on a sunny morning as the beautiful colors poured over us! A really amazing experience.
We walked back to the Parador, packed up and drove north out of León, taking the smaller N-623 through villages instead of the faster freeway.
We drove over the high plains of Castile-León and entered the Principality of Asturias. The road went up to almost 5000', the snow stakes increased, and the houses had steep slate roofs instead of tile - for easier shedding of snow, I imagine.
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| Everyone has a dog in León! |
We drove over the high plains of Castile-León and entered the Principality of Asturias. The road went up to almost 5000', the snow stakes increased, and the houses had steep slate roofs instead of tile - for easier shedding of snow, I imagine.
We descended into a deep valley, part of the Parque Natural de Somiedo, and after making an incredibly sharp right hand turn, cascaded into the village of Pola de Somiedo. I managed to get us through the center of town, but after crossing a small river, I missed the not well-marked entrance to our hotel and we started climbing again. We managed to turn around and found the correct lane, reaching our lovely hotel, Palacio Flórez-Estrada, by 2:30.
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| Palacio Flórez-Estrada
We were met by the owner, Manuel, who showed us his family house, built by a notable ancestor who used to be featured on the 50 Peseta note (with the Palacio on the back!) before the Euro took over. Manuel had his infant strapped to his front so we were left to struggle with the luggage down steps then up two flights to our small but very nice room overlooking the river.
Bob had the brilliant idea of going to town and having lunch rather that trying to find hiking trails at that hour. We found parking right by Casa Miño in the center of town and settled into an outdoor table. Bob fortunately had read that the portions at these country inns are huge, so we split an enormous salad of lettuce, tomatoes and onions, and then an order of delicious Iberian pork cheeks which, with a bottle of wine, did us for the rest of the day.
We returned to our room napped, walked around the grounds and birded a bit, and will set off on trails tomorrow.
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