Leon and the long trip home

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SC writes:

So we had to get ourselves back from Santiago to Bilboa, about 700km, in two days. It was long drive, but the roads were very good and very quiet...a lot of EU money has gone into that infrastructure!

We had booked to stop over in Leon, simply because it was about half way, but it turned out rather well as Leon is a Great City. We got there but mid afternoon and had time to:

Visit the extraordinary Cathedral, which has some of best stained glass in Europe. The interior was impressive, even if one is not religiously inclined.

Visit the second of the three Antoni Guadi’s buildings outside of Catalonia; Casa Botines. Again this was a well worthwhile visit and overall we learned a lot more about Gaudi and his influences. I first came across Gaudi as a schoolboy on a day trip to Barcelona 50 years ago last month. At that point Gaudi had only been dead for forty odd years and the Sagrada Famiglia was half built. 50 years later he’s still fascinating...and his masterpiece in Barcelona is nearly complete.

Had a tootle around the delightful old town on foot and by tourist tram.

For our final meal we found a great sounding restaurant, via TripAdvisor...our other source of inspiration. We shared calamari to start - fab! I then had teriyaki salmon— gorgeous. Cathy had beef - another Picana, but that turned out to be as tough as old boots.! Oh dear...

On the drive today, we even saw pilgrims, on the Camino, working their way to Santiago It must take them weeks....The last hour of so of our drive back to Bilboa airport was in torrential rain, so we ended as we started, in the wet. In between though, we had marvellous weather, beautiful hotels, some brilliant new Spanish cuisine, and a great experience of northern Spain.

The flight home was uneventful and on time..thank you Ryanair on a day when BA we’re not flying.

Home now safe and sound.

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