Where in the world is David today? Leon

Today I will really keep it short. I am sitting in a bar with free WiFi opposite the albergue (in the Benedictine Sisters' convent) in Leon, with a red wine in front of me. Today's ride was cold and wet, as predicted, but not as wet and certainly not as wet as yesterday. I made it here in three and a half hours of riding, so by 11.00am, which reflects the better conditions - it was flat too. The albergue is fine, if a little basic, and provides breakfast tomorrow, which is a bonus. Funnily enough, I saw barely any pilgrims on the road today - just six on foot, and no cyclists at all - and some of the people I was with yesterday, including Glenn and Fr. Thom, arrived here by bus. That tells you what yesterday was like! The Puerto-Rican lady from Fromista turned up by bus too, but that's because her toe nail fell off yesterday, as it was threatening to do. Maybe I will finally find out her name. Anyway, some pilgrims have arrived by foot or bike, but not all...

Leon is an interesting city. I have warmed to it in some ways, and not in others. The signs took me a very round-about way to get to the cathedral, and finally abandoned me to find my own way. It was worth the effort. It was one of those times when you walk into a building and your mouth falls open. There was something about the awesomeness of the space, but also there was the stained glass. For the first time in Spain, the stained glass left me gasping. I had to walk around twice, enjoying it all, and I took it at an abstract colour and light level. To take in the details would have needed much, much longer. In fact, though, my eight favourite windows were abstract in design, and intensely colourful. You can find photos of them all in the photostream at the left. There were other wonderful details too - shadows of wrought ironwork, a wonderful lock on a door, a beautiful chapel where the font is situated, a carved screen. Nothing seemed to intrude, and the space was wonderfully uncluttered compared to a lot of the Spanish churches, I am afraid.

The exterior is much more conventional, but there were interesting details, especially the one-handed clock, and I was glad to be there when 12.00 struck. All sorts of different peals seemed to happen, and I wouldn't have missed it for anything. I was quite surprised to realise I had spent an hour in there. It took the next half hour and four sets of instructions to find the Tourist Office, and none of those instructions really helped! However the person in the office was wonderfully helpful in every way, and I was soon at the albergue. The welcome there was extremely efficient and warm, and I am sure it will do the trick. There has been more rain since getting there, but I haven't got my evening clothes wet, you will be pleased to hear, and it hasn't rained for a couple of hours really now. Let's hope that is a good sign for tomorrow.

Glenn has helped me 'true' my back wheel, which hasn't been right since the last spoke replacement I did in France, and had been getting worse. He is an enthusiastic rider of recumbent bikes, and even a velo-bike, and does all his own maintenance, so I was glad he had turned up here. I didnt' feel confident doing the job alone, and couldn't find the energy to locate a bike shop, though there is one somewhere, apparently. Anyway, that's a relief to have done before the next few days which will get steadily more demanding and see me through the hardest bits. Tomorrow I will do another full clean up of chain and gears when the rain is hopefully over. Today's vital job was to get all the grit and sand off the bike and panniers before taking them into a clean dormitory!

I have spent some more time wandering round Leon this afternoon and caught some interesting photos, but I will let you explore those yourself rather than commenting endlessly. What they don't show is the mixture of lovely, historical charm and scruffy, defaced buildings. This truly is a city of contradictions, much more cramped and convoluted than, say, Burgos.

This evening there is a service of vespers at 7.00pm, followed by mass at 7.30pm, which is going to be said by my friend Fr. Thom. Before that, a group of us are going to head out to Burger King for a fix of familiar food, and then it will be time to settle down before the pilgrim blessing at 9.30pm and lights out at 10.30.

Bye for now.