Leon

Slept in today because we awake so early yesterday. Up at 6 am and away at 7 am bound for the airport so Bud and Sandy could fly to Barcelona and we could see about renting a car.

We were able to do so, complete with a GPS which I quickly taught English so we were off to Leon by 8:30 am, arriving there about 10:30 am.

We parked on the street while we got our bearings by walking around searching out the tourist office which we kept being told was just "over there."

We stumbled upon the Museo de Leon from which we were able to scope out the city a bit from the museum's panormic view; the Casa Botines, Leon's Gaudi building complet with Gaudi sitting on a park bench out front; the Catedral de Santa Maria with its fabulous stained glass windows; the Basilica de San Isidoro and the Roman Walls; but no Oficino de Turismo.

After our "maximum time" on the street parking expired, we braved the Saturday noon time traffic to move the car into the underground parking garage, whereupon we set off in search of food. Unfortunately, as we are wont to do, we waited until we were too hungry to make a good decision and ended up with a barely adequate, overpriced menu of the day from a small cafe on a side street of the Calle Ancha.

After lunch, since it was 3 pm, we marveled at the difference in the city now that everything was closed. We wandered and then sat on the steps of the cathedral watching the few people still around and listening to the cathedral organ practicing for its 9 pm concert.

After watching the cathedral reopen at 4 pm, we wandered through the commercial area and found an Eroski where we bought crackers, jamon and emmentaler, which we ate sitting on a bench near Gaudi in front of Casa Botines.

I drove back to Faedo since Steve had driven to Leon and we arrived in time for a zucchini tortilla and tomato salad for dinner with Judy, Juan Carlos and Karinjo.

Many glasses of wine later, bed.