Leon, Day 24

We were excited to begin walking this morning, knowing that we would be staying in a nicer room in a bigger city. We decided to get a hotel style, private room in a hostel in the towncenter of Leon. Looking forward to this made the final stretch through the Meseta a little bit more bearable.

We arrived in town in the afternoon, around 2:30 pm, and walked the 8 km from the edge of the city to the city center to find our building. We stopped at a little bakery for some snacks beside a cathedral, and Paisley ordered her first Spanish milkshake. From what I understand it was delightful.

When we arrived to the city center we found our building right away. It is an old building that houses many different businesses and apartments. We walked in and climbed the stairs to the floor that hosts our hostel, and entered into a beautiful room that looked as though it had been cut and pasted from the 1920s.

There we found an old friend from earlier on in the Camino, and sat to catch up before showering and taking a tour around town.

We rested, recovered, updated the blog a little bit, and then went to join a group of other pilgrims we have recently gotten to know. Along for the ride, we joined them as they hopped from bar to bar to places that serve incredible tapas with the order of a drink.

We found a bar that serves different types of San Miguel beer, and one of the types went by the name of Portland, so Paisley and I decided that we had to give it a try. It was great-- hoppy and a nice reminder of home.

We all decided to head to a rooftop bar and made our way to meet the woman that we had seen in our hostel for a drink. The view was gorgeous, and as nicely complimented with good conversation.

The group made a decision to find dinner, and neither Paisley nor I found any objection to that. We went to a restaurant that we had visited earlier for tapas, and sat around a large table. Others that we had met on the Camino came to join us for dinner. The plates were large, and the food was incredible. I ordered octopus, and was pleasantly surprised. Paisley ordered a mixed salad that looked like it could be in a magazine. Neither of us cleaned our plates, but the wine was too delicious to save.

We got back into the hostel around midnight and are packing to leave early tomorrow. Both of us are happy about experiencing such a lovely city with such lovely people and for the new phase of the Camino that is beginning.