We left early Monday morning for a long bus ride to Leon. We were told that the trip would take 12 hours, but I think it only involved about 6 or 7 hours of actual driving and the rest was due to the stops we made. We had a 2 hour lunch break in the outskirts of Zaragoza, where I went by myself through some winding streets to find a cafe where there would be locals instead of hanging out in the touristy places. This was a lot of fun, and I ended up drinking coffee with two older gentlemen from the area, one of whom was glad to tell me all about the various tapas that they had there.
We arrived in Leon at 7, and checked into our hotel about 3 blocks from the main cathedral and central plaza. Then we went out to explore. I dont remember how much I have talked already about "tapas," but they are a tradition in Spain, particularly in the interior of the country. The concept comes from way back when bars would serve drinks, but would carry them to the table with a piece of bread or toast on top of them so that bugs or dust wouldn't get in the drinks. Hence the name "tapa" which means "lid" in Spanish. Now, tapas are often much more extravagent than a simple piece of bread. They can be anything from a few olives, to a skewer of shrimp to "tortilla de patatas," and everything inbetween. It is customary to spend an evening on the town hopping from one tapa bar to the next, ordering one small glass of wine or beer and sampling the specialty tapas before moving on to the next one. In some places, it is even considered rude to order more than one drink or tapa at one place. In most places in Spain, you have to pay for all of your tapas individually, but Leon maintains the tradition of offering free tapas when you buy a drink. So, you can order a small glass of wine, beer, soda, water or juice for about $1.50 Euro and sample the tapas for free. And this is exactly how we passed the first evening in Leon--I started out with a large group of people, but we quickly realized that that was not the way to go, so Adam and I went on our own to explore. We had a really great time, as most of the bartenders were more than willing to explain their specialties, and even advise us on where would be a good place to make our next stop. The neighborhood where we spent most of the evening is called Barrio Humedo (which means humid neighborhood) but not because of the weather, rather because it is just packed with bars everywhere you look.
Saturday morning we had breakfast at the hotel then went for a walking tour around Leon. I should mention that our tour guide for the trip was Gustavo Vega, a senior art professor at the University of Barcelona, well-known artists throughout the region who's art is displayed publicly in a number of places, and a native of Leon. We went into three places before lunch: San Isidoro de Leon, el hostal de San Marcos, and el Palacio de los Guzmanes. (I will add more details about these later)
We got food at a supermarket for lunch and made sandwiches in the plaza. After lunch, we visited the Catedral de Leon. This is the main one on the central plaza, and it is enormous. Most of it is currently under restoration, so the entire right side is covered with green mesh, but the parts that we could see were magnificent. The inside had huge vaulted ceilings, lavish tributes to various saints, and tons of huge stained-glass windows that made for a very colorful look. We got to climb the stairs up to the back balcony for a view from above, where a guide explained all of the stories that were told with the stained-glass murals around the church.
After visiting the cathedral, we were free for the rest of the evening. We spent this time going shopping (I have yet to buy any clothes--I'm trying to hold off as long as possible) and had a few tapas before returning to the hotel to go to bed.
Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel in Leon and took the bus to Astorga for the morning. Here we visited a building that was designed by Gaudi called el Palacio Episcopal de Astorga. When the church wanted to build a residence for the bishops of the region, they called upon a well-known Catalan architect--Gaudi--to design it. Gaudi, however, was not from the region and didn't know how cold it was in the region during the winter, so he didn't take into account heating when he designed it. The building is gorgeous, but nobody ever lived in it because it was too cold. Oops. Also, Astorga is only 50 km away from a couple ski resorts in the Pyrenees mountains, so I will have to keep that in mind once ski season begins here.
After the tour of the Palacio Episcopal we went next door to the Catedral de Astorga. This also is a very important catherdral to the early catholic church, and was lavishly decorated inside. We took the bus back to Leon to have lunch, then got back on the bus for a 3-hour bus ride to Burgos. Burgos is one of the oldest cities in Spain, and had all kinds of fascinating architecture as well.
When we got to Burgos we had the afternoon free to explore the downtown area. Like Leon, tapas bars were a dime a dozen. But here it is no longer tradition to offer many free tapas, so it was a little more expensive to fill up on them for dinner. When I got back to the hotel, I watched The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (with Sean Connery) in Spanish.
Monday morning we visited the Cartuja de Miraflores. A cartuja is a monastery. In this particular monastery, all of the monks take a vow of silence. The only time that they are allowed to speak is during the Sunday church services when they read scripture and sing in the choir. Just to get a taste of what that is like, a couple of my classmates and I took our own vows of silence during the 3-hour tour. That was hard enough to do--I can't imagine spending the rest of my life without ever talking.
After lunch we did our last group tour of a cathedral in the Catedral de Burgos in the center of town. This one was even more impressive than the others that we had seen, as it was painted with vibrant colors and murals all over the ceilings and walls. There was also a very interesting art museum attached to the cathedral that we spent a lot of time in. After our group tour of the cathedral, a few of us hiked up a hill to where there was supposed to be a castle overlooking the city. When we got there, the castle didn't look interesting enough to justify the $3.50 Euro to go in, so we just enjoyed the view of the city and the valley before going back into town. We ate dinner at a Greek restaurant and then stopped for a tapa on the way back to the hotel for dessert.
Tuesday morning we packed up and got on the bus for the long trip back to Barcelona. For lunch we stopped in Zaragoza, a town about three hours outside of Barcelona. It is built around the Hebrero River, and has another very interesting cathedral along the river. I decided to go inside the cathedral during our lunch stop, and with a few classmates we used our recently acquired knowledge of the time periods of architecture to analyze the structure and art. We ultimately decided that it must be a Neoclassical church, built a little after the Baroque era. We never got that ultimately confirmed from anyone who would actually know, but I feel pretty confident in our analysis.
And now, I have just finished dinner back with my host family. They are watching a "telenovela" or TV drama in Catalan and I am working on blogging and getting my pictures onto my computer. Classes at the University start tomorrow, so I will definitely have stories to tell about that. Tomorrow I have Economics at 10am, then European Union at 2pm, and I am planning to audit the political psychology class at 4pm, so I should have a busy day.
Something I wanted to add about our trip to Leon and Burgos:
The Camino de Santiago is a very popular Catholic pilgrimage, and it passes right through the region we were in. In fact, I could see people with backpacks hiking the trail from the highway during most of the drive. Santiago de Compostella is one of the three Holy Places of the Catholic faith--the other two being Rome and Jerusalem. Those of you who have read the Da Vinci Code or any similar literature, remember the Knights Templars who were charged with protecting the pilgrims along this very road that goes from Rome through Spain to Santiago. Now, the trail is used by persons making the trek for both religious and adventurous motives. The part of the road that goes through Spain takes approximately 20-30 days to walk in its entirety, and some pilgrims who begin up in Germany take 45 to 60 days to complete the one-way journey.
That being said, I would like to extend an invitation to anyone to join me to hike part of the Camino de Santiago, possibly in January. I have had some interest in doing this trek ever since I read a book by Paulo Coelho called The Pilgrimage (I would recommend reading it if you get a chance). This interest only became stronger as I saw and experienced the road and some of the sights that it passes along. I don't think that I would want to undertake the entire trek--maybe a week or so of walking would be more sensible--and I would rather do it with someone else, so let me know if you have any interest in getting to know Spain and experiencing part of the Camino de Santiago.
Click this link to see my photos of the trip:
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| Leon, Burgos, Astoria and Zaragoza (Orientation and Art History trip) |
Well, that's all for now. I will have more after I start classes, either tomorrow or Thursday.
Peace.
1 comment:
There are about 15 official el camino routes in Spain that you could walk. Check out mundicamino.com for more info.
Winter can be VERY cold, snows, blizzards, wipe-outs - especially in the north. Perhaps a southern camino - - including the one from Barcelona (or Monsterat)- would be safer?
Whichever you choose, buen camino!
Sil
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