Green Hills of Spain 13-27 June Leon

We struck lucky arriving in Leon on carnival day, the streets were packed with bands and dancers, everyone drinking and having a good time, We managed to get a seat in a street side bar for a beer and shoot this bit of video.

                                     

As well as the carnival there were street markets taking place, we managed to avoid buying anything.

    The carnival went on well into the evening, where they got the energy from I don’t know and we were entertained as we had our dinner. We dropped a slight bobo with ordering dinner, we had found the place in the afternoon and gone through the menu. The fixed menu for two looked good, €44. When we came to order you didn’t chose a starter from the 4 on the menu you had them all, the same with the other  dishes and it was €44 each, more than we had expected to pay but value for money as it also included a bottle of wine.

The City still has most of its city walls and defences, some restored but lots still in good condition with a museum set into them.

Leon has a very large Cathedral with its own museum located in the cloisters, an extra charge of course, but worth it. As you can see from the plaque it stands a long way above sea level.

Almost directly opposite our hotel was a park with stalls selling knickknacks,hot food, drinks etc and also a stage for singers. I think the umbrellas served two purposes, to look pretty and to keep some of the mid day sun off, to get there we crossed a square with a rather interesting statue in it. 

Of course we also wandered around the rest of the city and yes this was the day we were there.

The next day we were due to take a local train to Bilbao but unfortunately due to engineering works half the line was closed so we had to take a coach from Leon for about 100 miles to  Matapoquera to catch the train for the second half of its journey, there is only one train per day, each way on this line and like a lot of trains over here they only go half way from each end, then you get off and change trains to the one that is going back home.. The only thing of note where we joined the train was a large cement works but the coach journey was quite enjoyable.

On the train and the weather took a turn for the worse turning wet before we reached Bilbao and it was also quite late, almost 10 pm.