I hadn’t realised that the Kings of Leon were an American rock band from Nashville, Tennessee! So do they know about the 33 Kings that were entombed in Leon Cathedral and is that where they got their name from? AND did you know that their song “Sex on Fire” is the 10th most downloaded song in the U.K.!? Not sure if I’m shocked or horrified at that little factoid!
So our travels took us to Leon, what a lovely city. I excitedly tried to spot as many brass shells and footprints as I could, we could be seen as modern day pilgrims on the Camino but not with a wooden staff, but with a large Motorhome and Aguri sat-nav (or would have if the damn thing worked). We’d first seen the shells in Orviedo which I hadn’t realised was also on the route to Santiago de Compostela.
The historical centre of Leon is small enough not to get lost but large enough to have interesting little hidden piazzas, a Roman wall, a Cathedral and an even older Basilica, not to mention a fabulous house built by Antonio Gaudi.
It was originally built for a textile magnate who had the sales counters on the ground floor and apartments above. Two have been preserved and are stunning.
So we arrived around midday and walked into the centre, the first thing we came across was the local Noddy Train, great, I thought we can drive round all the most interesting bits and decide where we want to go back to. Half an hour later we realised we could have walked it in half the time but we did get to see lots of roundabouts!
The Cathedral was having a spruce up so the famous rose window was covered up but inside there was plenty of other things to see as the audio guide kept telling us in effusive, lengthy and unnecessarily wordy terms. 128 windows with a surface area of 1800sq metres, etc, etc. The alter was different to any other I’ve seen, it had 13 pictures which depicted Christ’s life and resurrection and as she talked you through it you could see it clearly.
Next was the Basilica de San Isidoro, it was much smaller than I thought it would be and had a stillness about it, I was quite taken, it had a similar alter piece to the Cathedral but much smaller. The Museum in the Real Basilica de San Isidoro houses the silver box with the relics of Saint Isidoro along with a chalice parts of which have been carbon dated back to 1st century and were purportedly used by Christ himself. Although, unlike the Indiana Jones theory the ‘simple onyx cup’ was encased by fingers of beautifully worked gold and studded with jewels (shame we couldn’t take a photo).
The most interesting part was the panthenon, which is the resting place for the scarcophagi where Fernando I and his wife Dona Sancha were laid to rest along with 31 other Leonese and Castilian monarchs and nobles. The crypt is decorated with colourful motifs and scenes depicting biblical scenes and one which shows the months of the year in a farming cycle, a bit like some misericords I’ve seen in English churches. It was amazing how bright the colours were despite not having been restored. It’s a shame that only four sarcophagi are left intact after Napeleon’s soldiers defiled the place. As it is a museum we weren’t allowed to take any photos in here.
We stayed right in the heart of the city, not many campsites there I here you think, you’re right, we stopped in a car park over looking the river right next to a huge shopping mall. It was our first time ‘free camping’ and those of you who know me I’ve always been very sniffy about wild/free camping, stating that it looks more like a bunch of gypsies just parking wherever they like, but needs must and we found the ‘king of gypsy’ parking in Leon!
The shopping mall was obviously used to gypsy parking as just inside the door they had a fresh milk machine. You opened the little door, placed your bottle on the shelf, paid your money and a litre of fresh milk was dispensed into your receptacle. How good is that!
Something I learnt whilst I was here – when you see a sign that says, ‘you must not display camping behaviour,’ it means you can’t get your table and chairs out. So glad they explained that as in my imagination camping behaviour could be dancing wildly round the campfire at midnight, exalting and glorifying the god of the gypsy camper!
PS Did you know that St George is the patron saint of campers. Really I googled it. Haha, you couldn’t make it up!!!
Happy camping!