Day 39 - Tuesday 30th May 2023

Today we'd be travelling from Santiago del Compostela to Leon via Ponferrada.

We had breakfast at 7:15, had our bags out for collection at 8am and the bus left at about 8:50. It was misty and the temperature was a cool 13C.

We travelled along rural highways and through rural villages before getting onto the motorway. Since it was mountainous territory, there were numerous bridges and tunnels. When we stopped for a break at a service station at about 10:20, it was still misty.

Justin told us the history of the Templar Knights who was a Christian military group set up in the 12th century to protect pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem. They also became very rich by developing an early form of banking where they protected the wealth of the pilgrims.

They also protected pilgrims travelling to Santiago de Compostela by establishing a fortress on a hilltop in Ponferrada that had previously been a fort in Roman times.

He also gave us a history of Spain from 1492 onwards starting with Christopher Columbus. In more recent history, he told us about the civil war and the rise of General Franco as a soldier and dictator. Spain is now a democracy with a constitutional monarchy.

We arrived at Los Templarios Castle (Castle of the Knights Templar) in the town of Ponferrada at about noon. The castle is surrounded by tall stone walls. Justin led us up the path to the impressive castle entrance.

A staff member explained that we should follow the yellow arrows which would take us through the various parts of the castle like a spiral going from one level to another.

We set off to explore the first parapet before reaching a courtyard surrounded by more parapets, towers and rooms.

The site has been well restored. They've built solid timber staircases with handrails to make it easy to move around from one level to another.

In the grounds of the fortress, there are two other buildings one of which is quite modern. It contains a library and meeting rooms.

Justin told us that people normally take between 90 minutes and 2 hours to complete the tour of the site. It was certainly a great photo opportunity.

By about 1:45pm, we were ready to leave the fortress and find somewhere for lunch and so we headed up the hill to the nearby town. We decided on an open air cafe in the plaza which was shaded by large umbrellas.

At about 3pm, a heavy shower forced us to move under cover. We were back on the bus by 4pm.

We arrived at Leon at about 5:30pm. Because our hotel is within the ancient Roman city walls, the bus had to park outside the walls and we had to walk several blocks to reach our hotel, Hotel Real Colegiata de San Isidoro.

This hotel has a lot of character. Apparently it used to be a convent. You enter via an archway into one courtyard and then another archway into anotrher courtyard with a fountain at its centre. The hotel restaurant looks out onto this courtyard.

Our rooms were on the second floor. On this level, the corridor is at least 4m wide with dark timber floors and lined with dark timber furniture.

Our room had two single beds, no safe, no fridge, timber floors, a work desk and a separate shower recess in the bathroom. The Wi-Fi speed was about 45Mb/s in both directions.

Justin had suggested that we meet him in the hotel foyer at 7:30pm so he could escort us into the old town to find tapas restaurants.

He explained that tapas is a Spanish tradition. When you order a drink, they will supply you with a small plate of food to have with it because you should always have food with a drink. On the other hand, if you just order a meal with wine, that's all you get - they won't give you tapas as well.

So the idea is that you go to one tapas restaurant after another. Have a drink with tapas at one, then the next and so on until you've had enough to eat and drink. It makes for a very inexpensive dinner because you are really only paying for the alcohol.

We accompanied Justin to three different tapas restaurants. Although I stuck with red wine, Suzy and some of the others had vermouth with red wine instead.

On the way back to our hotel, the town was beautifully lit up including floodlighting on the nearby basilica. Our hotel looked impressive too.

It was a great night with great company. It was about 10:45pm before we got to bed.