Day 40 - Wednesday 31st May 2023

Today we'lld be in Leon all day and this morning we'd be going on a guided tour of Leon starting at 9am. Although there were blue skies, it was only 11C and so I decided to wear my puffer jacket to keep warm.

Our guide used a small loud speaker so we could hear her better.

The first destination was the Basilica de San Isidoro. This building, which is still within the Roman walls like our hotel, dates back about 1000 years and has been added to and restored since.

Then we moved on to a building, Casa Botines, which was designed by the Spanish architect, Gauci, who is famous for the La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

Finally she took us to the cathedral which is a very tall building in a plaza. It is famous for its huge stained glass windows.

The tour ended at about 10:40 in the market square. We were then free to explore the area before getting back to the square by 11:20. Justin then led us a few blocks away, past the other side of the cathedral, to a nearby street where the bus was waiting for us.

Our destination was a winery, Leyenda del Paramo, which is located about 30 minutes out of Leon. There we were met by the manager, Pedro, who took us on a comprehensive guided tour of the establishment.

He pointed out that his vineyard is very different from others. Firstly, it is located in a very flat arid area on several metres of gravel on top of clay. Second, the grapes they grow are different from any one else. They produce red and white wine but they don't have a distributor in Australia.

After showing us the vineyards, he took us inside to show us the vats, bottling, labelling, blending and barrel storage. Finally he gave the opportunity to taste the wine.

At 2pm, the bus took us to the nearby village, Valdevimbre, for lunch. This is a town with a difference because much of it is underground in caves like Hobbiton in New Zealand. The restaurant we went to, Cueva Minambres, is deep into the hillside.

This was supposedly a typical Spanish siesta lunch - plenty of food and wine. Most of us had lamb for the main course.

When we emerged from the restaurant at about 4pm, we saw that it had been raining. There was no way we could have known because we were about 100m inside the hill.

The bus dropped us back outside the walls in Leon at about 5pm. We decided to go inside the basilica and visit the museum at one end of the basilica.

I was exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel and needed to go to bed for an hour or more. Originally, we'd planned to visit the cathedral but by that time it had closed.

At 7:30, Suzy and I decided to go out to find places for tapas for dinner as suggested by Justin last night. When we went into one, I ordered a vermouth for Suzy but he didn't understand what I meant and so I just got two glasses of red wine.

When he asked me which tapas I wanted, I couldn't read the Spanish menu and so he decided for me. The cost was just 4.40 Euros. People in Spain don't seem to speak much English and I certainly don't speak Spanish.

Although we intended to go to another tapas restaurant, I was too tired and so we went back to the cafe near our hotel to get a snack before bed. I ordered chicken fingers off the English version of the menu. I've always known that fish have fingers but until now I hadn't realised that chickens also have fingers.

I was glad to get into bed.