Loving León & past the halfway mark

Last night we stayed in a place called Reliegos. An ity bity town where the grocery store is the size of a walk-in closet and looks like it dates back to the 1800’s. The gregarious owner feeds the 14 cats in town… they’re so cute and scrawny I’d feed them too! The woman who runs our Albergue would not turn on the heat. I thought the two nights prior were bad, last night I seriously did sleep with my hat on. Then we woke up to rain.

We walked 6km with wet pants and a slight chill to the following town where I managed to convince my mother that we should get a ride into León instead of walking the wearisome and perhaps hazardous highway into the city from Manzillo and arriving late, wet and just wanting to sleep.

She said yes ! 🙏

I have to admit, that some people might feel that if we take the bus, we won’t be “real pilgrims.” But we’re ok with that.

León is lovely even in the rain! It’s the fourth city we’ve visited. Each unique in their own way. Here, the stores are open all afternoon, restaurants are overflowing with people eating drinking and laughing. So much laughter! It’s heartwarming. The Spanish really know how to enjoy themselves!

After traveling through some very unfortunate villages it is wonderful to experience the joie de vivre once again.

We just returned from visiting the XIII century cathedral. It has over 1000 stain glass windows. Each has a captivating story. It only took 50 years to build this incredible building.

It’s stunning.

Now let’s celebrate the halfway mark with a few pictures!

As requested here are a few pictures of my mother and myself, mostly me… And some people we’ve met along the way. And by the way, thank you for the comments, the texts and emails in response to our blog… they are wonderful to receive and keeping us going. Thank you ❤️