Sahagún to Léon - world's windiest way.

Sahagún was a centre for what my French guide book refers to as "l'abbaye clunisienne" and in part of it I find a small church and a welcoming smiling Spanish girl, eager to ask if I need more information and wants to know, for her boss' statistics where I'm from. My manners having been observed and my Basque béret removed I sit and contemplate the simplicity of this place. Not for this poor town the ostentatious interiors of Catholic churches I have seen elsewhere. The quiet and peace is a welcome change from the trucks blowing past, and the sense of having to greet each peregrino I pass with a 'Buen Camino' just because I'm on a bike and not walking as they are. 

Sitting at the bar of the hostal part of the albergue, I have a surprise invite to dine with a delightful group of young Germans whose level of English I not only admire but am heartened by, as much as being embarrassed for my own peoples' lack of  willingness to learn a foreign language. For surely one day English will not be the lingua franca. I might be wrong. What me? Wrong? Little did I know when I thanked Janet, Patrick, Stephan & Heiko for their company at the end of dinner how my path would cross theirs later on. 

The following morning having given Stephan some morning space as he breakfasted, I serviced Modestine, my bike, and set off to cross more of La Meseta and its beautifully coloured landscape that produces wine, sunflower oils and seeds, and wheat. Not that that is much in evidence in mid-September. 

And finally Léon is reached. A cold day comes to an end. The wind of La Meseta had continued to blow;  less than the previous days but I was not prepared for this. I was expecting a little more, well, you know, Spanish late summer...

The dark skies of rain filled clouds act the perfect backdrop to Léon's cathedral. But I'm still looking for my booked room in the Hostal Sewer Something... As the view from my window would prove.

But somehow just when the going gets tough a bar as inviting as this one is found. A cerveza and racione of paella is enjoyed. Later a friend would email that surely vino was preferable to cerveza with a paella? Nope.

The local pregnant yummy mums in the bar with infants in push chairs would no doubt disagree. The beer and paella went down together very well indeed. As did a few later glasses of both blanco & tinto with a fishy stew, a small piece of baguette with embutido and cheese, and a small plate of jamon, chorizo and some other delicacy... Lovely dinner for less than a tenner.