The first Friday of May is Labor Day in Spain. And often my best friend's birthday falls on that weekend so we have double the reasons to celebrate! This year we went to León (I made that sound like it's a lifelong tradition of ours to travel...but I guess I hope it turns into that), a few hours away from homebase.
We really had a great time, because it's hard to have a bad time in such fun company, but 3 days in León became more than necessary in my opinion. One thing that León
definitely has going for it is the atmosphere. People had said there was a good ambiance, but I didn't imagine it was to such an extent. At any hour of the day, you could find bars with people and terraces close to full. In my opinion, Spain in general is much more into café/bar life than America, but this was a step beyond what I've been used to. Often there are awkward hours at least in Lugo where it's too early for pre-dinner drinks, but too late for the afternoon coffees. This lull is non-existent in León. As one friend observed, "It's as if they have nothing better to do than meet with their friends and family." But isn't it beautiful? Having that as your number 1 past-time? So although there weren't an abundance of tourist things, the good thing was we could just go out and enjoy the atmosphere when we got bored.
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| So noble (interactive museum) |
Don't get me wrong, León is not completely lacking in activities. We saw the Cathedral, which is quite dark, as my friend pointed out, "because the stained glass is dark" Hahah, she said this right after we had just commented on it, so for the rest of the weekend we teased her about it. Poor H. Andri! We also enjoyed an interactive museum, and free history of León museum. That was actually interesting and included all the time periods from Celts to Romans to Modernity. We went in one of the palaces too, now used as a public office building. It wasn't that fascinating. I much preferred the Pantheon museum next to a Basilica or other church. You couldn't take photos, but in the bottom before reaching the courtyard there was an open space with the ceiling painted with Medieval style Christian scenes. Really interesting, and certainly reminiscent of a cool pantheon.
