The Big Walk

Cathedral and Tripe - Day 20

 The shop below our room happens to be a bakery, so we start the day with huge napoletanas, the Spanish version of pain au chocolat. It makes a change from our usual breakfast fare of tortilla. First up has to be the great Cathedral. There’s a huge open plaza extending round the side as well as the front, which gives a wonderful view of the whole building. Constructed in the Gothic style, it’s tall and graceful, reaching towards heaven, supported with row upon row of flying buttresses. But the real marvel here is within, where the reason for the supporting buttresses becomes immediately clear. The interior walls are almost continuous stained glass. The brilliant sunshine outside means the Spanish browns, yellows and reds brilliantly combine to colour everything inside like a giant kaleidoscope. York Minster near my home may have the greatest amount of medieval stained glass in the world, but it cannot begin to match the way in which glass overwhelms in the cathedral of Leon.

The rest of the day gives us a chance to explore the shops and sip coffees out on the busy streets, watching everyone go about their everyday lives. Again that feeling of our detachment from the normal realities of existence lulls us into a complete state of relaxation. We go to the covered market to secure some lunch, but baulk at the sight of the offal stall. Piles of trotters and giant tongues are almost obscured by the great, heavy hanging curtains of tripe. After staring agog, I quickly sidestep to adjacent cheese stall, and head out to the park. Today it feels like we’re on a holiday, not an expedition.