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Although it was not raining when I started walking on that Wednesday, it was bitterly cold. I kept my gloves on all day
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Rain puddles littered large parts of the Camino as I walked on Wednesday 1st of May 2013.
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The rain had greatly increased the water carried by the rivers and creeks crossed by the Camino as I made my way towards Leon.
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Another view of the rain soaked Camino.
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As the Camino approached Leon, the long line of peregrinos was stretched out like multiple beads along a loose string.
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The city of Leon covered a large area, including this street, which I walked along after I misread a Camino direction sign.
Amy, the fellow peregrino. Amy spoke some Spanish and was able to get directions to enable us to walk from the suburb where we had finished up after misreading the Camino sign, back into the centre of Leon.
I stayed the night of that 1st of May 2013 in the Hotel Paris in Leon. It was Margaret’s birthday and I felt I was entitled to celebrate the event by staying in a comfortable room in the hotel.
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Diary Entry Made on Wednesday 1 May 2013 at 3:45 pm
I am in a hotel room in Leon - I have it all to myself - a birthday treat! I think I checked into the room at about 2:00 pm but I got to Leon at about 12:30 pm. The Brierley distance to the Leon cathedral is 18.6 kilometres but I actually walked further. On the way through the suburbs the Camino did a fork and I took the wrong fork to a closed down municipal albergue and a Camino dead end. As I started to retrace my steps I met Amy, an American girl from Missouri who had done the same thing. She speaks some Spanish and got directions into the city centre and helped me find a hotel.
The Brierley distance to the now closed municipal albergue is 18.9 and I estimate that Amy and I walked about another 1.5 kilometres to reach the cathedral in the city centre, making a total of 20.4 kilometres of walking for today.
Amy has walked from Burgos and gets the train to Madrid from Santiago on 14 May. She has done 8 years of study to qualify as a doctor and starts a 5 year residency in California when she gets back. She is a very pleasant young woman. She continued walking after I organised my room.
I have sent nearly all of my clothes to the hotel laundry. Yahoo! Everything will be clean!
The hotel is called the Hotel Paris Leon.
Distance Walked Today: 20.4 kilometres.
Total Distance Walked So Far: 446.2 kilometres.
Total Distance Covered So Far: 467.4 kilometres including the 21.2 kilometres by taxi.
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Soul Song Number 21 - Leonising
(1 May 2013)
It didn't rain today.
There was no bitter wind today.
You didn't walk thirty kilometres today - only eighteen.
Your calves and thighs don't hurt today.
Even your feet don't really hurt today.
How can this be?
Easy.
Today is Margaret’s birthday.
And that means what?
It means you are Leonising.
You are sitting in a hotel room in Leon.
What is your biggest concern today?
That too, is easy.
When precisely will your sparkling clean laundry be returned to your room?
That is your biggest concern.
There is another concern.
Will you eat in your room tonight?
Will you eat in the hotel restaurant?
Or will you go somewhere else to eat?
These minor matters constitute your biggest concerns,
On this Margaret’s birthday.
You ponder them as you Leonise and as Santiago grows closer.
What else have you done while Leonising?
Why you visited another cathedral.
That is what you have done!
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