Viajando

We left Houston at 14:00 on May 13, and wended our way through Detroit and London, arriving in Madrid some 21 hours later. We rode the very clean and modern Metro to the city center and to our hotel, and it being only 20:00 local time and still very light, we bathed and took a paseo before turning in for the night. Given that we had both been up betimes in Houston, and that our flight schedule had been most unconducive to sleeping underway, and that we had been up some 36 hours, we neither had any trouble getting to sleep.

We had planned to visit a couple of museums or cultural sites, as well as the Scout shop, but Thursday was a holiday, and most businesses were closed, so we contented ourselves with walking around as much of the centro as we could cover in the time we had. About lunchtime, we rode to the bus station to buy our tickets to León.

The bus ride itself was 3 1/2 hours, but we were in a very nice coach, and were served snacks, so it was pleasant enough. The country we drove through was agricultural, but considerably sparser than I would have imagined. We got to León about 19:00, walked to the cathedral, took the obligatory beginning of trip photo, then walked around for a while before finding our lodging for the night in a hostel run by the Benedictine monks: EL COLEGIO SANTA MARIA DE CARBAJAL. We also got our credenciales and our first stamp.

We slept (I use the word advisedly) in a dormitory with 19x2 bunk beds, about 32 of us, many of whom, true to the warning on one website, snored loudly. A large number of the pilgrims were German, and I got to practice my German with several of them, including Urs, a young man from Berlin, above whom I slept. Actually, I mostly lay awake, for who knows what reason, until well after 1:00, then slept fitfully until people started stirring at 6:00. Stanley said he went right off to sleep, but popped awake at 5:00, so neither of us was particularly well-rested as we faced our first day of walking.

• I continue to be amazed at how many Europeans smoke. Given the strong emphasis on health and safety issues, I would have thought that they would have focused on the dangers of second-hand smoke, but that appears to be not the case. There are smokers and smoke everywhere, certainly in any place where people eat or drink.
• I'm also taken by the light in Spain. Although it is in the Central Europe time zone, one hour east of Greenwich by the clock, along with most of western Europe, including Poland, Spain actually lies west of Greenwich (the yellow lines show the theoretical zones; the country colors show the actual zones). With daylight savings time in summer, the sun rises and sets almost two hours later than it does here (relative to the clock), and it is still quite light at 22:30, even in May. This may partially explain why the Spaniards eat so late (typically, dinner is at 20:00 or even 21:00). Iceland is similarly displaced, and a lot farther north as well - they must have incredibly long evenings in summer.

Página siguiente