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Itinerary
| Wed, Oct 1 | Muralla Romana de Lugo, Breoghan, AC Hotel León San Antonio, Plaza San Marcello, Plaza del Grano, Jardín de San Francisco |
| Thur, Oct 2 | Jardín del Chantre, Parque Papalaguinda, León Cathedral, Provincial Historical Archives, Plaza de San Isidoro, Casa Botines, Plaza San Marcos, Cocinandos |
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| We spotted high-quality murals from the top of the Roman wall in Lugo. | ||
Driving out from Santiago de Compostela, we had just over a three hour drive to our destination, León. But we planned a stop in Lugo, still in Galicia and about a third of the way to León. When researching the trip, Lugo looked like a great place to visit. Staying the night, though, would have broken up the trip too much.
Travel Tip: Consider staying in fewer places for longer durations. A driving tour is great fun, but after some time the novelty of new places will be offset by the pain of frequent packing and unpacking. For our next trip, we will try choosing a location for a week minimum, even if we have a car to make day trips. With a monthly rental, you could save enough money to justify some hotel overnights farther afield.
While Lugo seemed generally like a nice place to visit, our stop today was the Roman wall - the world's only remaining intact one.
I realize there are different travel philosophies, ranging from rigid agenda to serendipitous chaos. Here was a case where I felt like the planning worked out well. We already had located a parking lot near the wall and our lunch destination, and we were able to find it with little trouble.
The wall is just amazing. We found a staircase and climbed to the top, and proceeded to make a full lap around, about 1.3 miles. Looking inside and outside the wall, we passed schools, apartments, murals, churches, government offices, and more. The wall is maintained as a UNESCO heritage site but is also very much in use by the residents. We decided that if we lived there, it would be a great jogging track. And we came to recognize some of the runners we encountered as they made multiple laps.
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| Another mural, and on the left you can see some wall towers. |
We descended the wall at the same stair and walked to Rua Nova to get a bite to eat. We grabbed a table outside Breoghan.
Unfortunately they didn't serve lunch, but we did get some tapas. We enjoyed the popular Mahout beer with bites of layered and roasted potato, in a crust, maybe with some scrambled egg at the bottom.
And I finally learned what was the Russian salad I had been seeing on menus everywhere. Apparently it's a well-known thing, but I had never heard of it or had it before. It's a potato salad that includes egg, pickle, peas, and often meat like chicken or ham. This one had tuna and I liked it. In fact, maybe I should make it for myself sometime.
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| León's old city wall. |
Pressing on to León. Our reservation was at an AC Hotel. It is in the Marriott BonVoy group, making it one of our few US-affiliate stays of the trip. I chose this location for its proximity to multiple parks and a river walk. It was modern and nice, with a good breakfast buffet and a gym. We were a big fan of the quality windows - the street outside was noisy but our room was quiet.
León also has Roman walls, although this might be a little like saying an old European town has a cathedral. In this case, León was actually founded by the Romans. We started our walk-about toward the old town center and stumbled upon (not literally) the old wall so we decided to follow it.
Trying to reconstruct this from the map, I believe we went up Calle de las Cercas to the right, in the direction of Plaza Mayor. It was a nice walk until we got toward the end at Plaza Riaño, where there was an extreme piss smell, so bad I had to hold my breath and run. So our visit was not off to the most pleasant start.
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| This romantic sculpture, near the Jardín de San Francisco, is dedicated to honor blood donors. |
We wandered around and found ourselves in the Plaza San Marcelo, that fronts the old mayor's office. Later we passed through Plaza del Grano, which has a couple restaurants or bars. We sat outside, where we had to fend off some aggressive pigeons. Here we were able to get a beer but, unfortunately, not any dinner, nothing before 8pm anywhere.
We worked our way back toward the hotel. When we passed Jardín de San Francisco, we saw it set up as for a festival. There was a band stage where a rock band seemed to be warming up. And there were food trucks all around.
We hadn't had lunch, really, and were certainly hungry. It was a lovely evening so we made the circuit to choose what we would eat. A lot of the trucks were selling the typical burgers but we found one with good looking grilled meats (Colombian, Argentinian, maybe? Don't recall.). We enjoyed our dinner and the ambiance of a lively park at dusk.
It wasn't too late so we decided to keep walking around. Our hotel was in a fairly commercial area so we just walked down the street looking at the various shops. We turned to walk to the south, away from the tourist areas we had been seeing. A few blocks down put us in an area with fewer open businesses and generally fewer people walking around. We both got the sense that it was not a good place for us to be. We turned around and called it a night.
We both say that León was the only place of our travels where we felt we were in a sketchy area, but our memories differ a bit. While I do recall this after-dark walk, it also seems that I felt it before in the daylight. I believe it was when we were following the old Roman wall and I was trying to find this wine shop. We ended going into an area that was more residential and I just felt really out of place, maybe not unsafe but that it was just unwise to stick around. I can't figure this out looking at my notes or a map, so maybe I just have it wrong.
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| This frog is on his way to Santiago de Compostela. |
We got up in the morning and headed to the riverside park for some exercise on the trail. Along the way we passed through Jardín del Chantre. There were families playing on the terraced lawn - little kids learning to roll down hills. There were still plenty of flowers in bloom, and some duck ponds and a fountain.
From there, we just had to cross a couple streets to get to the trail through Parque Papalaguinda. We paid careful attention to where we entered so we would recognize it on the return. But I think we probably also both took our phones.
It was nice along the river. The weather was perfect. The trail is wide and marked for runners, walkers, and bikes. It was a little buggy though. And we noted a lot of graffiti and trash, and some sections where there seemed to be a fair amount of loitering or malingering.
Observation: Online maps and navigation is such a game changer for traveling. I do not miss the days of printed directions and having to ask people when you can't find the way. I remember taking a run in Germany a long time ago, before English was as common as it is today, and getting lost and having a very hard time finding my way back to the hotel.
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| León Cathedral. |
After the run we cleaned up and went to find breakfast. We already had somewhat mixed feelings about León. It definitely had a different feel compared to other places we have traveled.
But imagine our shock when we walked into a corner cafe and found a big tv on the wall, playing FOX news dubbed into Spanish. Do you not have issues of your own? Why on earth would you subject yourself to the American outrage machine too?
But, the food and coffee were fine. Onward to having a better day...
The itinerary - you guessed it - more walking!
We started again at the Roman wall, where we met someone from our same town (sportswear with your team's logo invites conversation). He told us he had also met in León another man who came from the next town over from ours.
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| This amazing street mural that stopped me in my tracks. The painting was black and white, but I made the whole picture here monochrome. |
| People in costume drawing customers to the street market. |
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| Welcome drinks and bites at Cocinandos |
We passed again through the Plaza del Grano and admired the fountain and trees. Then we got to Plaza Mayor, where a team was either setting up or taking down a pretty big soundstage, but I didn't find out whose concert it was. It could have been fun if it worked out to go to it.
A short walk farther was the León Cathedral. We walked along three sides of it, viewing the windows and flying buttresses.
We trailed through some winding streets, to come to the Provincial Historical Archives and museum. In addition to the city records, the museum has historical machinery like a printing press and clock. The museum entry is free but for a small fee you can climb to the top of some remaining towers on the Roman wall.
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| This giant rotating grill definitely got our attention. |
The next stop on the walking tour was Basilica de San Isidoro. As we were headed in that direction, we heard some drumming and saw a small group in costume walking along.
As we got closer to the Plaza San Isidoro, we could hear the sounds of a street fair and smell smoke and cooking meat, so of course we went to see.
We walked by some market stalls, then up to a tent with a giant, circular grill of various meats. It being lunch time, of course we were enticed. We looked at some other food stalls before coming back to this one.
Everything looked and smelled great. We ordered beer, tinto verano (summer wine, or basically, sangria), two sausages, some calamari, and some padrón peppers. We were super happy.
As we sat, other festive groups in costume came through, including jesters and some more modern ones (I seem to recall a Jedi knight, maybe).
We thought our drinks were enormous. But we still expected tapas-sized portions of the food, or, for the sausages, one of each. Wrong! We got plato sized servings. Of four dishes.
The food was all tasty, but we realized we had fallen completely into this tourist trap. The helpful man at the grill was just reeling people in. They sold us way too much food. To make it even worse, the price was extremely high by local standards, and honestly it had the feel that they were just making up the highest price that they thought we would pay without complaining.
We walked away, feeling disgusted with them and disappointed in ourselves for being taken in and for not getting the details up front. But you can't let it ruin your day.
Travel Tip: Scout out your destinations to learn what products they are known for. I am not much of a shopper so I thought this would be good information. I very carefully researched it and noted it in our plans, but then forgot to consult it most of the time!
We walked away from the plaza and down the street lined with stalls. We had noted that this area was known for its leather goods, and my husband was in the market for some new belts. He selected a couple at one stall, and the artisan also shortened the belt he was wearing, at a reasonable cost. I also picked out a beautiful silk scarf.
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| Cocinandos map of food sourcing from León province. |
Continuing our walk, we passed the Casa Botines, a castle-looking building designed by Gaudi. It houses an art museum, but we didn't go in. We completed our tour and returned to the hotel for a break and to get ready for dinner.
Our reservation was at the Michelin-starred Cocinandos. To get there, we walked through the Jardín del Chantre and past the Plaza de Toros, the former bull-fighting ring now converted to an events arena.
We joined the river trail and walked about a mile and a quarter to the Plaza San Marcos. Cocinandos is in a building to the side of and probably once belonging to the convent of San Marcos.
Cocinandos was completely on-point. The styling, the service, the food, everything. They make a point of local sourcing and give you some education about the regions, foods, and wines along the way. Yes, I took pictures of my food. Would recommend 💯.
Afterward, we were full and tired, and we also thought the path along the park felt a little sketchy to be walking after dark. There was no Uber or Lyft and the local rideshare required you to install WhatsApp. So we asked the restaurant to call us a cab back to the hotel.
Overall I would say that León was our least favorite place that we visited. But we could also see that there were some good civic efforts, and just writing this up I could find reasons to visit again someday.
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