We have arrived in Leon. The kids are in love with our hotel, which was built in the 12th century as a pilgrim hospital, then renovated in the 17th century as a pilgrim hostal, with cloister and church attached. It's pretty fantastic, and I'm thrilled we're here for three nights. Alex and I splurged so that we could have our own rooms. We're paying an incredibly reasonable 60 Euro over the group rate.
Today was a slow day, but we designed it that way since we knew we would not be able to check in to the hotel until after noon. There is not much to tell of the walk from Mansilla: we had a leisurely breakfast, wherein we lingered long enough to watch the running of the bulls. I thought of my friend Calvin, who is in Pamplona with a couple of friends for San Fermin, and whom we will meet up with in a couple of days. I prayed for their safety, and since I did not see them being carted away on Spanish National TV will assume they are OK.
Leon is OLD. It was founded as the home base for the Felix Legion of the Roman Army to guard the transport route of gold from Galicia to Bourdeaux. That's even where Leon got it's name: Felix = Lion and Leon = Lion and Leon is also a contraction of the Latin word Legion as well. It still has Roman walls and the prerequisite cathedral, but it also has a Gaudi Bishops palace and other fun stuff, including a beautiful river walk. It's up there on my list of favorite Spanish cities.
Leon was also the Capital of the Kingdom of Leon in the 9th - 11th centuries. As the Christians pushed south, they moved the capital south and founded the kingdom. At the time, this area was a depopulated no mans land, and the Christians claimed squatters rights, essentially. The Kingdom of Leon was absorbed into the crown of Castile in the late 1090s after a war of succession. That newly-expanded Castile was Isabel's inheritance, and what she brought to the table when she married Ferdinand of Aragon in 1474. He brought the smaller, richer kingdoms of Aragon, Navarra, Rioja, and Catalunya. These formed the nucleus of Spain as we know it, and when the Catholic Kings captured Granada on Christmas Day 1492, the Reconquest of Spain was complete, some 750 years after our old friend Pelayo started it in Cangas de Onis, on the other side of the mountains, in the summer of 719 by refusing to pay his taxes to the moorish overlord. Leon is kind of an important place.
We noticed some snow still on those mountains and the ones between us and Galicia. That's going to make things interesting in a few days, and it certainly has been cold. Hopefully we don't have too much trouble.
This afternoon I have mostly relaxed, having walked a bit, eaten lunch (I cheated and had a hamburger), showered, and rubbed most of a bottle of hotel lotion into my feet, arms, and legs to restore some semblance of moisture to them. We have group dinner tonight, and then we'll have a group meeting for one of the students to share their testimony.
Our token tag along Pilgrim, Tom, asked me today if I knew of any other university that had undertaken the entire Camino as a course. I am not. We've met some folks from the U. Of Minnesota who are doing a couple days here and there and then getting on a bus, but that's it. I'll admit that I'm prideful enough to be excited about the fact that I might have created something new. I am just trying to figure out how Pepperdine can leverage that innovation, and get credit for it.
I've also thought a lot about the students and their experiences today. I do not consider myself a particularly gifted spiritual leader, at least not in the traditional, charismatic sense. I hope that through the conversations we've had, and the things I've shown the students, and what they've experienced on their own, that this journey is as spiritual as it is physical. I get this sense (and I have to be a bit careful, since they're reading this) that's it's important to them that we're friends and like each other. While I absolutely want that as well, it's more important to me that the kids experience all the aspects of this Camino, and learn from it, and are different, and that means to me that sometimes I have to push them, or hold them accountable. Is that a cop out? I don't think so, but feel free to call me out on it. Hopefully they understand that.
If not, I guess I'll stick to accounting. :-)
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