Spain and Portugal – León to Zamora

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Route map León to Zamora

Another hot, blue-sky day of about 28°C. We have a slow morning, service Hymer and leave León about 10.30. We call at Petroprix and fill with diesel on the way out of the city, €1.79/litre. Travelling south on N-630/A-66 to Benavente to Zamora, about 80miles/128km, arriving about 1.00pm. We cross the river Douro and find the small Area de Servicio Para Autocaravanas where we last stayed in March 2020. Then it was empty apart from us. Today there are four motorhomes already here, we park up on the end spot and have lunch. There is a super view across the river to the old town, just as we remember it.

After lunch we cross the old Roman bridge, now a pedestrian-only bridge, calling at the old restored mills (with seven potential water wheels driven by the weirs) on the way. It is hot but the day is clear with a fabulous blue sky. We walk up the main street, almost deserted in the mid-afternoon to the Plaza at the top where we find the Cathedral. It is €3 each to go in the Cathedral and the museum which the man suggests we do first. We do and are amazed to find some fabulous Belgian and Flemish tapestries as big as 27ft wide. Some are made by the same person as the tapestries in Tournai, larger, equally as good and half the price!

We spend at least an hour in the museum, it is well laid out, interpretations in English (which there was not at Tournai) and well worth the visit. You listen to the interpretations on your mobile phone by following a link, very easy and obviously written and spoken by a native-English speaker.

Next to the cathedral which is reputedly the smallest Cathedral in Spain but with about eight chapels running at the sides of the fabulous carved wood choir stalls and across the back of the nave. The most remarkable being a tomb effigy a local dignitary of Jesse (ancestor of David and Jesus) carved in white marble. Jesse is the root (as ancestor) with the tree bearing the intricate carving of all the old biblical characters. As with all Roman Catholic cathedrals it is overly ornate and decorated lavishly with gold leaf, but all to the glory of God and perhaps in an attempt to ‘buy’ their way out of purgatory. We sit and contemplate in this setting for a little while and then leave its quiet stillness into the heat and business of the old town through the Puerta del Obispo (stone arch) onto the Calle de Trascastillo, a steep road down to the river.

But we turn uphill and visit the castle, which is free. It is mostly a ruin of yellow stone but has been carefully preserved so that moat, curtain wall, gates and interior walls and towers are still intact. It is about 6.30pm when we return to the camper, all 22 spaces are taken again by motorhomes and we note the parking attendants checking all the vehicles (48 hours are free). The evening is warm (hot) so we open cold white Rioja and sit outside at the picnic table enjoying the ambiance as the evening darkens. At dusk we are treated to a show of thousands (literally) of birds swooping and diving over the river, so many we could not distinguish if they were swallows (Mr C’s view) or bats (my view) or maybe both!