Month: April 2025

Over the last nine years Duke and I have stayed at 92 of the Paradors in Spain. There are currently 99 Paradores and 97 of those are currently open. Tonight we are at the Parador of Benavente, our 93rd Parador.

This morning before leaving Léon we walked all over the historic center.

Léon Cathedral is one of my favorite cathedrals in the world. I think the open feeling and the stunning stained glass is what make it so special. They provided an excellent downloadable audio guide. The Cathedral was built in the 1300’s when Léons population was only about 4,000.

We explored some more on our way back to the Parador.

Once we finished our walk we drove about an hour to the Parador of Benavente where we are tonight. We had our welcome drinks and played cards.

This morning we took the funicular up to the top of the mountain behind the Parador.

We got back down to the Parador in time for our noon check out time. Then we drove through the mountains down to the plains, with lots of interesting stops along the way.

Not far down the road there was a bit of traffic. On the whole though, there was very little traffic and it was a beautiful day.

We stopped at some great viewpoints.

At the picnic spot there was an information board that mentioned the nearby viewpoint with the largest swing in Spain, so we decided to hike up to it. We hiked back to the car, left the mountains and drove down onto the plains to Léon.

We have eaten a lot of Parador dinners on this trip. So, since we are in a city tonight I was looking forward to a local restaurant dinner. We went looking for a restaurant at 8:00 but couldn’t find one open. At Restaurante Casa Rafa, the original restaurant we had in mind they said that the kitchen opens at 8:45. So we sat on a park bench and people watched until it opened. We ended up having a great meal and the owner was very friendly and helpful. When we suggested the calamari appetizer he said the shrimp is better. So we had that and it was fantastic. He suggested the goat main course and Brian had that.

This morning after breakfast we went for a walk around the Cangas de Onis Parador.

Then we drove to Covadonga which is just up the road. It is apparently the site of a battle in 722 that started the Reconquest of Spain from the Moors. It is also a sight where the virgin appeared to a king of the Visigoths. This area became the seat of the Asturias Kingdom.

From Covadonga we had to drive around the mountains to get to another beautiful valley in the Picos de Europa Mountains, Fuente Dé. The drive was supposed to take about twohours but it took closer to three because of road construction.

Before we got to the big delays we stopped to buy groceries for our picnic dinner.

Our drive today was about two hours. Before leaving Corias we were able to look into the church. It was open because they were preparing for Mass. The church is a part of the monastery and so it’s built into the Parador building.

About half way through our drive we saw a sign for the caves of Peña de Candamo. According to Google they have great prehistoric art. Unfortunately the visitors center was closed and you can only enter the caves on a tour.

At the Parador of Cangas de Onis we had our welcome drinks, played some cards, and then went for a walk about two miles up the river to the actual town of Cangas de Onis, where we stopped for coffee.

Cangas de Onis has a magnificent Roman Bridge. We crossed it and walked back to the Parador on the other side of the river.

We had a great Parador dinner.

Today we had a four hour drive from the Parador de Santo Estevo in Galicia to the Para de Corias in Asturias. We saw a lot of beautiful and interesting scenery along the way. The weather varied from pouring rain to sun.

A lot of the road today was windy, narrow, and mountainous. About 20 minutes after leaving we stopped at this great vista point.

Later we saw a sign for a Roman tunnel and had to check it out. According to this website the Romans built the tunnel in the second century A.D. to get at the gold brought down by the Sil River.

Our next stop was Las Medulas, an area where the Romans used water to wash away an enormous area of mountains to get the gold out of the soil. They built extensive tunnels then filled them with water at high pressure and collapsed the mountains.

After stopping for groceries, we finally arrived at the Parador of Corias. The monastery’s size is the third largest in Spain. A sign in the lobby says that the Oseira Monastery that we visited yesterday is the largest.

The Corias monastery has beautiful big hallways and rooms. The library is gorgeous.

We had a picnic dinner in the room and played cards.