Day 22 - Mansilla de Las Mulas to León - 11.81 miles

This was the first morning in the last 4 that I have walked alone. I left at 6:15 with my headlamp, and joined many others trying to get to Leon early. The books and other people warned us ahead of time that this walk would be unattractive as most of it was near the road and the outskirts of Leon were just a huge industrial area. No lies were told! I was terribly glad the first part was before the sun came up. These little guys in the mural below wanted to make sure you went the right way in the dark!

So I arrived at 9:50am and did lots of little time wasters before I could check into my room - went to the fruit guy and got replenished with fresh figs and bananas, and then went to a beautiful park where I had a little breakfast. After I got all settled into the hotel, I went to the Cathedral square for coffee with friends.

Cathedral de Santa Maria, Leon

We took a tour of the cathedral, and the focus of this one is most definitely the stained glass windows. They will take your breath away! The rest of the church is rather subdued, which I appreciated since you want to concentrate on the glass.

After the church, we were on to Casa Botines, where we hung out watching Gaudí sketch and design the building. This building was not nearly as ornate as his buildings and parks in Barcelona, so I assumed maybe this was an earlier work, but he was an accomplished artist when he was commissioned to design it. The building behind us in the photo is NOT Casa Botines.

The rest of our day consisted of artisanal ice cream at the pastry shop, shopping at the trail store, and buying some of Leon's specialty food items. We gathered later for a beer in Plaza Mayor and decided to meet at the Cathedral at 7am to walk as a group. The two guys from England and Ireland want us to be well looked after in the early morning hours of the city.

I saw this guy below, who looked about to be up to no good, as I walked back to my hotel.