león

as you see, i have cut back on the reporting. but, life can only be lived forward, the camino works similarly. so, here a new update:

i did - in the end - not change my camino plan. following the break in león, i will keep going with the camino frances, all the way to the ocean and hope to provide updates more frequently as well. no guarantees for daily updates though, as i won’t put pressure on myself.

there is life in león - in all forms and shapes. as in murals, people, locals, pilgrims, et cetera. meaning, there are destractions as well. as in ‘blinding ornaments’.

which brings me to my second bit of news. i have decided to deactivate all my social media. who knows me via instagram can return here regularly (or subscribe via RSS), with the added benefit of having better photos and more detailed thoughts here. contemplating substack as an additional platform, but not sure yet. if any of you have any insights on this that they would like to share, please do.

the most impressive thing in león is the cathedral, at least in my opinion.

a few stats: built at a time (13th century) when león had a mere 5 to 10 thousand citizens, there are more than 1,800 square meters of stained multi-colour glass panels in 125 windows, 1,500 pieces of art.

as the audio guide explains, the building was once doomed to crumble under the weight of a barock coppula added in the 17th century.

good engineering and a lot of work got the cathedral back in (gothic) shape (mainly in the 19th century).

all in all maravilloso. i went there twice in three days.

of course, the cathedral isn’t only architecturally fantastic, but - following on from the hiking days through the meseta and its ‘natural iglesia’ - a place that makes you look inwards.

more in that regard tomorrow (no strike that, in the next post).