León and rest

 Hey all, Mitch here. Having finally arrived in León, we got to have our final true rest day before we arrive in Santiago in two weeks. We will get some shorter walking days in there, but nothing that truly lets us just take a day off.

As a result, we were actually all very sedentary today, doing some reading, napping, foot care, and other preparations for the walking to come. We did get out around midday to see the city's cathedral and get some lunch though, and what a cathedral it was.

From a stonework perspective, León cathedral is not as impressive as Burgos cathedral was, but mostly that's because it isn't trying to be that. This cathedral apparently engaged in the "dematerialization" of Gothic architecture, which is to say they minimized the stone as much as possible to make room for truly huge Stained Glass Windows:

In addition to all this glass (much of it apparently still the original medieval stained glass), it has some of the other details we've come to expect of Spanish cathedrals, including ornate carvings in the Choir seating area as well as stone and gold-plated displays.

There was also a very interesting museum attached to the Cathedral, which included tons of sacred artwork, as well as some neolithic and classical artifacts found when excavating under the cathedral (it was built on the former site of a Roman Thermal Baths). Sadly, they did not allow any photography in the museum, so I can't include any pictures of the beautiful works and interesting artifacts that we saw while in there.

Overall León has been an interesting city to see parts of, and a great place to rest. I've included some pictures taken around the parts of old town that we've been in below.