Walking the Camino de Santiago
Throughout the churches and cathedrals of Spain, many eminent churchmen and lay people are entombed within the buildings. León Cathedral is no exception. Here is the crumbling remains of a bishop’s sarcophagus, soberly reminding us of our imminent death and that even our works and memorials are doomed to crumble to dust. Date: 19 April 2016 Place: León (Castilla y […]
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And here’s the door through which we actually entered the cathedral. Sorry for the bit of blur. The arch depicts Christ on His heavenly throne, while angels crown His blessed mother Queen of Heaven. Note again the absence of statues in the niches flanking the door. Have I mentioned that I like doors? Date: 19 April 2016 Place: León (Castilla […]
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Sometimes it’s difficult to get a sense of scale from a photo of a door, such as León cathedral’s central door that I posted yesterday. So here’s another one of the doors. This one has a human-sized door cut into the main door. So now you can better tell how big this really is. The images over this door include […]
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Like many grand churches, León Cathedral has three front doors. This is the center one, featuring a smiling statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary holding the Christ child. The carving above the door features Christ on His heavenly throne at the Judgment, flanked by angels and saints. Just below, you can see some of the judged enter paradise, while others […]
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When I first visited León in 2013, my tour of the Cathedral was cut short. And Francine never got to see it at all. We were determined that we would visit it first – three years to the day later. Most Gothic cathedrals took centuries to complete. As a result of different architects (and bishops!) over the course of that […]
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The city center of León is filled with fun and whimsical shops. Here is the first of what will be a number of examples. This is Gnomos. They sell nothing but gnomes – and hats. It immediately made me think of my friend Adam, for reasons best left vague. Like most shops in Spain in my experience, they don’t open […]
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One after another in León we kept running into old friends from much earlier in our Camino. Here is Francine with Matthias, the German we met on day one. He was spending a couple of days in the city resting from an injury. He’s entitled – he walked all the way from his door in Köln. We also met up […]
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In the pre-dawn hours of April 19, 2016, Francine and I took the train from Sahagún to León. It was basically a commuter trip. Once we got into the city, we checked into the Albergue de Peregrinos San Francisco de Asís en León, a former Capuchin monastery, where we got a room. Sort of a tiny suite, actually. Then we […]
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The train station is just a few blocks from our albergue. This photo is here because the time had come to make a painful decision. We’ve been beset by injuries, rain, and the results of epic rain – mud and flood. Several times, two-day stretches of the Camino have taken us three days. Since we had time constraints – the […]
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Francine can tell you more about these lovely German (Austrian? Swiss?) ladies we ran into several times on the Camino. This was the last time we saw them, and I’m glad we got this photo, as they were delightful. They are standing in front of the Irish pub from yesterday’s photo. Date: 18 April 2016 Place: Sahagún (Castilla y León, […]
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