Leon is one of the bigger cities along the camino. This is the halfway point and where we planned to take a couple of days off. We did have to do some re-scheduling since we were not supposed to be here until a couple more days. Thankfully, they had a room available for us at the Parador for the following day. On our first night in Leon, we stayed at the parochial albergue and walked around the historical district. It was our first and only parochial on this camino. There was a solemn blessing and candle ceremony led by the nuns for all the pilgrims in the albergue. It was quite an experience. On day two, we left the albergue and went to the train station to find out how to get to our next stop, which is Rabanal del Camino. We got the train schedules and booked our tickets for the next day's journey. From there, we walked back to the historical district and checked in at the Parador de Leon where we spent a lazy, relaxing day with no plans and no itineraries except for the touring the Parador itself.
The Parador de Leon (Hostal de San Marcos) is actually a museum hotel and it would have been remiss of us if we didn't take the time to explore this wonderful old building. This structure was built in the 16th century and at different points in history has served as a monastery, a military outpost, a prison, a hospital, and a school, among other things. It's great that this piece of history has been preserved and reconstructed and can accomodate tourists and pilgrims along the camino.
I guess I have to explain a bit, one of the biggest reasons why we had to make huge adjustments to our itinerary is because we originally did not intend to visit Muxia and Finisterre, but after having met a handful of pilgrims on their nth camino who told us about it, we had a change of heart. So, to accommodate those 2 stops, we had to take buses, trains and taxis in some parts of the trip. This is not the last time we were to do so on this camino, but this is one of the longest.
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