Today we arrive in Leon. After a blessed two nights at the same hotel in Mesillas we get to repeat our good fortune at a lovely Monestary in the center of the old city. Mark, Susan and Duane accompany our guides to their favorite vegetarian restaurant spanish style.

In Roman times, the city of León was founded as a garrison for the Seventh Legion. In the Middle Ages, there was no other city on the entire route to Compostela which could boast as many churches, monasteries, convents and hospitals to attend to the sick and the poor as this one. León's cathedral rivals that of Burgos in its beauty, though in this case it is not only its Gothic architecture but rather its 1,800 square meters of colorful stained-glass windows which overwhelm its interior in a rainbow of light and color that elicits the awe of visitors.

By way of contrast to the graceful and soaring cathedral, the nearby Iglesia de Isidoro, next to our hotel, is an elegantly compact and solid example of the Spanish Romanesque. The ceiling of its Royal Pantheon, often called "the Sistine Chapel of Spanish Romanesque art" is covered with an impressive series of medieval paintings depicting the months of the year and the labors appropriate to each, from the planting of crops to their harvesting and the slaughter of pigs.