Distance travelled: 17.9 km

We had spent a pretty uncomfortable night in our cramped room, which was warm and loud, so despite the total lack of urgency to arrive in León, Adam and I found ourselves leaving the albergue around 6:00 a.m., while the moon was still well up in the sky:

I had heard that the walk into León was pretty comparable to the one into Burgos, so I my expectations were appropriately pretty low for the next several hours. I think that ended up being helpful; I didn’t find the road into León nearly as tedious.

I had a pretty powerful revelation while we were walking in the dark. This was a huge lesson for me on multiple levels, and I see it as one of the strongest forms of proof that “the Camino provides”. For the past week, a pilgrim had been in and out of my orbit, and I’d found it difficult to really warm to her. We’d had plenty of conversations and definitely identified as Camino friends at this point, but on my side I had felt some kind of barrier to a fuller connection. I finally realized what it was: this woman embodied all of my biggest insecurities. For me, the typical mental discomfort experienced by pilgrims on the Meseta had manifested in my reactions to this woman! I had continually been comparing myself to her. This goes hand in hand with the lessons I’d already been learning on the Camino about judgment; I think I was even less conscious prior to this moment of how often I compared myself to others than I’d been of how much I judged others. In this case, I’d been comparing myself to this woman and always finding myself wanting. We were the same age, almost to a day, but quite different. She is probably the skinniest person I saw on the Camino; I could, at best, be described as “slim” but never skinny. She started each day with an hour of meditation before walking, practiced yoga in the evenings, maintained a strictly vegetarian and alcohol-free diet, had a smaller backpack than mine, and walked faster that I did. More importantly, she’d also spent time living in France, but unlike me, she’d managed to be in a long-term relationship with a French man during her residency; part of the reason I’d decided to move back to the US was because I hadn’t found anyone to keep me in France. Finally, she’d traveled even more than I had and had managed to have a job that paid the bills but hadn’t taken over her life, whereas I had just left a job that had taken both health and happiness from my life. My source of discomfort wasn’t that I wanted this woman’s life or to be her; it was the fact that I saw before me someone who exhibited the self-discipline relating to her physical health that I’ve always lacked (and been particularly conscious of in recent years) and who’d clearly prioritized different things, with the result that she’d had a life and in particular, as I perceived it, a freedom that was easy to envy. I think she was a Camino Angel of sorts for me; I believe that the Camino brought us together so that she could serve as an inspiration and example for me once I got back to the real world and would be trying to start a whole new life for myself, one that I was determined would revolve around the kind of self-love that this other pilgrim clearly demonstrated.

(Additionally, they say that “the real Camino begins in Santiago”, that is, once you’ve completed the pilgrimage and returned to your normal life. I find it perfectly fitting, and not at all surprising, that I’m typing this now, four weeks into the Coronavirus quarantine, and am at a point of wanting to re-commit myself to the physical wellness practices that I’ve let slip in the past month. Writing about this lesson reminds me of how important it is that I do that. The Camino continues to provide!)

Anyway, back to the walk. The road into León led us through a series of towns that gradually shifted into the outskirts of a much larger urban area. León has a population of over 450,000, so it’s an even bigger city than Burgos. While the route wasn’t particularly sightly, I found the time passed quickly thanks to good conversation with other pilgrims and a general sense of anticipation.

Once again, I planned to treat myself to a hotel room for my stay in “the big city”. I hadn’t made any reservations in advance, but Adam, Sam, Rosa, and I ended up in a very nice hotel run by a Camino veteran. My room didn’t have a bathtub, but it still felt luxurious relative to the albergues!

We arrived in time for lunch. Adam and I ended up joining Mark and Becky for pizza at a place just across from the cathedral, and then we decided to lean into the relaxing Sunday afternoon atmosphere by going in search of Vermouth. We found it!

I had decided that it was finally time for me to take a day of rest, so I stayed in León on Monday as well. This turned out to be a great decision because it rained for most of Monday, and I got texts from friends who’d gone on ahead that they’d been caught in a hail storm! I didn’t feel like I physically needed the day off – my blisters and tendinitis were healed, and I felt like I’d really hit my stride – but I’d been feeling increasingly tempted to “hurry”. This was another theme of my Camino: awareness of putting pressure on myself for no reason. At this point, I couldn’t have been more free to finish the Camino in my own time. I didn’t have a home to return to in Paris, and I hadn’t yet bought my ticket to return to the US. Nonetheless, I felt more and more inclined to rush, so I decided I need to just force myself to stay put for a day. I ended up making my plans to return to the US on my day off; at this point, it was October 14, and I booked a flight back to the US for November 25. I knew I needed something more concrete so that I could start mentally and emotionally preparing myself for the big event.

As I had in Burgos, I used my down time in León to do a little shopping. I picked up an expensive pair of waterproof pants given that there was some rain in the forecast, and again, I treated myself to some face and hair masks. Other than those errands and making my travel plans, the only other significant thing I did in León was visit the cathedral. I had heard so many people gushing about the beauty of the Burgos cathedral (which I’d been too lazy/hurried to see) that I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss out on this one. I don’t have any pictures to share because as soon as I stepped inside, I felt very much that I was in a place of worship, that I was there for prayer and not for tourism. I did a loop inside the sanctuary and found myself growing frustrated by all of the people who were on their phones and/or talking in loud voices; I felt they were disturbing the spiritual ambience. I spent about 10 minutes kneeling in a pew and talking to God. He might have talked back; a few new thoughts entered my head, and I found myself tearing up. I’m very glad I took the time to go there.

I had a great dinner on Monday night with Adam, Mark, Becky, Javier, and Judy. We sat in another of the city’s plazas and feasted on various types of steak with copious amounts of red wine. It was the perfect way to celebrate the end of another major stage of the Camino.

Some of my favorite days on the Camino are coming up this week, so stay tuned! (Come back on Tuesday for the next post, since tomorrow is my rest day.)