This August 2025 was the first Teytal family trip, our first travel experience with a baby. Spoiler: it's very tiring.
León is a city with an incredible history, born as a Roman military camp and eventually becoming the capital of the Kingdom of León and playing a crucial medieval role in the Reconquista. Furthermore, the Galician-Portuguese, Castilian, and Asturleonese languages were born here.
The plan: A getaway to relax and enjoy the city at a leisurely pace. I don't know if this applies to you, but I'm from Malaga and my partner is from Versailles. So, living in Valencia, we end up using our vacations to go home and see family. This year, we needed a few days just for us. We wanted to enjoy León, which, if you really rush it, you can see in two days, but that wasn't our style. So we went for five days with the idea of being able to stop for a drink, rest with the baby and his feeding breaks, and eliminate that daily stress we all have at work.
The people in León: People from León are remarkably polite, even to outsiders. They greet you when entering the elevator, hold doors, yield the right of way... the logical, understandable, and normal things that have become exceptionally rare and decadent. And, to generalize, people from the north have always been more polite and respectful, and for me, León is the beginning of the north, the beginning of beyond the wall.
Our first visit was to Casa Botines, designed by the architect Gaudí, who only has four buildings outside of Catalonia. The history of the place and its evolution over the years is fascinating, from a family home and business to a bank headquarters with many stories in between. On Wednesdays, there's a guided tour, and this place is worth it. Plus, you can stay afterwards to explore at your own pace what you liked most or see the floor with its paintings, which isn't guided, where you'll find Goya, Sorolla as the most prominent, and much more.
After this, we headed to the cathedral, the first building declared a monument in Spain by Royal Order on August 28, 1844. It's very important to remember August 28 because it's my birthday. It's a Gothic style with French influence, begun in the 13th century.
Another visit we were eager to make was San Isidoro and its museum, what they call the Sistine Chapel on their website—a rather ambitious moniker from my point of view, but no less majestic or beautiful for it. First, we entered the church and then went into the museum. The place is beautiful; you visit the building with paneled spaces and display cases that remove that ancient feel to draw attention to the objects shown, and then you move into rooms, the cloister, and the chapel for personal enjoyment and to raise your head to contemplate its splendor and ceilings.
You also visit the library where you see volumes and books from the era, taking you back to the laborious work, always impressive with the calligraphy of the time.
The good thing about staying longer than a place requires is that we dedicated an afternoon to strolling through a riverside garden, which you might not discover if you only go for two or three days. We even got lost in a couple of neighborhoods where there are no tourists because they are for living. We had dinner in a bar in a square in a random neighborhood, and it was our best dinner. Of course, we didn't want to offend the city, so we went to a highly recommended rotisserie one day, a place without a menu. You call to book and only say whether you want suckling pig or roast lamb. In our case, it was roast lamb because suckling pig was for a minimum of three. Upon arrival, they recommend a simple lettuce, tomato, and onion salad, which is now my favorite salad in the whole wide world, and wine, he told us. If you don't finish the bottle, I'll charge you two euros per glass, and if you finish it, I'll charge you twelve fifty. Another spoiler: we left the place remarkably cheerful and happy. Oh! And the desserts, we don't usually order them but we ordered two, because the food left no doubt that whatever came next would be spectacular.
Of course, as it should be, we had time to act silly, or like idiots, but I prefer to soften that here. Because I'm going to give you a secret to being happy, at least it has worked for me. I found someone as silly as I am, or foolish if I want to soften it.
However, between one stroll and another, I was always there, replying to your messages, because Teytal doesn't rest even when it's resting.
That said, if you've made it this far, know that we'll be posting some more trips/getaways here soon. We saw more than I'm telling you, but I only want to bore you a little, not a lot.
Thanks for reading.
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