A Proper Spanish Tapas Crawl in Leon, Leon, Spain

“Visit Leon” they said, “you’ll love it”. Our friends shared stories of streets filled with tapas bars and evenings spent strolling around eating for free. So we went. The city of Leon turned out to be the tapas crawling adult food playground that we had hoped it would be. The tradition of serving a free tapa (a small appetizer) with each drink is still going strong in Leon and locals young and old take full advantage of it. We loved seeing groups of all ages pulling up to the bar, having a drink and a tapa, then moving on to the next spot.

Tapas aside, Leon has a lot of charm and history to offer. The Camino de Santiago (The Way of Saint James) passes through Leon. The camino is a network of ancient pilgrimage routes from various cities in Europe through northern Spain to the Galician city of Santiago de Compostela where the remains of St. James are said to be buried in the Cathedral. Leon is a popular starting point to walk the final 309 km (192 miles) of a route called the French Way. Walking along the sidewalks marked with scallop shells, the sign of the Camino, stirred our own desire to walk the Camino someday. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).