Map of León

If you are one of those people who likes to turn the map so that what you are looking towards is at the top, and don't want to wrestle with your monitor to understand this map of León, you should incline your head to the right until your ear is nearly on your shoulder. That's how most tourist maps depict León, with the cathedral (which is obscured by the text 'Obra Hospitalaria Nuestra Señora de Regla') at the top, and the River Bernesga running along the bottom. And that is probably how you will approach León, at least if you are arriving by train or bus, as the relevant stations are to the west of the river. From there, you would cross the bridge that takes you to the roundabout where the Avenida de la Condesa Sagasta meets the Avenida de la Facultad de Veterinaria and keep straight on up the slightly grand Avenida de Ordoño II, which runs into the attractive, pedestrian Calle Ancha. If you haven't stopped to leave your bags at one of the many hostals and low-budget hotels to the west of the Avenida de Ordoño II, for example, it should not take you more than a quarter of an hour altogether to reach the top of the Calle Ancha, where you will find León Cathedral, and you will find it well worth the undemanding climb. And you now have León sussed.

Yes you have, you just don't know it yet. Let's say you are on the corner of the Plaza de la Catedral, in front of the west façade of the cathedral, and looking back down the Calle Ancha. You want to know where the Barrio Húmedo is, of course, that being where you have heard all the eating-and-drinking good times go on. Well, the Barrio Húmedo is to your left, the south, and if you take the narrow Calle de Mariano Dominguez Berrueta you will come to the Plaza Mayor (which shows as a grey patch on the map, don't worry, it's much nicer than that). The bustling Plaza San Martín is just to the west of it.

The other half of the casco viejo, León's historic centre, is to your right, north of the Calle Ancha. On the map, especially in 'hybrid' or 'satellite' view, you can make out a playing-card shape formed by the Calle Ancha, the Calle de la Rúa, and the Calle de Cardenal Landázuri and a line at the top which you can't quite make out what it is - I'll tell you, it's the Roman wall. For that rectangle with rounded corners you can see so clearly is the outline of the old Roman fort (one of two Roman forts, in fact, but I won't go into that now). Just above the word 'León,' you can see a pink patch with a white square in the middle, at the top of which is the Basilica de San Isidoro. If you take the Calle de Renueva from here (follow the yellow arrows, or the brass scallops set into the pavement - you're on the Camino de Santiago, here) and head west on foot, towards the river (the traffic goes in the opposite direction), then the Avenida de Suero de Quiñones) you will come to a large roundabout, on the other side of which is the tremendous Hostal de San Marcos, a luxury parador which was once a pilgrims' refuge run by the warrior-monks of the Order of Santiago. It is especially impressive at night.

That's it, you've seen León. You will want to potter around more, of course, and will have a thoroughly enjoyable time of it, but you have already been most places you will want to see. You can get back into the old centre easily enough, following the broad Gran Vía de San Marcos, lined with surprisingly expensive luxury shops. Then stop at the bottom of the Calle Ancha to admire two splendid buildings, the Casa de los Botines (by Gaudi, and one of only three of his works visible outside Catalonia) and the Palacio de los Guzmanes. Then I expect you'll want a bite of something and a drop to drink - I'm sure you'll find something.

This streetmap of León comes courtesy of those nice young people over at Google, bless their little cotton socks. It will centre where you double click, you can pan over it using the arrows (or dragging the rectangle in the overview map in the corner), and you can zoom in and out using the '+' and '-' buttons. Neat, ain't it? I have pre-selected the "Hybrid" view, just because I happen to like the look of it — if you would rather see the street map without the aerial photographs, just click "Map" (or "Mapa" or whatever it says in your language). Or select the "Satellite" view to remove the street names and other map elements.

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