If its an either-or situation, Leon wins, hands down. Leon is one of the great cities of Europe. But when next I visit dusty, small Sahagun I'll stay longer than I have in the past....
I've found Sahagun to be a very interesting place. There's more to it than just collecting another piece of paper.... Highly recommended albergue municipal. Good restaurants on the Plaza Mayor. Grocery store..... Strange Mudejar architecture. That odd museum of processional pieces in the old San Tirso church. And especially the tomb of King Alfonso VI in the Benedictine convent! (Remember him? The bad guy in the Heston
El Cid flick? And surely the most
under-appreciated of Iberian monarchs!?)
Peninsular War history buffs like me will know, of course, that Sahagun was the point at which began Sir John Moore's famous/infamous retreat to La Coruna, and raise a glass --
O'er the hills and o'er the main, Through Flanders, Portugal and Spain, King George commands and we obey, Over the hills and far away....
And
then there's this -- for a town
on the Camino Sahagun impressed me with its uniquely
not-on-the-Camino ambiance - quiet, slow paced, as if indifferent to the presence of the passing peregrinos....