Salamanca

Empty streets of Salamanca

Salamanca
Today we hopped in our little rental car and headed out of Madrid. We drove through Castilla y Leon going west towards Salamanca. Passing sweeping fields of bright green and day glow yellow. Although we took the highway the views are breathtaking. Along the way we passed many small villages - each with it's own ancient church. We are tempted to stop and explore each one, but in a land filled with ancient structures one must pick and choose or we would never make it 50 miles. Perched on hilltops are the outlines of castles and ruins of once vital fortresses. 
  
Statue in front of
Iglesia de San Esteban

Facade of the Iglesia de San Esteban
After about and hour and a half we arrived in Salamanca. The weather is beautiful and warm and the streets are almost empty. Traveling in the off season is the best. The majority of tourists appear to be Spaniards. So far we have only seen a few Americans. I am sure in a month there will be swarms of visitors from all over.
 
 


Facade detail

We parked the car and walked up the hill towards the Iglesia Convento de San Esteban. This 16th century church is adorned with an extremely intricate facade depicting the stoning of St. Stephen to whom the monastery is named. As we admired the detail, an old man walked up and introduced himself. He told us that he was a Priest whose patron saint was St Stephen.  He was an interesting man who has traveled to many countries around the world.




Plaza Mayor
 



We walked past the Convento de los Duenos towards the Plaza Mayor. Most towns in Spain have a Plaza Mayor (Main square), but Salamanca claims one of the best. We sat and watched as people gathered and strolled by. We made our way past the tourist area to a local neighborhood where we bought strawberries and bananas for lunch. After stopping at a nearby park to eat, we continued on back down the hill to the Catedral Vieja and Catedral Nueva.


Semana Santa float and catedral
Catedral detail

The Cathedrals are unique in that the old 12th century structure was not replaced by the new 16th century church, but built next to it. The detail inside is incredible.
  
Inside the 15th century Capilla is the tomb of Diego de Anaya, a Salamancan Archbishop who had received sainthood. A glass box containing his arm bone rests atop this tomb. Creepy.





The arm bone
A Semana Santa Float
We also saw several of the Semana Santa Floats that will be carried in the festivals. The floats are very heavy and each hold a statue or relic representing a specific patron saint. It will be exciting to see the festivals later this month.





The Casa de las Conchas

 
View of the cathedral from the
courtyard of Casa de las Conchas
Next we visited the casa de las Conchas which is now a library with a small courtyard containing a well. The exterior of the building is adorned with carvings of shells, representing the family that lived there. The upstairs balcony is adorned with some great gargoyles.




Gargoyles
We then walked through the narrow streets and came across a wedding. The bride and groom walked out of the church to a great cheer from the crowd. The guests fired cardboard tubes that shot tons of confetti high into the air, causing birds to swarm into the air and adding to the celebratory vibe.
Confetti and birds fly


A Salamanca wedding

As we walked through Salamanca we saw several groups of people in which one man was dressed in costume and the rest wore matching shirts. At first we thought this might be related to the upcoming Semana Santa celebrations. However, it turns out these are Spanish bachelor parties.





Before heading back to the car we walked across the Puente Romano. This 1st century bridge built by the Romans - spans the scenic Rio Tormes and a tree filled park along its banks.

View of Salamanca from the Puente Romano
  
After departing Salamanca we set off towards Bilbao. We passed through the cities of Valladolid, Burgos and Vitoria. We had intended to stop at one of these towns to stay the night but decided to keep heading towards the coast. This decision was reinforced when we became temporarily lost in Vitoria. I suspect that Vitoria must be the least attractive city in Spain. It felt more like a communist industrial city than the capital of the Basque government. But then again, we only drove through the town.


We continued on until around 10 pm arriving in Bilbao. Wow! This city is crazy. The streets are packed with locals wearing red and white striped football jerseys. There is a soccer game between Bilbao and Madrid tonight. And the energy is overwhelming. We drove around the jumble of narrow city streets looking for a cheap hotel with parking and relatively nearby, no such luck. Finally, as we were getting tired, we headed out of the city center towards the airport. We figured this may be our best bet. Just as we were getting frustrated Luis said "where is a Holiday Inn when you need one". As luck would have it one sprung up as we rounded the next corner. While an airport Holiday Inn was not our first choice it would do. We got lucky. According to the receptionist all the Bilbao hotels were full due to the football game and she was being flooded with calls from people desperate for a room. We had arrived just in time!


Giant bird nests in Salamanca










Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lickety Split

Image
The hotel beach  Erika and Tom  We woke up ready to hit the beach only to find that it was pouring rain.  With our plans derailed for the day, we decided to take it easy and lounge around until the rain cleared. This turned out to be a good part of the day.  In the late afternoon, we headed down to the hotel restaurant for a drink.   We found the same waiter from the previous night and ordered a couple of glasses of wine.  No problem. When Luis’s arrived it had some cork or other strange floaty bits.  Noticing this, the waiter became concerned.  He leaned in close to Luis and examined the glass, practically sticking his nose into it. “No Problem” he said grabbing the glass and returning with a new one.  This guy was really funny without intending to be.   One of the palace entrances Statue of Gregory of Nin Around 4:00 pm, the rain finally stopped and we all decided to drive into Split and do a little sightseeing.   Split is t...
Read more

Great Scott this is beautiful

Image
The Artic Penguin Last night at the Stagecoach Inn at Cairndow we heard voices. The first was a woman laughing in the middle of the night; the other was unidentifiable, perhaps a man whispering. The walls of the hotel were really thick and we couldn ’t hear any other guests, even if they were right outside our door. Perhaps these were ghosts of travelers past. The building was once an old coaching inn and would have been a waypoint for the carriages as they traversed the highlands. Stepping out of the cold, damp air into the hotel feels as if you are transported back in time. Describing the inn as old and quirky is an understatement. The rooms are an explosion of mismatched prints and the floors slope to such a degree one could almost ski from the bathtub to the sink. However, the atmosphere was perfect. It was warm, cozy and we had one of the best night’s sleep of our trip. From our room we could lookout at the misty grey Loch Fynne . As this tiny “town” along the edge of t...
Read more

Road Trip to Croatia: No Problem

Image
 Lake Balaton  10 am: we grabbed our bags and ran down the stairs to the street.  Within a few minutes Tom and Erika came cruising around the corner.  We jumped in and began to drive out of Budapest. Suddenly Tom’s cell rang.  On the phone was Bill, the owner of the land rover we were driving.  As a post wedding gift to Tom and Erika, he had loaned them his car for the trip back to London.  “Um, I just realized that I’m not quite sure that the auto insurance will cover Croatia", he said.  "I think it is best that you come to where I am so we can sort this out”.  Oooops!  This could be a major glitch which none of us had thought of.  Tom reset his satnav and we headed over to the Train Museum where Bill was waiting.  Once there, the issue was quickly resolved with a phone call to the insurance agent and a faxed copy of the paperwork.  No problem!   Within a short time we were back on the road.  We drove for about ...
Read more