Salamanca, Spain

Our room today is heaven, and a sleep in cannot be helped.

Our self-guided tour through Salamanca started at the town’s churches, near the hostel. The “new” cathedral is 260 years old and is grand in the same style as the cathedrals of Toledo and Seville. This gothic sandstone building took 220 years to build.

Nueva Cathedral, Salamanca, Spain

Salamanca, Spain

Adjacent is the 800-year-old Old Cathedral, whose age is showing, with deteriorated paintings and sculptures. It is, none the less, still a fantastic building.

Around the corner is the university, which has a decorative, sculptured entrance. One of the skulls on the portal façade has a frog on its head. It is said that if you can pick out the frog without being helped, then you will be married within in a year. Roberta found it, while I just looked where everyone else was pointing. (I hope she sends me an invite).

University, Salamanca, Spain

We then went into the tourist office and picked up a map of the city, which had two walking tours on them. We followed the one that started at Plaza Mayor and went north. Plaza Mayor is the 18th century town square, which houses numerous outdoor eateries, and the town hall.

Plaza Mayor, Salamanca, Spain

The walk then took us past many of Salamanca’s historic buildings (all built with sandstone). From the 15th and 16th century convents De las Ursulas and De las Augustinas, to the Palacio de Monterrey, built in 1539, to the 12th century circular Romanic church – San Marcos. The walk took us an hour in total.

We had a lazy lunch at Burger King before booking accommodation for tomorrow and Monday in Madrid. We went back to the room to continue our Spanish tradition of the siesta.

We were woken late in the afternoon by a hail storm. This is the first sign of rain we have had since we were in Trafalgar Square seven weeks ago.

We went to Plaza Mayor for a drink and to meet Johnny Joiner for dinner. We ended up at a Tex-Mex restaurant on Rue Mayor, not far from where we are staying.

Afterwards, we went to a bar that Johnny had been shown, that served liter beers for 350 pesetas. We stayed here until 2.30 am, before stumbling back home.