While studying the map of the route from Fouras to Porto, our first destination in Portugal, I've realised that we can include Salamanca with a small detour. The initial idea was to stay over in San Sebastian in the north of Spain, but the weather forecast wasn't good and as JL already knows it and I wanted him to explore new places too, Salamanca was a better option. Leaving us with a loooong drive from Fouras, but then at least a shorter drive from Salamanca to Porto. Reading in one of my many tour books that 'Salamanca is Spain's finest showcase of Renaissance and Plateresque architecture' I was hooked and fortunately it was easy to convince JL.
We left early from Fouras, the car filled up the previous day to not waste time. The first part of the road is known to us, especially to JL, and I prefer to drive a known road in the dark rather than an unknown. South of Bordeaux we've passed famous forests established by Napoleon (obviously the trees were since replaced, but I was amazed at the man's vision). And a lot of roadworks, so JL decided to rather continue driving before handing me the wheel. I was relieved, as there were a lot of trucks on the road towards Spain and with the roadworks the lanes were quite narrow at times.
So I took over not so far from the Spanish border. A bit of a problem when steering your way on an unknown road shared with many trucks but you are dying of curiousity to look at the surroundings... And then the Spanish have all these small tollroads, every so often you have to stop for a 1 or 2€ toll! Driving through tunnels through mountains, one after the next. We were happy to arrive in sunny Salamanca not too late. After taking a wrong turn with Madame GPS, we managed to find the hotel, very conveniently located in the heart of the old town, with its own parking. Except, the parking places underground are extremely narrow. And while I was walking down towards the second level to see if there's not an easier parking space, JL managed to squeeze into the unthinkable impossible small difficult parking. To my horror I found him parked in the spot, almost wrapped around the pillar, that while I actually returned to tell him to please not enter that parking spot, as there are a few on the level below that seems a bit easier. Too late, and for the next half an hour we were sweating, swearing, bumping every corner of the car and almost not talking to each other trying to get out of that spot. And then, as he entered the lower level, even the front of the car scraped the floor as the ramp is too steep. I promise you, parking and driving with a GPS in Spain is not for the faint-hearted! (By the time we got to Madrid, we were convinced that a French GPS does not understand Spanish)
The lady in the hotel was relieved when we finally appeared at reception, she went looking for us as we stayed away for such a long time and couldn't find us, but obviously looked only on level -2 while we were sweating away on level -1!!
After catching our breath in the room, we decided we have to go and explore some major sights, as we only have one night in Salamance and do not want to leave too late the next day. We were happy to realise we were right next to the market which is between us and Plaza Mayor, the plaza being one of Spain's largest and grandest. Like many other buildings in Salamanca it is built of beautiful warm golden sandstone, almost like the sandstone you'll find in the Eastern Free State. The plaza was built by a Spanish king to thank the city for their support during the War of the Spanish Succession (I'm not going to bore you with Spanish history). It was completed in 1755 and once used for bullfights. Fortunately today you'll only find delightful cafés, restaurants and shops, as well as the town hall.
Below: the outside of the plaza, there are a few 'gates' through which you can enter
Above: their sales have already started and the streets forking out from the plaza were filled with people, as many take holiday between Christmas and New Year
We took a walk through some of the streets appreciating the beautiful architecture. One thing that striked me in Spain, like in Paris, is the beautiful huge doors of the buildings, carved different patterns, some with huge decorative knobs on.
And you'll always find a park, be it big or small, in the heart of the European cities, to escape from the rat race
The octogonal Terre del Clavero (below) - the tower is the last vestige of a palace that once stood here. It was built ca. 1480
Casa de las Conchas (below), meaning house of the shells, derived its name from the stone scallop shells that decorate most of its walls. The shells are a symbol of the Order of Santiago, one of whose knights built the mansion at the beginning of the 16th century. It now houses a library, so I could enter to take a photo of the inner courtyard.
One of the most amazing places in Salamanca is the Cathedral Vieja and Cathedral Nueva. As you can gather from the name, it is actually two cathedrals, the newer one built in the 16th century was constructed beside the old 12th, 13th-century Romanesque cathedral, entering the old one through the new one (normally a new cathedral was built over the site of the old one). The new cathedral is a mix of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles. It is really a spectacular cathedral to visit. You have to pay a small fee to enter the old one, but it is worth it to compare the different styles.
The university was founded in 1218. (left of the shell house on the photo is one of the university buildings)
By then we've decided to call it a day, rest our feet and have some tapas on the plaza. Alas, if you want tapas you have to stand at the bar counter and as our feet were protesting, we've decided to rather sit down and order a meal. The waiter could only speak Spanish, no English, no French. We've managed to obtain an English menu. While we were studying the menu (without prices in the English version, so trying to find what seems like the right page in the Spanish one to find a price) he put the bread on the table and went to fetch the wine. We've ordered two glasses of wine (JL can speak a bit of Spanish so no misunderstanding there) - but received a bottle which, of cause, we had to pay for. Like the bread, we've realised when receiving the bill at the end. It is not like France, it rather reminded me of the holiday my mom and I had in Italy a few years ago. I can see a lot of similarity between the Spanish and the Italians. So we've ended up paying the bill by emptying our purses of the numerous coins that made it too heavy.
The next morning, as we wanted to leave to Porto sooner rather than later, we've decided to only visit the cathedral as I would like to see both the old and the new inside. And the Roman bridge, which JL felt we won't have time for, but fortunately by the time we got out of the cathedral he agreed to the steep walk down to the river.
On the way I had to take more photos of the many beautiful buildings.
These chimneys were catching my eye, with the university's tower behind:
To my surprise the little street going to the right between the buildings is called 'Jesus' (if you enlarge the photo you'll see the name). Interesting that it is a narrow road...
Above: a door to a monastery, below: another university building
The cathedral in day time:
And inside the 'new' one:
And inside the old one:
the entrance to the old one with beautiful tiles
Above: the pillars in the old cathedral are enormous. As JL said - it was before they made the calculations!
And finally, below: the Puente Romano. This Roman bridge was built in 1 AD! What makes it even more amazing is that it still has 15 of its original 26 arches, 2000 years later!
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