Day Tripper, pt. 3. Because I'm too lazy to come up with a different title.

Well hey there!

This weekend, I continue my exploration of Spain by taking two more day trips—today was Salamanca, and tomorrow is El Escorial.  Salamanca is the furthest from Madrid of the four trips, with a 2-hour bus ride west and a bit north.  We actually left the province of Madrid and entered the province of Castile and León to get to Salamanca.  Salamanca is internationally known as a “university town” as it features the oldest and most important university in Spain.  I hear there’s some great night life there, which is to be expected with university students as a large portion of the population.  I however, did not experience that aspect of the city since it was a day trip.  :)

The day had a bit of a rocky start because our busses were over an hour late this morning due to a car accident on the highway.  Since I left the apartment before 8 (we were supposed to leave campus at 8:30 AM), and the busses did not arrive until 9:45, I was a bit cold.  The sun was barely up by 8:30, so it was not a fun wait outside on the sidewalk.  But we powered through and managed to warm up during the long bus ride.  We actually stopped about an hour into the drive to quickly see the town of Ávila.  Those of you who know Catholic trivia/information might recognize the name because of St. Teresa of Ávila, who is considered, along with St. John of the Cross, to be the founder of the Discalced Carmelites.  She was also an important reformer of the Carmelite Order.  We did not have a tour of the town, but we did take a few pictures.  Ávila, at least the old part of the town, is surrounded by an impressive wall that is something like 2.5 km long.  It is a pretty city and a place where I might return.

Part of the wall around Ávila

Once we got to Salamanca, it was already after noon, and we were all very hungry.  But we had our walking tour first.  And it was COLD!  It was probably about 35ºF, but the wind chill was terrible.  I was wearing multiple layers, a scarf, 2 pairs of socks, my winter coat, and gloves, but it was still miserable at times.  Granted, it wasn’t snowing like in Chicago and Omaha, but you guys back home aren’t doing walking tours of those cities!  :)  Anyway, the most important thing we saw was the cathedral, and there are actually two cathedrals right next to each other.  The “old” cathedral is from the 12^th century, and the “new” one was built between the 16^th and 18^th centuries.  They are both impressive and beautiful.  In the later afternoon, we were able to go up into the cathedral to see the inside and have wonderful views of the landscape from balconies.  The most interesting/amusing part of the cathedral (in my opinion) is on the outside façade.  The façade was renovated in 1992, and apparently, it is tradition for the artist who does a renovation to add something new as a sort of “signature.”  In this case, the artist chose to add an astronaut!  If you aren’t looking for it, you likely wouldn’t see it, but once our guide, Javier, pointed it out, we all snapped pictures!  I happened to Google the cathedral when I got home, and there are some conspiracy theories about where the astronaut came from; you can read everything from “it was aliens!” to “it was just photo-shopped in” but I assure you, it’s real!  Next to the astronaut is a dragon eating an ice cream cone, which is almost as funny.  :)

A view of Salamanca

The New Cathedral

Tiny astronaut!!

And the dragon with his ice cream cone

Inside the cathedral

We also saw Salamanca University, or at least an outside façade… again with an interesting story.  This piece is very symbolic and honors the monarchs and the pope.  It also has a tiny frog hidden in it, and, as the stories go, students would spend hours or days looking for the frog because it gives good luck!  I couldn’t see it until someone took a picture and showed me, but it’s there!  Later when we wandered into a souvenir shop, there were a ton of things with frogs on them—shirts, magnets, postcards, etc.  Too funny!

The whole facade

See if you can find the frog! (hint: he's on the top of the skull...)

Another one of my favorite sites in Salamanca is the Plaza Mayor.  Tonight when I was eating dinner, Maria told me that Salamanca’s Plaza Mayor is the original; the one is Madrid is an imitation of Salamanca’s.  I learned from Javier that the term “plaza mayor” means that the area is completely surrounded by four walls, and Salamanca’s Plaza Mayor is almost a perfect square.  As we walked in the plaza, I was reminded of the movie Vantage Point and asked Victoria if she had ever seen it.  Then when Javier was telling us about the plaza, he said that Vantage Point had been filmed there!  Score for me!!  I was very proud of having recognized that.  :)

Plaza Mayor... now I need to re-watch Vantage Point

I had lunch at a cute little tapas place with a few friends.  Victoria and I split some tapas (croquetas and tortilla) and a bocadillo (ham sub sandwich).  I also had café con leche to warm up a bit.  After that, we found a pastry shop and had some delicious chocolate pastry.  Unfortunately, I do not remember its name.  But I’m getting it the next time I see it!  Que rico! (How delicious!)

Yay for dessert!

We left Salamanca a bit after 5 PM, so I didn’t get home until around 8.  Maria made dinner for me when I arrived, and for dessert, I had yogurt with strawberries!  So good.  Well, I’m surprised I had this much to say about Salamanca, because this was actually my least favorite of the three trips so far.  I wonder how that works out… Regardless, I hope you enjoyed reading about it!

Mañana, voy a El Escorial.  Hasta luego.

Todo de mi amor,

Elizabeth

PS Thanks to Victoria for several of the photos... my camera's batteries died today. :(