Salamanca:

What a surprise Salamanca turned out to be! When we decided to visit, we didn’t know what to expect, and found it to be a lovely little college town. 

La plaza mayor.

It was quite a tiring trek to our hotel, but it was also located just a block away from Plaza Mayor, so it was worth it. Salamanca has lots and lots of churches. Everywhere you look in any direction, you’re bound to see at least one or two of them. Once we settled in, we decided to walk around and find some food. The weather was quite chilly, definitely colder than Zaragoza, but at least the sun was out and shining! We ran into a American exchange student at the grocery store. She overheard us talking in line, and starting chatting our ears off. She apologized for talking so much, and said that after only speaking spanish for the past semester, it was just so nice to be able to have a conversation in english. She was cute, and gave us some tips for seeing the city. We ended up in a local cafe for dinner where we ate tapas and watched the Barcelona soccer game with a bunch of little old men. These guys were awesome. The all flirted with the waitress, and she politely flirted back. They spoke really loudly, and some even dozed off while sitting in their seats. 🙂 

walking the streets of Salamanca

The next morning we took our time getting up and made our way to the train station. You see, when we purchased our train reservations, we were told that there was going to be a strike on the day we would be traveling from Salamanca to Barcelona, so we had to take a different train company. We arrived via one station, but would have to leave Salamanca via a different station. We decided to make the walk so that we would know where we were going when it came time to leave. While we were at the train station, Javier got a haircut and we almost saw another movie…I know…but at this point, we were kind

Casa de las conchas.

of addicted. By the time we walked back to the main square, it was already getting dark. We decided to visit the Casa de las Conchas, which houses the library portion of the university and has seashells all over the outside walls. There are multiple floors with walkways along the sides allowing for an open courtyard in the middle. On the second floor, they had a neat photo exhibition going on, which we wandered through before getting kicked out. We continued with our night pictures by moving on to the Cathedral, and had to find shelter due to the freezing temperatures. Javier had mentioned

Casa de las conchas

that hot chocolate would be just perfect at a time like this, and as fate would have it, we walked right by a chocolaterie and hopped in. The young worker told us that they would be closing soon, so after drooling over the menu, we reluctantly decided on a quick cup of hot chocolate. We were not prepared for Spanish hot chocolate. For those who have not tried, it is thick…like, really thick. As it turns out, you’re supposed to have your hot chocolate with churros, which by the way are nothing like the delicious churros I am used to. The idea is that you’re not supposed to drink the hot chocolate per se, but rather dip the churro and eat it. That’s right folks, eat the hot chocolate. Neither of us could finish our cups, although God knows we tried. We decided to take the long way home to try and walk off our insanely high blood sugar levels, and took some night pictures of the university.

Scala Coeli Torres de la Clerecia

As per our normal routine, we had already stopped by the tourist information center and picked up a list of city highlights along with the prices and times of operation. The lady at the visitor’s center pointed out that some of the attractions have special times where it is actually free to enter. We saw that the cathedral tower had one such free time, so we decided to give it a shot. Of course when we arrived there was a nice handwritten sign on the door saying that the cathedral and its tower was closed for a couple of hours, which of course just happened

Scala Coeli Torres de la Clerecia

to be the free hours. Hmph! The university tower also offered free hours during the same time, so we walked over there instead. The bonus of the university tower is that you actually get to take pictures of the cathedral from that view. The downside is that you can’t take pictures of the university… We took lots of pictures of both the city of Salamanca and the huge bells at the top. There were signs posted all over saying please don’t touch the bells. While Javier was busy taking pictures, I was watching the people. Of the handful of people I saw touching the bells,

Scala Coeli Torres de la Clerecia

they were all men. When their wives, girlfriends, significant others would see them, they would point out the signs, and the guys would just shrug. Not to say that women don’t touch the bells, but I still found the whole thing really interesting…but I digress.

Once we made our way back down, we walked across the old Roman bridge and took more pictures. We tried to find a local place to eat, and stopped to ask a guy on the street. When we arrived at his recommendation, the few customers that were there were smoking. No thank you. We were quite disappointed by the lack of restaurants on that side of the bridge, so back we went to our tourist side for a smoke-fee meal. We did a little shopping in Salamanca. I had purchased some earrings right before we left on our trip. They were little stars with really long posts. So long in fact, that I had to take them out to sleep. Well,

Scala Coeli Torres de la Clerecia. Bells

you can guess what happened to them. At some point, in the rush to get out of a room, they were left behind. Javier had made it his mission to find me a new pair. We bought some in Venice, but I couldn’t sleep with them either, so I just stopped wearing them so I wouldn’t lose them too. We wandered into a shop looking for our usual pin and patch, and the jewelry case caught our eye. Salamanca has this button that is used on the clothing of the matadors. It is specific to Salamanca, and they have turned it into all types of jewelry- including, of course, earrings. These earrings are the first pair that Javier and I both really liked, the price was right, and lo and behold, I don’t have to take them out when I sleep! It was meant to be!

Cathedral.

The next day was spent in the Cathedral, and when I say the next day, I really mean the ENTIRE day. Well, that may be a slight exaggeration, but the Cathedral is the oldest in Spain and has been built upon, and added to, over the centuries. So much so, that there is the old cathedral and new cathedral. We took the audioguide tour of both old and new, and I have to say, it was the loooooooooongest audio tour we have ever, and will ever, take. Towards the end we wanted to skip everything, but since we had already dedicated hours of our lives to this,

Organ. Cathedral.

it seems like a total waste to skip out on the last few parts. But I tell you…it just kept going, and going, and going, and just when you thought it would end, there was a little alcove with even more to see and hear about. After that we said, no more cathedrals, which lasted…oh, until the next city.

The rest of the afternoon was wide open, and we decided to try and get some blogging done. We went back to the chocolate factory-didn’t order the hot chocolate again- and set up shop.

Cathedral ceiling.

After a few hours and a few desserts, we packed up and went to an Irish pub to watch some more soccer. We started at a table for dinner, and moved to the bar when a couple spots opened up. I was sitting next to a guy who was by himself, and when he ordered from the bartender, I could tell that he was not Spanish. I don’t remember how we started talking, but we did, and next thing I know he’s telling us about how he’s going to be visiting a friend of his who plays for Florence. Javier’s eyes get big and he mentions a Peruvian player was on that team at some point, to which Lucas (that’s his name by the way) says, oh ya he’s still there, and Javier is beside himself. Good thing I had the opportunity to talk with Lucas first to get to now a little bit about him, because after that soccer discussion, that’s pretty much all the boys talked about. Lucas is really cool. He’s Brazilian with Polish ancestry who just finished law school, and decided to travel a bit. He had spent several weeks in Barcelona learning spanish, and was touring through Spain solo and would be traveling on to other countries as well, not least of which, Florence Italy. The boys stayed at the bar for a little while longer, to watch and talk soccer, while I made my way back to the hotel to get some sleep.

Casa Lis.

On our last day in Salamanca, we visited the Casa Lis. It is an art museum that is built and decorated in the art deco style. It is such a beautiful building. The entire ceiling is made of stained glass, which allows for bright colors to illuminate the interior. The night before, Javier and I had walked by without knowing what building it was, and commented on how beautiful the stained-glass windows looked from the street below. The building itself is relatively small, and holds all things art deco. We played a little game where we picked out our favorite piece in each room, and slightly altered the game when we arrived in the creepy doll room. All in all it was a great way to spend a couple of hours, and Casa Liz is a truly beautiful little building.

Puente Romano.

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. Well, I guess I relaxed. Javier wanted to go for a run, but it was far too cold for me, so he set out on his own, while I napped in the hotel 🙂 We ate pizza for dinner at a restaurant that didn’t open until 9pm, and walked through the square, and the roads leading to it, that were decorated with Christmas lights. It was freezing cold, but really beautiful to walk the streets and enjoy the Christmas spirit. 

To see more pictures of Salamanca, click HERE.