A day in Salamanca – Spain

/ 3sistersabroad

 

On the Tuesday of Day 6 of our cruise we were all going to Salamanca. This city is the capital of Salamanca province and is part of the Castile and León region. It is classed as an UNESCO World Heritage sight. It began very humbly during the Iron Age, and, over the years, included many economic crises and also the War of Spanish Succession.

Although this city was in Spain and we were actually cruising in Portugal, we had docked the previous day at Vega de Terron, the last port of call before sailing back to Porto.

As a small village it was besieged by Hannibal in 220BC and then ruled by Rome. Originally it was named Helmetica. The city of Salamanca is home to one of the oldest universities in Europe and has many international students. It is the seat of the Spanish language and very much a lively student town.

We boarded the coach in Vega de Terron and travelled to the beautiful golden city for a guided walking tour. Bree was too sick to go with us – as were a few of the other passengers. The coach ride was over an hour through the countryside because Salamanca is 80 km from the Portuguese border. We travelled across the Puente Romano bridge built in 1AD. This is the entry point to the city from the main highway.

You might be interested to know that Christopher Columbus and Cortés both lectured at the University which was founded in 1218. It is the oldest in Spain and the 3rd oldest in Europe.

Once again coaches, buses and many larger cars are not allowed on the streets, so we had to park quite a way from the bright orange sandstone buildings and walk the streets with the rain coming down as usual.

However, that meant our guided walking tour would encompass a lot. Passing through its grand squares and medieval structures, you feel that you have stepped back in time.

Firstly, we visited the Plaza Mayor, a massive baroque square which we would revisit for lunch.

image001

Plaza Mayor

Then down the road to the Casa de las Conchas with its ornate shell designs. It was originally a Spanish Gothic Palace – now the Public Library and closed.

image001-2

Public Library and the shells

image002

Shell design on the Library 

 

Further down we begin our search for the frog sculpted in the University wall located in the extreme right of the largest column, above the level of the busts, and to the top left of the skulls. Bit difficult to photograph because of the rain. However, you might see a very modern design – that of an astronaut on the cathedral door. The frog design is considered by the University students to be very lucky and their wishes, thankyou’s and prayers are written in red on the walls. In the olden days this was blood.

 

 

 

 

image001-3

University Building

 

Once we had walked around most of the ornate cathedrals, the monastery and the university and listened to the stories about them from our guide, we then walked back to the Plaza Mayor for lunch.

image002-2

The Restaurant for lunch

image003

Some of our lunch

The “Tastes of Spain” experience lunch was accompanied by an energetic Flamenco dance performance.

image001-4

Flamenco Dancing

Tapas bars feature on every street and traditional Spanish music trickles out of buzzing bars and restaurants.

After lunch we were able to have a look at everything by ourselves though we only had a short time before we had to get back on the coach. I went for a walk with fellow travelers Sarah and Peter.

image002-3

Plaza Mayor in the sun

image003-2

Plaza Mayor 

The sun had finally come out and the Plaza Mayor square now had quite a lot of tourists. Even the cafes had put out the chairs and tables. There were quite a few young students around answering questions on a sheet. I spoke to several and they said that they were on a school camp and had come from France – the questions were part of a lesson on Spain. All schools were on holidays in Spain and Portugal for Easter and this is the most important time of the year with huge Easter evening parades.

After looking at the many cafes around the square we found one that was selling icecream and decided that an icecream would be lovely.

image001-5

Peter paid for mine and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The three of us sat down at one of the tables. A short while later a very rude waiter came out and yelled at us.

“Away – coffee only here!!!”

Typical of Spain – sorry – we found this in some other places of Spain as well.

Just as this was happening our city guide came and said that it was time to go back to the coach, So we did and apart for the last five minutes it was a very enjoyable day.

 

 

 

” post and photos by Muriel “

35 thoughts on “A day in Salamanca – Spain”

  2. Pingback: #SeniSal Roundup: Aug 12-16, 2019 ~ Esme Salon

  5. Pingback: A day in Salamanca – Spain — 3 Sisters Abroad – Truth Troubles

  8. Sounds like a fabulous day (except for being sick!). I would have loved to see the flamenco dancers. When I saw the title of Salamanca, at first I thought – oh I’ve been there! But I was thinking of the Salamanca Markets in Hobart, Tasmania! i have not been to Spain LOL

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • haha I can at least also say I have been to the Salamanca Markets. I didn’t get to go due to being sick however when we arrived in Seville we went to another show of Flamenco. Plus in Madrid we went to a class and learnt how to dance. thank you for stopping by

      Like

      Reply

  9. Nice to see that the rain finally stopped and the sun came out for you. I find being a tourist in the rain is such a pain! Trying to see the sights and shelter at the same time is always a problem. It sounds like the trip was really enjoyable (despite Bree’s asthma and colds)
    Thanks for linking up with us at MLSTL and I’ve shared on my SM 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  11. I could imagine myself sitting at one of those chairs having a sneaky vino and probably getting yelled at too. I love the vibrancy that comes from university cities and would have enjoyed that dance display. #MLSTL

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  12. Pingback: Monday Magic is back – Inspiring Blogs for You! – PainPalsBlog

    • Yes we had a similar well not as bad in Koln Germany. I did ask if we could sit on the seat and they were ok with it. Raining no one was out and about anyhoo. They do have their rules”for dining….Im ok with that..

      Like

      Reply

  15. Hi Three Sisters, Sorry to hear about some of the sick travellers. “Stepped back in time” shows in your photos. I have heard how Easter is an important time for Spain and Portugal. Possibly an extra special time to visit. Interesting post and great photos!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  18. I’m glad you got a taste of Spain as well. I love Salamanca, although I only got to spend a short time there. In Spain, you can only sit at the tables that belong to each specific restaurant or bar if you are their paying customer. Sometimes it is hard to tell which cafe the tables belong to. I have made that mistake myself a few times. Sorry to hear that Bree was too ill to join the excursion.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Yes in Europe they do have rules which are easy to follow but it can be confusing as to which table belongs to which establishment. On our first trip we were in Cologne and we purchased ice-cream – see the ongoing story lol…and we sat down at the tables out the front of the restaurant we bought them from. I saw what I think was the owner looking at us like he was going to come over and yell. So I got up and asked if it was ok for the 3 of us to sit and have our ice creams we purchased from them. He changed his look smiled and said yes of course. It was raining and we were the only ones sitting outside under cover. Yes it was a pain that I couldn’t go on the excursion. However I did manage a short walk around the town our ship was berthed at. I will do a post on that later.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.