We are staying at a small hotel in the old town, Vega Room Mate Hotel, which is nice and central to everything. We are in the Plaza Mercato, which has the big central food market in the middle...it has not been open since we have been here though. The rest of the square is restaurants, cafes, and the outer edge of the beautiful Plaza Mayor.
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| The Mercado Central |
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| Lovely Buildings On The Market Square Edge |
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| Our Street, Yes That Is Ice On The Road! |
Just out of interest we woke up today to be greated by a current temperature of -9 degrees!!!!! We were sensible and did not go out until the temperature had reached -5!!!!
There were a few curious things we had heard about in Salamanca that we had to check out today. The first was at the Cathedral. Now you really have to see this place to believe it...it is massive, the intricate detail on every statue and sculpture is incredible, and you can spend hours looking up at the walls and roof lines to pick all of this detail out. Now we heard about a couple of Gargoyles that were in amongst all of this detail that really did not belong there. Apparently in the 1990's there was a certain amount of reclaimation and restoration work done to much of the cathedrals facade...the people who did this work decided to add a couple of special Gargoyles that have been left and have become a bit of a tourist attraction in themselves.....one of the Gargoyles is dressed as an Astronaut, and the second is eating an ice-cream...I love this humour, and love the fact that they were allowed to remain.
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| The Western Door and Its Detail |
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| The Northern Door With The Two Gargoyles |
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| Top Left Is The Astronaut, Bottom Right Is The One Eating An Ice Cream |
Salamanca has a large University, and wherever you go around here you will hear about the "lucky frog". Now if you go to a small plaza and find the La Puerta de Salamanca, the University’s façade, which has a very intricate design...it is said that if you can find the frog it will bring you luck. When you first look at the facade it does seem an impossible task, and the plaza is full of people trying to find it......well, we found it!!
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| La Puerta de Salamanca |
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| Look Carefully At The Skull, The Frog Is Sitting On It!!! |
We also headed south of the old town to the river, Rio Tormes, and the old Roman Bridge that crosses it...the more you see of Europe, the more you start to realise how big the Roman Empire really was.....but to me what is more impressive is the fact that so much of their architecture still survives!!
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| The Old Roman Bridge |
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| Lesley Looking Hot In The Cold |
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| View Back To The Old Town |
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| Beautiful Windows In The Museo Modernista |
Walking around Salamanca on a beautiful day like today is great, the buildings look beautiful with their golden glow, and the clear blue skies make a perfect backdrop. We basically took in a lot of the sites, which really are all quite close together.
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| Iglesia Convento San Esteban |
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| Iglesia Convento San Esteban |
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| Torre De Clavero |
We finished our time in Salamanca with a quick look around the old town at night....it is spectacular.
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| Views Around Salamanca On A Cold Christmas Night |
We ended the night with tapas, good wine, and another great meal at La Mariseca....slow cooked pork cheeks and mash potatoe for Lesley, and a medium rare steak with fries and green peppers for me....tasty!
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| Back To La Mariseca For More Good Food |
So tomorrow we are back on the road and heading down towards the warmer weather and Toledo.
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