Boog's Blog

A clear cold morning, a fine walk and a discovery of sorts. First the discovery.

In an earlier post after seeing wall paintings survive in a 12th century cathedral (cathedral viaja) I posed a question: what was the binding agent for the pigments used. Today in the Economist is an article about an 800 yr old mask that used, modern spectroscopy needed, protein, blood from Chimpanzees. Doubt the the cathedrals used this.

Walked a very nice loop trail along both banks of the Duero.

QB’s legs and feet held out long enough for the circuit but then tea, yes tea, was required. Found a tea place, first one since the trip started. Two cups of Assam each!

Dinner reservations tonight at an Italian restaurant. Do not tend to go to them when in California as we can prepare quite well chez boog. In Spain where the menu has not varied day to day it will be a good change. Arrabiata had chorizo and mushrooms with little spiciness, so more a Castilian interpretation of Italian.

Nice cool clear morning. QB still not recovered. Legs and feet. Walking and touristing to a minimum today.

Main items:

Cathedral with it’s fantastic tapestries, each telling a mythological story

Castle with Roman artifacts

Exposition center with artifacts

Poor lunch of… it does not matter!

Dinner at the Parador, good quality place. Very few if any good restaurants in Zamora. Took a walk and did some research. Lots and lots of bars/cafeterias but not many restaurantes like we found in other decent sized cities.

Did some planning for the remainder of our travel time. All will be revealed as it develops or gets set in mud.

We have bagged the walking. No helicopter arrival as promised so we are making alternative plans.

It has been a good but hard trip and considering the injuries, the cold mountain terrain not ideal for injured parts, as well as continued overly long distances, we decided it was best to change plans.

This camino was more difficult than anticipated. Not the distances, not the terrain, but the accommodations. We are no longer enamored by the cuteness of shared bathrooms, cold rooms, dubious hot water and bar menu reheated foods. None of the above applies to the larger cities of course. So, we will focus now on larger cities.

We will stay here a few days and then head to Santiago. Afterwards, backtrack to Orense, which should be a fab visit to the thermal baths there. Then?? We will still end up on London as planned.

Elevenses at the churro place. As Bobby pointed out, all the basic food groups represented: caffeine, chocolate, fried bread.

The sign says “among the 11 best churro places …)

Tourist brochure: “Known without exaggeration as the living Romanesque museum, 12th century churches of Roman design”. Visited two churches, both open. Roman arches, barrel vaults, no pictures allowed.

Start of walking about, just a corner shot in front of the first museum

The signage at the mill was in Spanish and Portuguese. This is on the river Duero which runs to Porto. The Portuguese use a vertical design, different from this

For our records, places visited today:

Museo archo – many litho periods displayed

1905 photograph in the museo

Mill with Spanish and Portuguese explanations

Overwhelming amount of Roman stuff, many museums, most signage only in Spanish

Many churches, all Roman, all open,

Museum of the sculptor Lobos, bronze works, many

Roman bridge, of course.

12th century Roman church, oldest here, very basic

Cathedral area, will visit in more depth as it was late in day. Fort there as well.

Really to an old converted castle (1227): Castillo de Buen Amor located 11 km off the route, nearest town Calzada de Valdunciel

Cold morning with a cold wind that got colder as the day progressed. We finished the walk just before the rain started. Well planned on our part? Hardly, but we did check several forecasts.

The walk out of Salamanca led us past a large (think Walmart large) Carrefour. Naturally stopped in and looked around, got our first raspberries in a long time as well as a La Reine, a favorite type of apple (unfortunately somewhat mushy).

One of us enjoyed the walk today, nice change of scenery, some rolling, some small towns. The other could not – in far too much pain from the foot, knee, and legs. Some of the pain likely caused by the fall in the shower, some just from too much daily walking. Some from oldness.

One small town had many buildings and the water tower hand painted. These shots are for Tom and the SMCG

Final leg today on a red clay road just like the stuff we got stuck in while walking with Therese and Richard outside of Sienna. Fortunately not yet soft-muddy from the rain.

At the Castillo de Buen Amor, our room and patio

Nada, nothing. A rest day other than a long walk to Plaza Mayor. Some coffee and a croissant. At least good coffee.

Tomorrow we head out to a castle. A castle of good love. Hopefully getting there before it rains too much on us.

Adios Salamanca.

Cloudy day salamanca

Plaza de Mayor Cloudy day salamanca

photos.app.goo.gl/SubzChMTC3XioZfq7

Plaza Mayor Salamanca

A lazy day of very little in a day with much rain and some very heavy rain and lots of wind. A good day to be inside. We changed hotels to follow the booking requirements.

Giant rainstorm in the early afternoon. Fortunately we are not walking today so got to watch it from inside.

Our only tourist thing today was the visit the public library, Casa de conchas. Tourist office said it was open. The building was, the library Not so much.

Roman bridge near hotel