Boog's Blog

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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

Where we play tourist: The University, the New Cathedral, the Old Cathedral (name Nueva and Viaja- no saint name), Casa Lis an art museum

The university is quite old as any reader of medieval history or historical fiction likely knows. Focus on Medicine, Law and Theology with Philosophy not considered important or of value.

Graduation room (old desks), staircase with fine carvings, mudjehar ceilings are three of the highlights mentioned in the brochures. Big ceremony at graduation. Could not get into the main library.

Old cathedral. There are two and they are connected (joint ticket it turned out to our surprise). Mix of Roman and Gothic while the new Cathedral is Gothic and Renaissance.

The Vieja has painted walls, many still in good condition. Art historians among us: how were the pigments prepared and applied? Later egg tempera was used but has not survived well. Why the change to a less good application?

Casa Lis. A shout out to Jerome who suggested we not miss this, their favorite place in Salamanca. Art Nouveau and Art Deco. Very nice cafe as well. Had planned to do this one tomorrow but when we saw the cafe open went into the museum.

Major Toulouse-Latrec exhibit at the Casa Lis. Posters and paintings though all reproductions.

The door of forgiveness. Intricate, new cathedral, very special luminous stone.

Escaped Extremadura! Four days here in Salamanca. Yeah!. Injury recovery time needed. Avoidance of some really crappy accommodations needed. Two nights at the NH and two nights at the Parador. We were not able to add two nights to the Parador as this is a big holiday weekend, all Saints Day, then Day of the Dead.

Mornings now in the low forties, days in the upper fifties. Very cold wind today as we are not as yet adapted to the change.

Moving away now from the heavily Iberico pig area. Still pigs here of course but the number of farms fewer. Different terrain, maybe more expensive land.

Today we are out of the mountains; rolling hills and a great university town with much to see. We ate some good late breakfast food and then walked about for a couple of hours getting a general lay of the city. A few spots remembered. Tomorrow we will tackle the two big cathedrals, the old and the “new.”

Salamanca, being a University city is full of young and middle aged. Not all old and empty like the rural areas.

Went into one cathedral but we decided to wait until tomorrow for a visit. I walked around the ticket window (some fussing from the attendant) and peeked. Said to her, looks like Leon. Yes, she said.

Speaking of ticket windows. In the North and other places I do not remember ever having to pay to go into a Catholic cathedral. Into the museum or underbelly, yes, but not into the church to look around. Now it is generally 5 euro.

As I remember the past, Catholic places free entry, Protestant places generally charged, too few other faiths sampled to have a good summary for them.

As Judi said, they can build a bridge for 2000 years and we can’t even build one for 50 years.

Late afternoon nap and early (8pm) dinner at Vinodiario. An excellent meal, especially compared with the last few days.

For our records and as of general interest here at the pics not possible without bandwidth.

But first an unfortunate update. QB slipped on the shower last night. It appears nothing broken but very short , elbow, and wrist

Some pics we want included in the blog

Dinner last night inedible. Frozen paella. We had to tell the owner it was good and we were not hungry. Casa was freezing. North of us very disappointed.

Two days in a row that we both liked the walk. Not easy as in the small (1000 meters) mountains. Freezing in early morning now and warm as sun rises over hills. Not easy but beautiful and almost all off road.

Few pictures on this post as we have no T-Mobile signal and virtually no Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is sufficient for a text but not for putting in pictures. Picture addendum tomorrow.

Entered Castile y Léon today and both the signage and direction arrows improved dramatically. Castile is clearly marketing the Camino.

The road is an old Roman road going back to 217 BcE. All along the way there are military markers essentially vertical posts of concrete marking the route. When we put in pictures they will be in the pictures.

A detail from a few days ago or weeks is now clear. The reason that all the churches are closed is that there are virtually no priests available. Careful examination of the paper on the front of a church will tell you which towns have masses on which day. None have mentioned pilgrim masses which are frequent on the main Camino route.

The Casa Rural tonight is all ours. The owner makes dinner for us. Paella. The town, the largest for the next couple of days, has one bar and almost no people. The next two each have less than 100.

Due to minor injuries, remote mountains and upcoming days of rain we modified our route for the next few days. Will skip the rain and mountain walk and go directly to Salamanca. We will end up with four days in Salamanca.

Up and up into the small mountains.

Spent some time in the lovely town of Hervas. A tourist town due to the well preserved Jewish section. One of the many interesting spots: the Jewish Bridge. Stream running under, cobbled bridge over. QB has good pic of me on the bridge.

Stopped for cafe and once again the continual screaming of the Spanish, even to those sitting a chair away. Very odd and disconcerting.

Random questions: do the Spanish use only their own olive oil? A fellow traveller was appalled when I mentioned adulterated olive oil. Similarly, do they drink non-expresso coffee using primarily the (to us) lousy tasting blend from the Canary Islands?

Long downhill leaving Hervas but made up for by a longer uphill afterwards. Significant net gain of altitude and sore legs.

When we reached Baño de Montemayor I saw an interesting building. What is that I asked to the QB. “Some old thing. Not climbing up there.”

In Banos de Montemayor visited the thermal baths. Apple phone is very limited in the way it allows sharing – cannot create a public link as one can with Google Photos. Trying this QB code approach

Roman Bath pictures via QR code

Went to the baths. Actually two of them which turn out to be the same, just different buildings connected underground by water. The bath itself turns out to be just a warm swimming pool, 8 euro for an hour. I asked the temperature before forking out: 35 C. I thanked them and left. Not surprised. Have been seeing this for decades. BTW, the incoming water is 43C which they cool.

After Far too much effort getting the link using Google Photos here are some pictures of the Jewish section. https://photos.app.goo.gl/vUEzftJBzdZ3G41T9

Lovely walking day mostly off road. Some tricky navigation due to farm fields.

When I mentioned to someone that the orange juice here is spectacular, a Valencia local told us that the oranges here, Sevilla oranges, are really just transplanted Valencia oranges. Did not verify. Well, the fresh juice each morning is fab and one needs to moderate the amount for obvious sugar reasons. In the same vein, do the Brits use both types when making home made marmalade?

Entertainment in the morning was sheep herding. Large flock being guided by dog and person whistling.

Accommodations were again an experience. We arrived at the proper address. Needed to call someone to open the Casa apartments. “five minutes” meant 15 or a bit more. A woman shows up to open the registration office. Keys don’t work. A car drives up and another woman gets out to show the first how to use keys. After trying one, two, many she says she does not have a key. We are to walk ahead to the apartment. She follows by car. Eventually shows us how to turn on the power and then says we will have to go back later for passport registration. Another person shows up at the door explaining that he is not for the passport but has an adjoining unit and the manager called up to have him send me to the office. Nothing is really clear except that QB is tired and hurting and does not find this very amusing. Better you were not here.

Dinner at a simple bar, standard menu. Never seems to change in the local regional bars and restaurants.

Coulda been worse.

Rest day. Some minor touristing and some shopping for the road lunch tomorrow.

Today is Monday. Everything is closed. Just like yesterday, Sunday, everything is closed. Will open after we leave.

Nice cool morning, mid-40s. Warmed up soon thereafter.

One tourist attraction is the roman aquaduct

View with QB

Much of the world today: