On the
Tuesday of our week we went to Salamanca, a town two and a half hours by train
from Madrid. We were on a train where we
could plug in my laptop and watch quite a few episodes of Modern Family, Raising Hope
and The Big Bang Theory whilst also
enjoying the vistas from the windows.
Each region of Spain is so different in terms of landscape and we passed
through rugged mountains and pastoral land complete with grazing cows on
actual, proper grass. The train ride
passed quickly and it was uneventful. We
got into Salamanca in the middle of the afternoon.
From the
train station we caught a taxi to our hostal as it had started to rain a little
bit. When we got in the owner pulled out
a map of Salamanca and then proceeded to tell us a little about all the main
sights, where to eat, where to go tapeando etc. and then helped us to take our
stuff upstairs to our room. He was
speaking to us in Spanish and what a difference his accent was to the one is
live amongst. I could understand every
word he said, nice and clear. It makes
me glad to be where I am though as I can understand Andaluz as well as the
clear northerners.
And what a
difference the hostal was from our nightmare the day before. The room was huge and the beds weren’t rammed
together like most twin rooms are. It
was lavish compared to the one from the day before and was actually cheaper
than it too. We discarded our stuff, ate
part of a roll and then decided to set off on the tourist walking route. The first stop was the Plaza Mayor which is a
very impressive sight. I wish we had
seen it in the sun as it lost a little bit of its power in the drizzle. The hotel man had told us to go to the bar
that is above the Plaza Mayor, but because of the weather it was full and we
didn’t want to spend time in somewhere so crowded.
We followed
the route on the map and passed the Casa de las Conchas (House of the
Shells). It was built by a Knight of the
Santiago Order and the shells were the symbols of the order. We went in and looked around. And then continued on our merry way. We walked around the University and then we
decided to go on the tourist train since the one in Toledo was very good.
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| Casa de las conchas - all the shells. Legend states that there is gold hidden behind one of them. |
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| Shell lampshade keeping with the theme |
Salamanca
boasts that it has one of the only live guide tourist trains in Spain, and that
all of their guides speak multiple languages.
So when we were to that the tour was not available in English we were a
bit annoyed. The women giving the tour
spoke English, she just wouldn’t. Made
no sense. At least both my mum and I
speak Spanish and could understand the tour.
But the very rude French people sitting behind us decided that since
they couldn’t understand they would just talk very loudly when the guide was
talking. I wanted to push them off the
train, or at least use telepathic powers to shut them up. But we did get to see all the main sites and
stay out of the rain. The tour was not
as good as the one in Toledo which told more interesting stories about the history
of the city but it was still worth it.
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| Salamanca - the University which is the oldest in Spain and the Cathedrals |
After the
train we decided we should bite the bullet and go to the Cathedral. We went into it and they were preparing all
of the tronos for the week with fresh flowers and decorations and lots and lots
of candles. We wandered around looking
at the tronos and admiring them, and hoping that we’d get to see our first
procession of the week. This wasn’t to
be as, in the end, the rain was too heavy for them to go out. We got up to the ticket desk and we decided
that 8 euros each was too much to pay to enter a Cathedral. I am of the opinion that it is ok to ask for
like 3 or 4 euros, enough to cover the upkeep and pay the wages of the workers,
but any more than that is almost immoral.
This is a place of worship and sanctuary, not a money making venture.
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| Trono |
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| This is a smaller one which is carried by young children |
Logical next
stop was a bar. We went into one that
seemed to have an offer on – pinchos (small tapas) and a drink for 2.50. We enjoyed the food, the rest and the respite
from the rain, but it turned out that the deal was only valid if you order at
the bar…something they failed to mention when we sat down.
Some more
wandering and later on we decided that it was time for dinner. But the Salamancans had other ideas. None of the kitchens were opening until half
past 8, so we had to go some more wanders.
We found the university wall which has the famous rana (frog) of
Salamanca. It was hard to find it, even
listening in to people who knew where it was.
The wall is huge and the frog is absolutely totie. It is perched on top of a
--------------------------- (edited by the Salamancans). Once the rain came back on we found the
nearest restaurant and headed inside. We
had about an hour to wait before we could order our food but being dry and warm
was more important. Also they gave us
our drinks beforehand so there was that.
As we were waiting we saw the men who would be walking in the procession
all leaving and that was our indication that it was cancelled so we didn’t feel
bad about missing it. We also saw Andy
Parsons, the bald comedian from Mock the Week, although we didn’t go outside to
actually meet him.
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| Find the frog... |
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| Frog... |
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| Mum enjoying her wine |
The food was
nice and the restaurant filled up quickly so we were actually glad to have
gotten our table. We were both exhausted
so we headed back to the hostal, through the torrential rain – it got so bad
that my map disintegrated and we ended up lost for a little while – to our
lovely warm room, the lovely clean shower and our first proper sleep of the
week.
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| The Plaza Mayor of Salamanca in the rain. It's very impressive. |
Our train
was at 3pm on the Thursday to take us back to Madrid. We spent the day looking in a lot of the
random tourist things on the list. We went
to some stuff in the University, including a dome which has the star signs on
it, it was very pretty although an unexpected find. After a little bit of wandering around the
tourist shops etc. it was time to head to a café and relax before catching the
train back to Madrid.
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| Me in Salamanca |
We decided
to get a taxi back to the station because our stuff was pretty heavy to carry
and it hadn’t been that much to the hostal.
Our taxi driver on the way back decided to take advantage of the fact that
we were tourists and was taking forever to do anything even though he had
started the meter. However, he was not
prepared for the wrath of the McAlinden women when we are in Spanish mode. He apologized and cut almost a euro off of
the bill…boom!
A short wait
in the station, a trip to the Carrefour for sandwiches and some very nice flat
biscuit things made from olive oil, it was time for the train.
I will definitely
go back to Salamanca in the future, it was a very nice city, but it will
hopefully be sunny and easier to get around.
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