Last Year's Europe Trip: Salamanca
Day thirteen.
DAY THIRTEEN: SALAMANCA
After leaving Fatima, Salamanca, Spain was our next destination. Not gonna lie, I've never heard of Salamanca before so the visit there was pretty exciting to me. The Salamanca visit was a pretty quick one, we actually had no itinerary for it so we were pretty much free to roam on our own.
Turns out, Salamanca is an important university in Spain and the location of Universidad de Salamanca, one of Spain's oldest universities that was founded in 1218(!!!!). In terms of geography, Salamanca is located in western Spain in the autonomous community of Castille and Leon and is around 200 kilometers west of Madrid. Salamanca's a pretty big province but we only went to the capital itself.
The Casa Lis, a museum of decorative arts and houses exhibits dating from the last decades of the 19th century to WWII.
The Archivo Guerra Civil or the General Archive of the Spanish Civil War, the place that contains materials about the Spanish Civil War that happened in 1936-1939.
The first activity we did upon arriving: climb up a tower, or should I say towers, specifically the Torres Medievales de la Catedral. There are actually two towers: the Mocha Tower and the Gallo Tower, both connected by a bridge. The climb here is pretty high (I swear, it goes on and on) but each level gives you something different to look at, both on the inside and out. Each level has an exhibit-like room then you find a pathway that'll lead you to the outside. I mean, just look at this view:
These are the view you'll see on the terrace of the Mocha Tower. How gorgeous is the cathedral! This cathedral, if I'm not mistaken, is the Catedral Nueva or New Cathedral. It was built between the 16th and 18th centuries and has a blended Gothic and Baroque style.
View of the city. GORGEOUS!
This is the Catedral Vieja de Santa María or the Old Cathedral. This was built between the 12th and 14th century and founded by Bishop Jerome of Périgord. It was dedicated to dedicated to Santa Maria de la Sede or Saint Mary of the See.
Surprise! On the inside, you'll find a viewdeck of interior of the Catedral Nueva.
More details, now just on a different level.
(I wasn't able to go inside the belltower since the waiting time was pretty long and we didn't really have a lot of time to spare. Would definitely climb that up next time!)
The facade of the Catedral Nueva.
Palacio de Anaya
Pathway to the Plaza Mayor. This one's full of shops (souvenirs and pharmacies that kind of stuff) and cafes.
Plaza Mayor. This is one big....plaza! (And kind of reminds me of the plaza in Siena only this one's so much bigger) People here are a mix of tourists, locals, and students. Again, this place is full of shops where I, incidentally, got sidetracked by two things:
And this sandwich shop that sells these scrumptious, glorious things. Ahh, jamon!!!!
Some photos we took while waiting for our bus to pick us up:
And that pretty much ends our visit in Salamanca. Salamanca is quite a big place and I really would like to go back to visit more places here like the La Cueva de Salamanca and the Huerto de Calixto y Melibea, and get back to that sandwich shop, to be honest haha!
Next stop: Burgos!
0 comments