I had to be out of my posh hotel by noon and I wanted to make sure that I had some time to appreciate it. I used the whirlpool tub for a bit and took a very long shower. I also took all the the soaps, pens and pencils with me. At noon I hopped in a cab and headed to Hostal Las Vegas. It had been recommended in my Let´s Go book and was about one third the cost of the place I had been at the night before. I was delighted to find that it was also right in the middle of the old part of the city.
After finding Plaza Mayor and having my breath taken away by this large and perfect looking square I made a quick stop at the info center for a map.
Salamanca is not a big city, but it is attractive. It is known as the golden city because of its same colored buildings. Salamanca´s university, built in 1280, once rivaled Oxford and is still a very good school. I went searching for the university building that I had seen on Rick Steves. It was the main entrance and hidden in the stonework is a frog. If you find the frog you get good luck. I had no problems with this, mostly because I cheated. He had said where to find it on his show.
Just down the street is the New Cathedral. Its actually 2 cathedrals and a cloisters built together. The new section began construction in 1513, but was not completed for over 200 years. Its not the most beautiful cathedral I´ve seen, but definitly worth a look. It was rather atmospheric though. Monks chanted over the speakers and birds chirped in the rafters. The dome and the alter are rather spectacular. The chapels range from rather boring to complicated wooden sculpture. One chapel housed the arm of a saint, which one, I´ve got no idea, but it fed the creep factor.
The New Cathedral is free, but the Old Cathedral, the museum and the cloisters are not. The Old Cathedral, began in 1152 and completed in 1445, was really the best part. The altarpiece is made of 53 panels that depict the life of Christ as well as of Salamanca´s patron saint. It is considered to be the best piece of renaissance art outside of Italy. I was mesmerized by it for quite a while.
The museum circled the quiet cloisters. The rooms were full of very old and fascinating tombs. Other rooms seemed to contain all of the bits that no longer fit in the cathedral. One room was stuffed full of life sized wooden saints. Another had paintings that at one point had hung in the various chapels.
When I left the cathedral siesta was beginning and everything was closing. I headed to the bus station to figure out what it would take to get to Leon the next day for a day trip. The man behind the counter wanted nothing to do with my bad attempt at Spanish. I went to the information desk and was able to get a hold of a schedule there. I did have to go back to the rude man to find out what it would all cost. This time I wrote out the date and times and put a ? next to the euro sign. I sighed loudly, but wrote it down for me. It was going to be almost $30 to spend about 3 hours in the town, so I decided to ditch that idea.
After taking a nap back at the hostal I wandered the commercial side of Salamanca and picked up a cheapie dinner at the grocery store there. I took it back to my room and ate it while I watched the Simpsons in Spanish. I had noticed an interesting bar right next to where I was staying and decided to check it out. It turned out to be the place where a lot of the student expats hung out. I met about half a dozen American students. It also happened to be quiz night. I was on a team with a couple of the other girls, but we did very poorly.
One of the girls recommended Zamora as a day trip, it was closer and cheaper to get to than Leon. Her description of it had me sold and I left so that I could get a good nights sleep and get there early on in the morning.
I´ve also started a You Tube site. I´ll upload when I can. It can be found here: http://youtube.com/user/dresdenfae.
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