Salamanca

The reason we chose Salamanca for our stayover was pretty arbitrary, Albufeira to Santander in one go is too much so Salamanca made sense because it's about half way. I found Salamanca on Google maps, but knew nothing about it, in fact until looking at Google maps I probably would have struggled to tell you what country it was in! The pictures on Google maps, however, looked pretty interesting, and now we're here, wow it is amazing!

Salamanca has the feel of Florence, the historic centre is compact which means you can be walking down an ordinary street only to round the corner and bam, there's a huge building like the cathedral in front of you. The gothic / Baroque cathedral is as impressive as any we've ever seen anywhere, the carvings above and around the main door are just bonkers. But photographing the place is difficult, it's just impossible to do it justice because everything is huge and so close up. A camera just can't capture what your eyes can.

The buildings in Salamanca are all made from sandstone and are all in the same style. Whilst some, I suspect, aren't that old, lots are, the cathedral dates back to the 12th century, the university to the 13th century and lots of other buildings in between. No wonder the centre of Salamanca is a UNESCO world heritage site. There's also clearly a lot of attention to maintaining the look and feel of the historic centre, even down to the signage, see the piccies below.

Salamanca has has the look of a proper Spanish town, loads of Jamoneria's (ham shops), plenty of Tapas, Confiterier's (cake shops) and a real cafe culture. When you walk into the Plaza Mayor you know you couldn't be anywhere other than Spain. The Plaza is an amazing place and is just the best place to have a coffee and tostada de jamón whilst doing a bit of people watching. For dessert after lunch we couldn't resist a couple of cakes and you wouldn't believe the care and attention taken to wrap them (see the piccies below)! Then a brucey bonus for Ellison, would you believe it, Salamanca has an Art Deco and Art Nouveau museum! A few piccies below, but as I say it's very difficult to do the place justice.

Then just when we thought we were done for the day the marching bands turned up, loads of them, and they were impressive. The marching bands was also clearly a game of 'top trumps' for hats. The chap in the piccie below turned up and I thought if I'm going to be in a band, this is the hat for me.

But then this chap turned up.

A couple of piccies of the bands.

So that's Salamanca, if it's not on your list of places to go then it needs to be.

Saude!

PS.

On a slightly more depressing note I was about to handover 10 Euro's for the entry fee to the Art Deco museum when the girl serving me asked for 6 Euro's. It was only when I got outside I realised she had assumed we were 'Jubilados', not to sugar coat things, this translates as OAPs!

PPS.

Not sure if it's a thing elsewhere in Spain but Salamanca has small un-manned shops with vending machines. Thought nothing of it until I read the sign, which half way down says sex shop! Turns out it's vending machines selling 'something for the weekend' and toys for the ladies!