Fr 5/9 Salamanca Spain

 Here as the view from our cabin when we woke up this morning.

We were up and on our way at 8:30 am for our day long tour to Salamanca Spain.  We had lots of space in the back of the bus to stretch out.

 

Unlike Portugal, Spain is a relatively flat country.  There were endless stone walls diving up the properties.

We made our first stop at a restaurant for a "technical stop" where they also served us Valencia orange juice (which was fantastic) and a thin cookie crisp concoction.  Unfortunately, as we drove the first 90 minutes this morning I was beginning to feel sick to my stomach and thought I was going to loose it as we pulled in (but I kept it down).  Tonight we talked to some other guests who seem to have similar symptoms.  The dreaded "Norovirus" was brought up.  I self reported to the front desk who asked that I keep them informed of my symptoms.  We passed on dinner tonight and I didn't eat anything all day.   Hopefully I'll wake up feeling better in the morning (afterall, what is a cruise without continuous eating).

We arrived in Salamanca and our first stop was the indoor food market.  There were dozens of seafood and meat stalls.  The biggest seller are the whole hams on the leg.  

We made a stop at one of the stalls where they had put out a whole spread of meats, cheeses, fruits, and of course Spanish wine.  We then made our way to the town square which is surrounded by a palace (turned into shopping and apartments).  They were setting up a week-long book sale in the square.

On our drive to the city we saw many stork nests in all sorts of places.  Some were on abandoned, elevated railway tracks.  On monuments they mount steel frames for their nests to keep them from damaging the buildings as the nests are very heavy.  The storks migrate through Salamanca every year and return to the same nest.

We first visited the new cathedral that was built in the 16th century (new is a relative term).  It was built adjacent to the old cathedral that was built in the 12th century.  It took over 200 years to build the new cathedral, and by it the time it was finished they abandoned the plan to destroy the old one.

It was fascinating to go through one door and be at a completely different cathedral with entirely different altar designs.

In the sidewalk are these bronze markers that mark the Camino de Santiago trail.  

30 years ago they did some repairs and renovations to the façade of the cathedral.  Try enlarging the photo and see if you can find the astronaut in the right hand column, included to represent man's accomplisnments.

We had a 2 hour return drive to the ship.  We decided to pass on dinner and call it an early night.  Hopefully I'll be feeling better tomorrow to enjoy a visit to a small village.

Buenos Tarde!