Salamanca/Avila

A fun trip, not my favorite, but fun nonetheless.

SALAMANCA
We started our tour of Salamanca at the Museo Art Nouveau y Art Deco which was absolutely facinating to me. It was filled with things of the 20's era including everything from stained glass, painted glass (like grandma's lamp), little dolls and bronze figurines, paintings, furniture. While some members of our group were wandering around saying how bored they were, I was upset I didn't have time to admire every little thing in there.

Lazarillo de Tormes

We only had about 40 minutes there until we walked up to look at the Cathedral.



We weren't going to go inside yet though. Matt and I were then pulled from the group and we had to follow two of the student helpers of Margaret's to a garden where we were to perform the act of La Celestina (a famous Spanish love story, much like our Romeo and Juliette) that we had been practicing for awhile. We were not expecting, however, the props they had given us. This entire skit was prepared in secrecy and the rest of the group had no idea what was going on. When they walked into the garden to see Matt in a flaming red hat with a feather sticking out and sword and myself in a purple curly wig, everyone was completely surprised. It was very cute and romantic and funny as well. Matt had actually memorized his lines, I on the other hand can not memorize things in English, yet alone old Spanish.

The garden

La Celestina

After the gardens we looked at another side of the same cathedral. Our tour guide (Franciso- the same one from Extremadura) pointed out some very interesting features that I would never have noticedon my own and I got to share some of my knowledge from History of Western Art I about symbolism. He also explained that in Salamanca, there is a belief that the frog is good luck and that if you see one, your wish will come true. It is a major symbol in the city and the gift shops went a little crazy with it.

Matt under Matthew the Evangelist


This architect had a sense of humor:

(if you couldn't find it, there's an astronaut hidden in the left column)

We moved on to the University of Salamanca which is very closely affiliated with the Cathedral. In fact, the students often even took their exams in the Cathedral. We stood in the court yard discussing the entrance of the university and how much symbolism and significance there was in all of the sculpture. We were then instructed to find the frog. Another major symbol of Salamanca is the frog on a skull. We finally found it on the wall; however, I'm still convinced that it's not a frog, rather a lump and it was an unfair game.

University of Salamanca

(can you find the froggy?)

Matt with Luis de Leon

We then headed to plaza mayor and we there ate our lunch and were given two hours of free time. We wandered around for awhile, but there were only so many gift shops we could go into to see the exact same things over and over again.

I don't remember what this one was, but it's a cool picture and taken some time between the University and Plaza Mayor...

Matt's artistic lunch

We finally wound up walking down to the river to a roman bridge that we had seen on the way in. The river was kind of dirty, but Alex had some fun on the bridge. We didn't have too much time left, so we headed back to Plaza Mayor and met up with the rest of our group. We bought some ice cream and went to the cathedral.

Roman Bridge


Alex scaling the bridge

The cathedral had two parts- new and old. Both were impressive, but the newer part was absolutely breathtaking. The older part was detereorating and wasn't as well preserved. The paintings were fascinating though and were from the middle ages. It was the first time I had ever seen paintings from the middle ages on a wall before in person and it was difficult for me to accept Francisco's facts. It was also interesting that there were tombs all along the floor of the cathedral. We weren't allowed to use flash, so I didn't take a lot of pictures but here's what I did manage to get:

It took skills to get this one:

A statue of a nun or a monk minus a head- I filled in.


Ceiling of the new cathedral


Matt and I in a courtyard

After the cathedral, we went to see the University. I was excited when I recognized one of the Aulas was named after Alfonso El Sabio, brought me back to high school. After, we slowly made our way to the hotel where we were able to check in and be reunited with our bags. Some of us napped, the boys played their newly purchased guitars and I just relaxed listening to the tunes. At 20.00 we had a meeting with the director where we had to take a test on La Celestina in order to get food moneys, we filled out housing evaluations and were free to go for the night. We were all starving and went straight out for food. Kate, Alex, Matt and I ended up at a chinese food place. Matt and I ordered from the date menu where we got a TON of food for 15e and Kate and Alex ordered a more excentric meal. Or at least Alex did. Frogs legs. I sampled a bit of kermit. I couldn't get over the image of our little friend, Lewis.


We found out that day that Lewis was lucky in more ways than one.
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel with full bellies. We got ready and went out to celebrate Alex's birthday. We had gotten a list of places that we had to go to from our friends that we met in Barcelona. We only made it to one before many of us called it a night. A few continued to party, but a lot of us headed back to the hotel.
We woke the next morning and had our complimentary breakfast and headed to the bus for Avila.

AVILA
Birth place of St. Teresea, Home of the first Gothic Cathedral in Spain and known for its Maralla (or defensive wall).
That's about it.
It was very pretty, but nothing too impressive.

The Cathedral- which they ran out of funds to build the second tower

Gorgeous architecture on the outside



We got to walk on the top of the wall-- and there was a band playing below

Cool shot

We all went out for a big lunch together and then headed back to the bus. When we got back to Madrid, we decided to walk home through the park. We stopped off at the bus station and bought our tickets for Semana Santa to Torrevieja (Thursday-Sunday). I also decided that I'm going to Amsterdam from Monday-Thursday. It shall be a busy week. After the bus station, we stopped off in the park and layed out for awhile. Matt serenaded me with his guitar and enamored some little kids nearby. We walked the rest of the way home and called it a day.