To get to Salamanca, we had to leave extremely early in the morning (at least for us) at 7:30 because Salamanca was farther away than the other places we visited. When we arrived, we met our guide at a bridge below the walls of the city. The guide (guía), Carmen, took us to the Cathredal first, which was actually two cathredals, a newer one and an older one. The citizens of the city had thought that the older cathedral was ugly and so decided to build a new one. They continued using the older one while the newer one was being built (which took many years), however once the newer one was finished, they decided to keep them both.
In the older Cathredal (below), which is from the Romanesque and gothic architectural period, we saw the paintings behind the alter, which were really stunning. After that, we headed to the capillas (chapels) that were to the right of the alter.
One of the capillas was formerly used by the university for graduating students, who would spend the night in the chapel before their final exam and then take the final exam in the chapel, surrounded by professors.
(Dra. Pertusa is sitting where graduating students would have sat.)
We saw one more capilla, this one for a duke who lived in Salamanca, and then headed to the newer Cathredal. While the older one was darker and had fewer windows, the newer one, created in the gothic and baroque style, was tall and very bright. Everything was extremely beautiful. My favorite part was the dome (below).
After discussing more of the history between the two chapels, we headed outside to another entrance to the newer chapel. Because of an earthquake in the past years, much of the sculptures and decorations on the outside of the church were destroyed. The city repaired some of the decoration but made of few changes while they were doing so. In the picture below, you can spot both an astronaut and the devil with an ice cream cone.
We then headed to the University of Salamanca, the oldest university in Europe. The facade was created in the plataresco style. The entrance to the older part of the university is stunning, full of sculpture and designs.
If you look hard enough, you can find a frog sitting on a scull. Finding this is said to bring you good luck in your studies. In the picture below, it is on the first scull on the column. It is tiny, but it is possible to find it.
We headed into the university and got to see the oldest classroom of the building. Most of the wooded seats had decayed or weathered and none of them looked comfy. The room was also incredibly dark and I don't believe many people would have been able to stay awake in there. We then headed to the capilla of the university, which was extremely pretty.
After that we headed to the library. Because of the fragility of the books, only caretakers are allowed to enter because the water vapor released by people breathing could greatly injure the books. Therefore, there is a glass box in which you can stand to view the library.
After that, we walked down the street to the plaza mayor de Salamanca. One the way, we say the palace of the duke who had a chapel in the older cathedral, which had adopted lots of Arabic style decorations. We then continued to the Plaza Mayor, which all of us really liked even though there was no cover from the sun. Images of heroes and famous writers along with other important historical figures were placed all around the plaza, which I though was cool.
We then divided and some people went shopping while others went to historical locations in the town. We went shopping and I actually found earbuds (the iPhone ones) for about six euros. We also found a cute little candy shop with gormet candy. After shopping a little more, we met up with the group and headed to Ávila. Ávila is surrounded by murallas (walls) left behind by the Romans.
We didn't have long in this city but we made sure to try their specialty, yemas. Yemas area basically sugar and egg and I compared the taste to fondont, the stuff used to decorate cakes. They weren't bad but they weren't something I would buy again because they were extremely sweet.
After that, we headed back to Segovia but not before stopping on the hill a little way out to take a better picture of the walls.
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