Goodness, it's been a very long time since I've been in a European city, and I had forgotten how stunning old towns are. For Australians, it's even more incredible - we obviously don't have anything that old and our cities are structured differently. We had left the car at a camping park a short bus ride out of the city and took the bus into town.
We loved the narrow streets - most of our favourite vistas are down such narrow lanes. Our Land Rover is narrow enough to make it. We imagined a car chase through here, a la Indian Jones, but instead of a yellow fiat, a grey Land Rover..
They don't make buildings like they used to. Many of the buildings were part of the university. As I'm on the road and it's hard to detail the facts of a place, here's a Wiki except:
Founded in 1218 by King Alfonso IX, the University of Salamanca was Spain's first institution of higher learning. By 1254 it had received acknowledgment from Pope Alexander IV as being one of the four great world universities, along with the universities of Oxford, Paris and Bologna.
The huge medieval cathedral is visible from outside the old town of course, as many cathedrals and castles are. It is still in use for service, so there was not only tourists but people there undertaking their religious devotions. Even if one isn't religious, it's hard to be unmoved by such architecture. Of course whole cities were constructed around the building of such places. The workmanship beggars belief.
We did a bit of window shopping of course. There was the usual combination of tourist shops, mainstream fashion, and more quaint shops such as an amazing knife shop where I saw an opinel knife with the handle painted with mushrooms. Too expensive for me at 80 EUROS.
The food was the usual tapas and 10 euro plates of meat and chips but I was reluctant to spend so much money on which was essential tourist food. Jamie had this dream of sitting and crowd watching eating good Spanish food and drinking wine. That was a pipedream that clashed with my miserly practicality so we ended up having a big argument. Eventually we worked out he was hypoglycemic and I resigned myself yet again to be in charge of my husband's snacks. Sigh.
We did get to go to a market though so bought a few supplies. Of course any good Spanish market will have a ton of different saffron to make paella, which I'm regretting not buying as I fancy making a paella tonight!
After we settled our differences we headed back to camp to do some washing.
I also got a chance to hang my fairy lights which is of course essential in any camper.
As I write we are headed down past Seville, trying to put some miles behind us to get closer to Alqueciras and the ferry to Morocco. We are going through the fuel but that's to be expected in a car of this age!
It's not too bad Hiving as we drive, but I expect it won't always be possible. If you are enjoying my travels please drop a comment so I feel like it's worth it! Much love to you all. Still a few hours on the road today so after lunch I'll try to catch up with some of you.
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