Salamanca Sept 23

The view from the Roman bridge of the cathedral.

Salamanca is on the Via de la Plata camino route, so there are waymarks through the city.

The new astronaut in the restoration outside the cathedral doors.

Can you find the astronaut in this distance shot?

Since we did not need to do any travelling today, we were able to sleep in until 8 am. Then a walk down to the river and the Roman bridge. Salamaca is on the ancient Roman road that they used to transfer the silver from the Galician mines back to Rome, hence the bridge. This is also one of the camino routes to Santiago, still being used by pilgrims today and known as the Via de la Plata ( the silver way or road). This camino starts in Sevilla, and if I remember correctly is about 1200 km long. I did find the waymarks (yellow arrows and scallop shells) between the puente romana and the cathedral.

Next was the visit to the cathedral which is actually two cathedrals joined together. The old cathedral is an early Romanesque style and the new cathedral is a mix of Gothic, Baroque, and Renaissance styles. An interesting sidelights is the carvings outside one of the entrances. When they were restored a few years ago, one of then was replaced with an astronaut. Why not?

We had a mid day meal close to the Plaza Mayor, one of the largest town squares in Spain. Our first course was a very good paella mixta with several kinds of shellfish. I had a grilled fish and Marge had a chicken breast cooked in carmelized orange for the second plate.

Marge decided to return to Sacramento early since her knee is still very painful and not getting much better. We made the arrangements this afternoon. We will travel to Madrid by bus tomorrow (Friday) and she will fly to Sacramento on Saturday morning. I will stay in Madrid, probably taking day trips to Avila and Toledo.