Salamanca

Most of today was spent riding the bus between Santiago and Salamanca. The bus stations are convenient and efficient. To figure out how to get places, I would Google the departure and destinations cities, find which bus companies served them, then access the timetables and costs. Then when we arrived at the station, I could buy the tickets and knew what time the bus would leave.

And Spanish highways are at least as modern (or more so) than the ones in the US.

Salamanca Sept 22

First to wrap up our stay in Santiago. After posting yesterday's blog in the early afternoon, we walked down towards the cathedral. Who should we run across but the Austrians, Chris and Gerhard. We agreed to meet them later for a drink. I wanted to get a last look at the inside of the cathedral and walked in on a Mass just as they were preparing to swing the botafumeiro. For those who have not heard of it, the botafumeiro is a large silver incense burner, at least 100 lbs. or more. They loaded it with hot coals, hoisted it up, and started swinging it in a large arc at least 100 yards end to end. It was glowing red from the fire and puffing incense all over. Quite a sight. I made a short video.

After letting Marge's knee rest up the rest of the afternoon, we met up wiith Chris and Gerhard. I had pimentos de Padrón again, probably for the time as we will leave Galicia soon. I also downloaded some travel guides for Salamanca, Toledo, and Madrid as we will need some tourist info for the next week.

Wednesday morning. Up at 6:30 to get ready, stop at a bar on the way to the bus station for cafè con leche y tostada, then wait for the bus. I am writing this for later posting as we are now riding on the bus for the 6 hour trip to Salamanca, which is northwest of Madrid, and fairly close to the Portuguese border.

Today is overcast. Tomorrow and Friday rain shorts are predicted by much is Spain, including Salamanca.

Later: 5 pm
We made it into Salamanca and found a pension on the edge of the old town. Kind of late today for sightseeing but we will have all day tomorrow.