A Round Trip of Inland Spain, Part 1

2nd February, 2000 - Cáceres to Salamanca

Eventually, mid afternoon, we saw the magnificent view of Salamanca in the distance.  We managed to get close to the Plaza Mayor and, despite our previous Hostal experience, checked into the Hostal Orly close to the Plaza.  Somewhat nervously, we parked directly opposite on yellow zigzag lines, our host  assured us were reserved for him. 

As we still had a couple of hours of daylight, we decided to see as much of Salamanca as we could before dinner.  The main square is large and impressive and surrounded by a beautiful continuous building, of which the town hall shown right, is its focus.

All of Salamanca is built of a warm coloured sand stone and, in the evening light had a magical quality.  We walked round the square, which has colonnades on all four sides, looking for a suitable restaurant.  In doing so, we found the internet cafe in which we later dealt with our e-mails.  We realised from old photos in the restaurant we later dined in that the square had not always been paved as it now is, but previously had formal gardens.  Before that, our guide book tells us, it was used for bull fights. 

From the Plaza Mayor we made off to see the historic part of the town, stopping first to admire the Library with its walls decorated with carved scallop shells shown above far right with the Papal University . The Catedral Nueva is shown below left with its "Gothic-Plateresque" facade, shown below centre.  Many of the cathedrals in Spain display notices prohibiting photography, but in this one we noticed the locals blatantly ignoring it and so we discretely videoed a little, one shot of which is shown below right.

Close to the Cathedral is the University, for which the place is justly famous.  Its facade, shown right, is claimed to be the ultimate expression of the Plateresque style, which is rumoured to include the carving of a frog, the unaided discovery of which is said to bring good luck and marriage.  Despite staring for some time, we didn't see it, but perhaps that's because we were already married and obviously lucky.  We debated whether to spend the 300 Ptas each to go in and were glad we made the right decision.

It was a moving experience to go into the lecture theatres, some of which had witnessed historically important events such as the Sala de Fray Luís de León, shown right.  Fray Luís had been dragged away in 1573 from this room by the Inquisition.  A feature in the Old University are fossils of tortoises and turtles, many found in the immediate area.  The Chapel is shown below left, the Library, centre and the nearby Quadrangle, below right.

We walked to the Rio Tormes, hoping to cross the Roman bridge to see the famous view of Salamanca, only to find yet again building work had closed it.  Close to the bridge we discovered the Art Deco facade to the Museum of Modern Art.  We returned to our Hostal where the host, true to his word, lent us a hair drier and, after overdue showers, we dined in a restaurant just off the Plaza Mayor that was crowded with students who, to their shame, smoked far too much.

3rd February, 2000

After a quiet and comfortable night that restored our faith in Hostals, we set off in search of our breakfast, convinced that, in a city full of American students, bacon and egg - or at least ham and egg - must be on offer.  Needless to say, we didn't find it before hunger forced us to accept an indifferent coffee and oil-cooked pastry sticks.   We returned to the University area, but it was cold and misty and the excitement and romance of the previous evening was not there, so we decided in stead to move on and returned to check out of the Hostal.  Our departure was marred by the fact that the single lift was broken and we had to make our way up six floors and struggle back with our clobber.  We left, stopping only at the far end of the Roman bridge to get the missing picture, shown above right.

We had intended to start our return to camp after Salamanca but, reading our guide books, we learnt that we should not miss out on the area to the west.  We set off down the C512 minor road to La Alberca.  The road was surprisingly good but carried very little traffic.  The terrain here was reasonably flat and hospitable and we saw plenty of cattle and pigs.  One thing that surprised us was to see long, thin granite stones being used as fencing posts.  Clearly the scarcity of wood justified the labour that must have been involved in preparing these.  As we approached the Sierra de la Peña de Francia, the terrain became more mountainous and less hospitable and the ground changed from rocky to bolder-strewn. 

We soon arrived at La Alberca, which is a very old village in the foothills that time has passed by.  Because it had survived virtually intact, it is now a national monument and work was going on everywhere to bring it up to scratch for the coming season.

The Plaza Mayor is shown above, where to our surprise we found the remnants of packed snow.  The Church, shown below, had an interesting statue of a pig outside it and was quite ornate inside.

We are used to seeing tomb-stones in the floors of Churches, but here we were surprised by the fact that every flag-stone of the Church floor was numbered, starting from the altar rail, something we had never seen before.

La Alberca is at the foot of the winding El Portillo pass that heads south to Extremadura.  At first, we thought this might have some connection with our famous second generation ex pat, but we realised that there are other El Portillos on the map and we assume it refers to a minor port, or pass.  We had also seen the name Portillo in an electrical shop in Palomares and a ceramic factory near Mérida.  The name was in our minds because Mr. Portillo had been on the radio recently, talking about the Civil War and, before we left, we had watched with interest his TV programme about his roots in Spain. 

Close to, and overlooking, La Alberca from a high peak is the Monasterio Peña de Francia, which we were tempted to visit.  As its access is by a long, narrow, winding road, we decided to leave it for another day. 

La Alberca was fascinating and well worth the visit.  We left on a narrow minor road and came across the ruin, shown right, just before the village of El Maíllo, whose white-walled cemetery is shown far right.

Just before lunch, we arrived at Ciudad Rodrigo, one of the two strategic border towns that the English had captured in the Napoleonic wars.  We made straight for the old town, which is well preserved, and found the Plaza Mayor, below left, where we had our lunch.  Below centre is the Cathedral, which took a battering from the Duke of Wellington in 1812.  Below right is the damage left by one of his cannon balls on the Cathedral.

Far left are shown cannons on the massive defensive walls and centre is the old Roman bridge that leads across the Rio Águeda towards Portugal.  After an exciting day, we returned past Salamanca and headed on to Avila.

Last updated:  18/03/01