The Day that Wasn't a Day Trip

Monday, May 22, 2017--Salamanca, Spain

Originally, we had planned today to be a day trip to Avila.  I knew that Salamanca would be a nice place to visit for a couple of days, but I planned for us to be here for an extra day to make that trip.  But there were three problems:

1.  We were tired from the pace we have been keeping, and a day trip would have meant leaving early and coming back rather late.
2.  The schedules for going there/coming back were not ideal.  The best one would have been to take a 9:30 train this morning and returning on a 15:15 train this afternoon, because it would have given us about 3 hours in the city before everything closed at 14:00.  That would have caused us to have to set an alarm and push ourselves to get to the station in time.  But any of the schedules later would have meant being there during that 2-hour closing period with nothing much to do with very little time on either side of it to do anything.
3.  The main attraction to see there other than two churches (and we are about churched-out for the moment) are the wonderful city walls. 

So the question became, is it worth the effort and the cost (about 35 Euros for the both of us together combined with little rest for bodies that are already tired) just to see a good set of city walls.  Wes was willing to go, but I decided against it.

Instead, we slept late and took our time getting ready here.  We didn't leave the room until noon.  Then we went to see some sights we still had not seen here in Salamanca.  We started with the Museo de Commercio which is built inside an old water cistern had interesting exhibits about the history of radio and about the history of business growth in Salamanca.  From there, we went to see the Mercado Central.  There, we bought a local specialty, hornazo, which is a pastry filled with pork loin, spicy chorizo, and other ingredients.  We walked further to see more of the old city walls (including climbing up one of the towers for a view of the city and area) and the La Cueva de Salamanca.  Then we went back to the Cathedral because Wes wanted to find the astronaut carving, a carving made during recent restoration work as a signature by the sculptor--sort of a way to sign his work.

We returned to the room around 15:00 and have been resting.  Tonight, we will have some early snacks here in the room, then we will go back out for a piano recital at a small theater that is part of the university campus.