Our new (leased) car filled with random stuff, we started our journey through western Spain, Portugal, and back up towards Paris (by the first part of December).We had a couple of hours in Avila in which to explore the town, home to St. Theresa. It was a stunning town, completely contained within massive defensive walls. Our experience in a couple of restaurants was diminished by mediocre food and a huge amount of cigarette smoke. We could not find one restaurant that did not allow smoking! Bleh. However, we had a fabulous chilly walk through the pretty streets...
Avila's 1,000 year old defensive walls.
On the walls!
Eating a little candy head :-)
Monument to St. Theresa, who was from Avila.
Avila at night
A Romanesque Avila church
Outside the church
Salamanca
A one hour drive brought us to the college town of Salamanca, which the girls happily called Silly-manca, and we arrived with time to walk into town and get dinner (but we forgot that we were in Spain, and nothing is actually open for dinner until 8:30 so we ended up, once again, eating tapas at 6:00 and going to bed a little hungry… not such a bad thing for our expanding girth.) In Salamanca we walked through a stunning church (which we almost skipped since I didn't notice the door... but Sven did), stumbled into an exhibit on clocks which was lovely, hung out in the central square (tapas) to watch the students in the school of sciences in their elaborate costumes celebrate something or other.
A one hour drive brought us to the college town of Salamanca, which the girls happily called Silly-manca, and we arrived with time to walk into town and get dinner (but we forgot that we were in Spain, and nothing is actually open for dinner until 8:30 so we ended up, once again, eating tapas at 6:00 and going to bed a little hungry… not such a bad thing for our expanding girth.) In Salamanca we walked through a stunning church (which we almost skipped since I didn't notice the door... but Sven did), stumbled into an exhibit on clocks which was lovely, hung out in the central square (tapas) to watch the students in the school of sciences in their elaborate costumes celebrate something or other.
The Cathedral Nueva
Details around the portal of the church.
Sculpture on the school building facing the church.
The cathedral
Salamanca students have a superstition about frogs- that they are good luck on exams. Eilidh loves them!
One of those wonderful, little-noticed treasures- the things that cities do with their sewer drain covers!
Creepy clock- the eyes moved back and forth to the tick-tock.
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