The day and a half we spent exploring Salamanca confirms: Salamanca is in a class of its own. The city is pleasantly busy, but not overcrowded with hordes of tourists. There are SO many beautiful old buildings, but it doesn't feel like an open-air museum. In the centre and towards the suburbs there are many shops, but we hardly saw any big chains. If you just walk through the centre, you already see so much beauty. The authentic streets, the Plaza Mayor, the churches and no less than two cathedrals and nice little parks and squares everywhere. But what we like best is to peek around a corner to see what we find just outside the centre. That's how we ended up at Cueva de Salamanca. A crypt under a church that is no longer there, where devils and demons were worshipped and dark knowledge was passed on. Unfortunately, the tower from which you would have a nice view was closed, but it's a separate piece of Spanish history. Almost directly opposite the crypt, we walked into the Salamanca Sedes Antiqua Castrorum. This is where several city walls converge and even the oldest, built under the leadership of Hannibal (yes, that general with the elephants), is still here. We spent almost an hour talking to the friendly lady at the museum about the history of Salamanca, Spain and our trip along the Via de la Plata.
By now, we are starting to get a pretty good idea of the history of the Iberian Peninsula through our trip northwards. And the nice thing is, places like this you can just walk into for free! And on terraces, even in popular places, you pay at most €1.50 for a cup of coffee, which is nice for coffee lovers like us. The big building decorated with the shells, turns out to be a library. And even though we don't understand Spanish, let alone read, it is a gem and well worth taking a quick look in the courtyard. The old card indexes with the books in alphabetical order, are still just there. There is something magical about the quiet when you walk inside, right in the middle of the busy city centre.
For us, Salamanca is the highlight of the Spanish cities in our trip so far. We would have liked to stay there a bit longer, but the north is calling, so this morning we packed our things anyway. We can take it super easy. It's a long stage to El Cubo de Tierra del Vino, but we'll smuggle 5 kilometers off of it, by camping just above Salamanca tonight, leaving some 31 kilometers for tomorrow. And this also allows us to head into town again this morning. At noon, we collect our stuff from our Star Wars-themed flat, eat a sandwich and then walk the five kilometers out of town. It's a long straight road past shops and businesses, past parks, flats and town houses until we cross a roundabout and are immediately back among the meadows. The route runs along a busy road, which we follow until we reach a motorway. We turn left and walk the last stretch to the campsite. Again, it's nice and quiet to spend the afternoon by our teepee, and it's great that we were able to make 31 kilometers out of 36 this way.