A weekend walking adventure…

As there are no classes on Fridays, my weekends start with Thursday night : ) Last Thursday evening my walking adventuring started with a night time tour of the city given by my Brazilian friend from church. He knows a lot about the city and took me to a lot of really amazing and wonderful places, and all the photos I attempted to take didn’t turn out well. So, I promise to return to these places during the day for pictures. We went to a garden, which has an amazing view of the Cathedral, saw the old Roman wall, climbed an old tower (I forget the name), and visited the Cave of Salamanca; mentioned by Cervantes in El Quijote.  It was a nice nighttime walk and a good start to my weekend.

  Friday, most of my group decided to climb the Cathedral tower. The view is amazing of Salamanca, the churches architecture, and the snowcapped mountains in the distance.  After walking around the Cathedral a lot, climbing a lot of stairs, and then walking around the city, my legs were sufficiently tired. But Friday was far from the end of my weekend.

  Saturday I went to Toledo with my group. Something I did not realize before about Toledo….it’s one big hill. We walked up the hill from its Arabic style doors to the walled city to the Plaza Mayor and the Alcazar (fortified palace). From there we walked down the other side of the hill to go to the Cathedral. After walked around this MASSIVE Cathedral for a few ours, looking at some paintings, the altar, the chorus, and architecture in general, we walked back up the hill. With 2 hours of free time for lunch and shopping, I walked up and down this hill a few more times before meeting in the Plaza with the group, to walk back down the hill, pass by El Greco’s house, visit a synagogue, stop at another church with a famous painting by El Greco, see a convent, and walk over a bridge and to the bus. I think the best part of Toledo is the view of the city from the hill on the other side of the river (and I promise that’s not because I was sitting down when I saw it).

  Sunday was our day in Madrid. It started with the Reina Sofia. We saw Picasso’s “Guernica” and a few of Salvador Dali’s paintings. Then was a walk to Madrid Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, and Palacio Real. We had a two hour lunch break, during which I did nothing overly exciting; then El Prado for paintings by Goya and Velázquez. So after a very long day of walking around and standing in museums, we returned home to Salamanca.

                                                                            It's good to be home...