Day 7 - Salamanca to Madrid

Friday, November 15th

Salamanca to Madrid

Today was a fairly unplanned day. We slept late due to the time change, and headed to breakfast at the hotel around 9:00. That’s OK, because the sites we wanted didn’t open until 10:00, and we didn’t need to check out before noon. Breakfast was nice and they cooked eggs to order, so I had a yummy chorizo omelet.

We bundled up against the chill (it was about 30 degrees out), mostly sunny, but definitely cold. We wore our full parkas and slipped on our gloves as well. What’s this all about? We started off at the University and wandered through one of the buildings, Anaya Palace, for a look.





Then we decided to visit the cathedrals. There are both an old and a new cathedral in Salamanca, but they are both in the same spot. How is that? The new cathedral was built right next to the old one, pretty much sharing a common wall. This is the new cathedral, and the smaller old cathedral is hidden behind it.



So, you can visit the cathedrals for a fee, or TripAdvisor says you can visit the tower of the old cathedral for about half the price, and as you climb, you get views of the cathedral interiors. That sounds better to us, of course, so we skipped the crowd at the cathedral entrance and went around to the back, where the tower climb had just opened up. We were the first ones in, and off we went.

Here we got a peek inside the old cathedral.  This was a great tower climb! You got lots of information about the history of the buildings as you went, lots of side trips along the way to rest up, and indeed we had views of both interiors along the way.














In addition, you could walk around on the roofs of both cathedrals and get views of the city.






The interior of the new cathedral. And a remnant from an earthquake! Not one from here, though.







This crack was caused by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755! Are you kidding me? That was a powerful quake. Lisbon is far from here - we know, because we've actually driven the whole way!













The building just to the right of the tower is Anaya Palace, the University building we were in first thing this morning.

More city views. Despite the cold, we were relatively warm in the bright sunshine, as long as it didn't get too windy.



Finally we went as high up as we could go, into the bell tower. Nice views, and gorgeous sunshine for photo taking. And total solitude; we were the only ones here!





But watch it; as we were standing at one of the windows, the bell right over our heads decided to chime the 10:45 hour. It scared the pants off of us! We both jumped like crazy.

In this direction, there is a Roman bridge. We wouldn't have time to go there today.




The roof of the new cathedral in the right-hand foreground of this picture. The Iglesia de la Clerecía, just left of center.

There is a red light - green light to ascend and descend from the bell tower, because it is a very narrow spiral staircase. Chris is urging me to stop playing around taking pictures, because the light is green. There's more to see here, and not much time!

Back down and now it was time to visit a few more buildings in the University. It is a neat old place, with plenty of courtyards and facades to see. We peeked into the courtyard where he famous zodiac ceiling was, and managed to even find the right room. No pictures here, though.





We saw the famous door façade where you are supposed to find the frog, but couldn’t find it. And we didn't want to stay there too long looking.





The University recently celebrated its 800th anniversary in 2018. Amazing to think of how much has changed since 1218!







That concluded our brief stop in Salamanca, but we’d enjoyed it very much.

One last shot of a church tower, and that amazing blue sky, before we headed back to the hotel and finished packing.









We checked out and were on the road around 11:40. Love the bulls along the highways in Spain! It was a fairly straightforward drive to Madrid.



You do have to go over some mountains along the way. It was wild to see snow on the ground right next to the highway. The temp again got as low as 3C and I was really glad that we had stopped in Salamanca. I bet it would have been really ugly driving through here last night.



I had no trouble finding a gas station about 15k out of town. We entered the city and it got a little interesting, when we got into a very long underground tunnel, and the phone lost the GPS signal. When it stopped tracking my position, my exit disappeared. Luckily I knew that I wanted a certain train station, and I was able to find the correct exit which was labeled with that train station.

We found the entrance to the parking lot where the rental car returns were, but ended up in the wrong section. We pulled up just next to Hertz but they said to come back out and go around to anther gate. Just made it!

Now a moment of worry, when the agent asked about the scratches on both sides of the car, compared to the report which only showed one side. Thankfully, Chris had taken those pictures! So all was well there, and they brought us to the train station with their shuttle bus.

It took a few minutes to find the stop for the Cercanias, and then a real cluster to get the transport ticket we wanted. I was looking for a tourist ticket which worked on both the trains and the metro, and would also work for the airport. Turned out that the Cercania station machines wouldn’t sell that ticket, so I had to leave Chris with the bags, run next door to the Metro station, and use their machines. Easy enough but a pain to figure out.

One stop on the train, then a brief slog (uphill) to our hotel, and we were checked in quickly; Chris had already done most of the check-in using the app while we were driving in. They told us several times that breakfast was included with our stay, which seemed different from what I remembered, but they seemed quite definite so we believed them.


Soon we were in the room, and it was really nice! But our time here was pretty limited, so it was time to start exploring.

Just down from our hotel, a large department store had a cute Christmas display.




But the first order of business was lunch – it was after 3:00, and we were hungry! We went to a deli-type shop and looked at all of the meat and cheese.

That did it! We grabbed seats at their counter. First we had a plate of ham, then some cheese and sausage, along with wine, for about €15. It was plenty for what we needed.





Now in the afternoon light, we went back to Puerta del Sol and spent an hour or so doing a Rick Steves walk through part of the city.





Carlos III, here on horseback, in Puerta del Sol. The bear scratching the tree is an emblem of the city.







The former main post office of Madrid, below.

Tio Pepe, of course.

The spot from which all distances in Spain are measured. Km 0.







Side street (Calle de Postas) with beautiful architecture, and outdoor dining.








Plaza Mayor.

San Miguel Mercado. This looks like a fun place!

So much jamon!

And a wine bar. Hm. Should we stay put?

We kept going, and stopped at City Hall.








Nearby was the oldest door in Madrid - a wooden door in a Moorish archway, dating back to the 1400s.










The Church of the Armed Forces



As the last rays of the sun slipped below the horizon, we arrived at the Catedral de la Almudena.







And the Palacio Royal.









This looks nice; we should visit tomorrow!
















We got lucky, and ended up catching the last rays of sunlight on the Royal Palace.








Back through Plaza de Oriente, to see the statue of Felipe IV.

Then a slow wander through the pedestrian-only Calle del Arenal, back to the hotel for a recharge.

We lounged about, rested our feet and thought about some dinner plans but decided we'd play it by ear, and grab some tapas along the way.

We finished the cheap white wine from Portugal that we’d started last night and got ready to crawl.




We took the Metro to La Latina and wandered Calle de la Cava Baja, stopping in at two tapas bars for a nibble here and there. It was OK but maybe we were still full from lunch, as we didn’t eat a lot.




After a bit we decided to retreat back to the San Miguel Mercado, where it was really crowded, but that was a good thing. It means that the food was good too! We enjoyed some more wine and a few skewers which hit the spot, and finally some desserts. And more wine.

We headed back to the hotel about 10:00, when everyone else was just getting warmed up. That's OK, we still slept well. Tomorrow, we have to tour Madrid in a day, but the good news is, I’m not driving!

And, the Portuguese system is slowly but surely processing the electronic tolls as expected. If things keep up, the last €10 which I bought should cover the rest. Let’s hope!