Our Departure Visit to Spain - Salamanca
 
 
In late afternoon we crossed into Spain via Ciudad-Rodrigo and proceeded to Salamanca. Salamanca is noted for its historic university and its two famous cathedrals. We stayed overnight and toured the city on the following morning.

 
I (Rick) had a tough time pronouncing "Salamanca." Instead, I kept accidently calling this wonderful Spanish city "Sala-MONICA". Couldn't help myself. That's because we travelled during the time when Kenneth Starr's report on President Clinton had been a top news story throughout the world. Clinton's involvement with Monica Lewinsky was constant TV fare. Everything was "Monica, Monica"--and "Salamanca" easily became "Salimonica." I suppose it was just a Freudian thing.

Our hotel, Gran Hotel Salamanca, stood just beside the Plaza Major. The plaza is a huge square constructed in 1729. On the evening of our arrival, there must have been a couple thousand people enjoying sidewalk cafes and open-air dining in the plaza. The area is shown on the right in the next day's early morning sun.

sp527s.jpg
 
After we got settled in our hotel, Dot stayed in the room, but I went to the plaza where I met some students who directed me to a Cyber cafe. That evening on the internet I learned Notre Dame had LOST to Michigan State after an initial victory over Michigan. Ouch! (I live and die for Notre Dame football--and even place a little "Fighting Irish" leprechaun in front of my house on game days.) But it's tough keeping up with American college football scores while traveling in Europe--the newspapers and CNN generally don't report them.

The next morning we had a tour of Salamanca. It's a very interesting place. The city hosts a university that is widely acknowledged to be the 3rd oldest in Europe. Columbus consulted its faculty to gain support for his entreaties to Queen Isabella. The celestial theories of Copernicus and Galileo were being pursued there when such thinking was suppressed as heresy elsewhere by the Catholic Church. As a consequence, the university has a long-standing reputation for academic freedom. Additionally, the Spanish conquistador, Hernando Cortez, was a student at the University of Salamanca.

Many of the University buildings were emblazoned with intricate heraldry and elaborate carvings. An old lecture hall had been preserved as it was centuries ago. There we observed some initials and markings carved in the rough desks--but none that we could recognize as Cortez's. Still it was fun to search!

 
Salamanca has an "old" (Romanesque) and a "new" (Gothic) cathedral. The old cathedral dates back to the 12th century.

The facade of one of the cathedrals recently had been refurbished. It's customary for the craftsman who does such a restoration to add something of his own to the work. For this reason, among the usual religious figures, there is also a whimsical representation of--AN ASTRONAUT!

 

Continue to the next page.