Time for a little catch-up. Anne has already given an overview in her last post, so I’ll try and keep this post brief.
First, a few thoughts on Salamanca. In a country of ornate cities, Salamanca has to rate near the top. Everything is big and ornately decorated. We mistook one of the University buildings for the cathedral before we got our bearings. The University buildings are big and ornate, the two conjoined cathedrals are big and ornate, the city’s Plaza Mayor (main city square) is one of the largest in Spain and surrounded by impressive buildings. As Anne said, we got to observe two weddings in the cathedrals. They don’t close it to tourists as they’re so big, it really doesn’t impact them. The two cathedrals share a common wall and the bell tower and I must admit, I found the older medieval cathedral to be more appealing in its restraint. The highlight for me, however, was the climb of the bell tower (I’ll climb any that are available)! You start by the old cathedral, climb to an outside metal gallery that takes you over the roof into a gallery across the inside of the new cathedral, up another level and back across an outside gallery across the front façade back to the bell tower (finally) and up to the top. Definitely worth the price of admission!
Our next stop was Avila which impressed me more than Salamanca. Less flamboyant and more impressive in its purposefulness, it has some of the finest medieval city walls in Europe. They’re 12 metres high, 3 metres thick, have 81 towers and run for 2 ½ km’s around the city. You think you’re approaching a movie set as you see them from a distance. When the cathedral was built, they incorporated it into the walls making it the strongest part and the headquarters for defense of the city. The cathedral was impressive in its own right being less ornate than Burgos or Salamanca, but striking in its use of the ‘bloodstone’ granite and a more open, warm feeling. Of course, I took the opportunity to walk the walls and get a different view of the city. I include a picture of the Basilica of San Vicente lying outside the walls. Spain has more saints and martyrs than you can count and Avila has more than its fair share. This Basilica is built where San Vicente and his two sisters were executed by the Romans. I find it fascinating how the Spanish love to decorate their religious buildings with the most graphic representations of Christian suffering. This is no exception.
Finally, an observation in a different vein. While visiting Avila, we actually stayed in a beautifully maintained traditional house in the middle of the little village of San Bartolome de Pinares about 23 km’s from Avila. The road out there through rocky, mountainous terrain made Queen Charlotte Drive look like a highway, and to say it was in the wop-wops would be an understatement. Yet, they had a 5 bar cell signal and great high-speed internet. Maybe we need Spanish telecom to come to Anakiwa and sort things out! Adios for now.
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