Our good luck with the weather continued, and we just kinda strolled through the streets.
There are, of course, ancient buildings and churches all o'er the place.
Back to the Plaza Mayor to get our bearings and head out again.
And tonnes of groups of French students.
This is one of the main university buildings in the downtown area. They're all over the place and teeming with students.
This is the main cathedral in town. It's massive, and although they make you pay to get in, it's totally worth it.
It's very stone-y, cold, and church-y on the inside.
This is some old painting from the original 12th century church or something like that. It tells all sorts of interesting stories and zzzZzzzz....
Next, you can climb up to the top of the church, and explore the various levels. VERY cool.
Looking down on one of the local museums
Looking down at the puny people slumming down in the church below muahahahahahah!
Looking back towards downtown and the Plaza Mayor (it's there somewhere).
There is not a single church or other tall thing in this part of the country that is not overrun with storks this time of year.
Even this lonely guy here was hoping to get some action.
The surrounding countryside is actually quite pleasant.
Flying Buttresses? Awright!!!
Awesome shot of stairs, girl, and mirror.
Wandering down by the waterfront (water == not very large river).
This is an "ancient roman bridge". I think at least the foundations are still Roman. Most of the rest has been rebuildeded a few times ...
It's very bridgey.
There are shells on this building, appropriately named La Casa de las Conchas. It was founded by knights and is important to see when you're a tourist or something.
Heading towards La Sierra de la Francia after Salamanca, the scenery turned extremely cool.
From far away, we saw that hill with something on top of it, so decided to check it out.
You pretty much spiral all the way around the mountain a couple of times to get to the top, some 1700m (5700') up.
W000T!! Signage!
There's just an old monastery here, a hotel, a cafe, and ...
A VOR (radio navigation aid for aviation). Apparently, one way to pay for a place like this is lease the land to the gov't.
This is probably a very cool place to spend the night in the summer. Right now, the nighttime temps are probably well below zero.
The views of the countryside out here are worth the trip alone.
Snow!
The coolest thing? We're above the clouds here.
This is a huge sundial thing, that was dead on with the time.
The inside of the church is both spooky quiet and freezing cold. Brrr.
That's a mighty fine looking VHF Onmidirectional Rangefinder station y'got there gentlemen!
Heading back down the hill, looking up.
We call this the Jesus fountain. Except it's not Jesus, it's like Mary or something. Still, pious AND thirst-quenching. MmmM.
The pre-spring trees are very cool.
Next stop, the small town of Alberca, known for it's cool wood/mud/stone houses. And its nougat. That stuff is grub. And cured ham.
MMMmmmmMmm ... cured ham.
It was getting late in the day, so the shadows were getting somewhat long.
We stopped off for a café con leche, my new favouritest drink evar.
Old Church.
There was this weird group of younger international people (dutch, spanish, american, and british, at least) that we kept running into in various places. They were all dressed up in suits and ties and swanky dresses, but didn't appear to be doing anything other than sightseeing.
We kept driving through the mountains until we kinda didn't feel like it any more, and then ended up in the small town of Villanueva del Condé, where we found the one hotel in town. It was cheap, quiet, and the food was good.
It's a pretty quiet town, and the locals aren't quite sure why anybody would come to visit.
Bars in Spain all kind of look the same -- now just imagine the overpowering smoke of a zillion cigarettes, and you're there.
Off to bed for us.