Grand Tour Part IV: Astronaut

View from the hostel window

From Gijón, we started our journey south towards Sevilla, stopping for a day in Salamanca. 

Salamanca, for those who don't know it, is famous for two things in particular: Being home to not one, but two cathedrals (normally a city is only allowed to have one cathedral), and being the number one destination for study abroad students. Between that and having a charming, sepia-colored old town, it has a healthy tourist population. 

Our hostel was actually right in the center of the old town, within shouting distance of the cathedrals and after putting together our beds and having another picnic lunch of ham sandwiches we went to go check them out. 

Since the cathedral(s) is(are) in the center of the old town, it's actually really difficult to get a photo that shows what the thing looks like as a whole, and not just artsy bits and pieces, so above is a picture of the scale model to give you a better idea of what it looks like. The new cathedral, which was completed in the 1700s is in the late Gothic/early Renaissance style and is deceptively big, hidden as it is between buildings and narrow pedestrian streets. The two cathedrals are built essentially one on top of the other, so that the old one is not so much a separate entity, but more like a parasitic twin. (photo of the old cathedral)

The details on the outside of the new cathedral are very impressive, having been redone within the last ten years (around 2007, I think) and make me wonder how long all that detail lasts, since on other churches, the artwork often seems rough. This could be due to modern tools, but I bet time and the elements play a part as well. The artist even showed some humor and added in an astronaut alongside the depictions of saints and biblical symbols. 

Besides the various museums (one art deco museum, one of religious art, and one with an exposition on children's depictions of war and another on the freemasons) we checked out the famous plaza mayor of Salamanca, which is treated like the living room of all the study abroad students.

See the students sitting on the ground?

And then we came back at nighttime, which was much more impressive.

It was at some point around then when Heather officially became enamored with clara con limon, which is the fanta-beer mix that I'm sure I've mentioned before. And with justification because it is delicious. If anyone back in North America wants to try it the recipe is: part light beer, part lemon soda.

The next day after getting breakfast at the hostel cafe and doing a little more poking around the old town of Salamanca, we trekked back to the bus station and embarked on the awfulest bus ride ever to Sevilla, almost dreading our arrival after seeing a high of 94ºf on the forecast.