Day 3 - Segovia to Salamanca and Sat Nav Fun

Day 3 started looking rather damp.  We had had some sporadic showers over the previous few days but this looked more like brolly weather.  Anyway, not trusting the vagaries of the hotel breakfast buffet we nipped round the corner for a bite (which was pretty much all we got...).  Then we headed off for Salamanca. 

The plan was to stop in Avila for lunch - this ancient town has a magnificent wall around it so I was hoping to wander around it (sad but I like that sort of thing).  So the sat nav got set for Avila.  Now the thing about sat navs is that they like to take you to a specific address, so after getting Avila as my town I needed to give it more detail.  The problem was that I didn't have a specific address in mind, nor did I know any addresses in Avila.  I decided that the best bet was to set it for the Plaza Mayor because every town has one of those.  Then when we got there I could just park up somewhere as usual. 

The sat nav got us out of Segovia very handily, after a stop off to take a picture of the Alcazar from outside the town (you get a better idea of the scale...).  As it happened Avila was well signposted, as it's a major town, so we didn't really need the sat nav but I left it on anyway.  The fun started whilst we were headed down a reasonably major route that seemed to be taking us all the way to Avila. 




Segovia Alcazar from outside town

 

The sat nav told us to turn left off this main road onto what was clearly a more minor road.  A short cut, possibly, I thought - or maybe I just didn't think, I just did what the nice Irish man told me (he can be very persuasive).  This road turned out to be the literal high point of the tour. It took us past a quarry - in fact we did wonder if it was going to take us THROUGH the quarry (did that earlier in the year in Cyprus).  Thankfully it didn't but it did keep climbing.  In fact it took us through some really nice scenery and we did stop at one point to take photos. 

 

We basically drove into the middle of nowhere for about 20 minutes.  We were still vaguely going in the right direction and because the landscape was very nice and the roads OK we weren't too perturbed.  We "topped out" at 1467m and, on one of the straighter bits of road, did get a km check for Avila. 

The thing was, though, that the sign then said we had about 20kms to go but the sat nav said 5...  A bit strange.  It was when the sat nav then suggested that we turn right towards a small village, and that we were nearly there, that we switched it off.  Clearly I had programmed it to take us to some random Plaza Mayor in some random little village in the Province of Avila.  We then followed signs to Avila and found it , no problem...  The moral of this tale being program the sat nav carefully and don't forget that provinces and capital towns regularly have the same name... 

Avila walls in the rain

We parked up and at this point is was raining "properly", like back home - no ridiculous thundery stuff that ends after 20 mins, this was a full "set up for the afternoon" sort of rain.  So, brollies out and we wandered around Avila for a bit.  Nobody was walking on the walls and, whilst it was clearly set up to do so (rails and such) there didn't seem to be an obvious way up so I gave up on that. 

Instead, we walked around the old town and decided to find some lunch - a nice little bar did the job filled with little old ladies consuming tapas and white wine before 1pm.  It was clearly a haven for golden girls.  Anyway the bocadillos were very good and so, suitably nourished, we wandered round a bit more of the town. 

Then we found the main square...  Now Avila has a famous saint - Teresa.  She had visions and stuff and is variously painted and sculpted in an ecstatic state (nuns clearly can have fun).  No real surprise therefore to find that the main square in Avila is not a Plaza Mayor but THE Plaza de Santa Teresa...
 

Santa Teresa having ecstasy
Bernini - Santa Maria della Vittoria - Rome

Another thing the nuns are famous for is making Yemas (Spanish for yolks) which, according to all the books are a "delicious" local confection.  I am known for consumption of confectionery so we bought a small box to try later.  According to the box the Yemas are made from egg, sugar and lemons.  Sounds good.

Yemas... Lovely...

Because we are nothing if not optimistic, the sat nav got set for our hotel in Salamanca and we set off yet again.  There were no problems finding the place as the little computer did its job well.  The only wrinkle appeared to be that the hotel is in a vaguely pedestrianised little precinct but anyone who's been to Spain knows that you can drive and park almost anywhere, at least up to a point, and the front of the hotel was not even approaching that point.  So, we checked in and I went and sought out some longer term parking.  The hotel had its own parking but the (efficient but not very friendly) reception staff didn't mention it.  Anyway, I'd already decided that I wasn't going to pay so, after driving a couple of circuits of our part of town for 10 minutes, I managed to find an acceptable spot to leave the car.

Now you will recall that in Segovia we got a room with a view which was very nice...  In Salamanca I actually paid to get a room with a nice view (flipping heck dude, MORE expense...) because tripadvisor reviews recommended it.  This effectively means that you do get quite a nice view rather than no view at all...  And it was quite a nice view apart from the large television aerial on the building opposite.  That meant that you could get an unobstructed pic of the University buildings but not of the cathedral.  A few rooms further down the corridor and we'd have been perfect...  Never mind.

The lovely view of Salamanca

The "not quite as lovely" view of Salamanca

It was a little late in the afternoon for sightseeing so we had a little amble around instead to kind of get our bearings which isn't a bad thing to do when you're sense of direction gets as bad as mine.  I used to be quite good at directions and stuff but as well as hearing, sight, and just about every other sense, it appears that directional capabilities also reduce with age.  So we headed into the old town which is very interesting, despite the graffiti. 

At this point note that Salamanca is kind of Cambridge and Oxford rolled into one from a Spanish perspective which means there are loads of students about (although, thank god, not many bikes - Salamanca is for walkers). I'd also note that the students didn't appear to be that posh (rich) either - maybe they hide it well. 

Anyway we wandered about and I suggested that we head for the Plaza Mayor (in between showers). After a while, however, it appeared that I couldn't find said Plaza which may have had something to do with a total lack of map action.  So, we headed for the tourist info and got a map.  It turned out that the Plaza Mayor was only 5 minutes away and it was indeed Mayor... 

Placa Mayor in the rain (and slightly tilted)

At this point the heavens opened so it was just as well that we were here - it has a colonnade thing all around it so we ambled around twice waiting or the rain to stop.  It eased a bit so we then slowly ambled back to the hotel checking the restaurants on the way.  That night we ate in a small place called Restaurant Ruta de la Plata on Calle Melendez.  A very nice meal ensued..