Salamanca

April 25, 2022

With only three of us in the dormitory last night it was a lot quieter. Måns, the Swedish guy, claimed he snored but the only noises I heard emanated from the bed next to mine which was occupied by Leigh. So they were all quite familiar. Måns and the two American ladies, MJ and Grace, headed off to the Cafe/Bar just before its eight o'clock opening time so we had the albergue to ourselves.

Weather wise it was once again a cold start to the day although it did reach the high teens later on. The constant changes from uphill to downhill and sun and wind meant that we spent a lot of time removing our jackets just to put them on again a short while later. Any wind we had was from behind so weather wise it was pretty good. The ride started with a stiff climb up the village of Valdelacasa which warmed us up quickly.

Valverde de Valdelacasa lies hidden below the rise we have just climbed. The snow covered mountains kept an eye on us, and we on them, for the whole ride.

A source of water for thirsty pilgrims at the entrance to Valdelacasa.

Then it was on to Los Santos, a village built around the granite industry. All of this was on lovely quiet country roads. In Los Santos we saw that the road to the next town, Endrinal, was closed. Over the past few weeks we have noticed many signs warning of roadworks when none was taking place so we took a chance and slipped passed the barrier in the road.

Another source of water, just before Los Santos, but I am not sure what its purpose is.

Stonehenge meets the Ring of Brodgar meets Iberia.

The roadworks turned out to be a half built bridge. Not much of an obstacle for the average cycle tourist.

A few roller coasters later, through the village of Frades de la Sierra where we turned onto an even quieter road, we had a long climb up to eleven hundred meters from where the plain towards Salamanca stretched out in front of us. It had been pretty slow going up until this point but after negociating a few bumps once past the summit we rode strongly into Salamanca.

It seems that quite a bit of the last two days have been on Eurovelo One.

The entrance to Salamanca was on an excellent cycle path which led us to the Roman Bridge crossing the Rio Tormes. Crossing the bridge we noticed throngs of people flocking to the river bank, all with picnic baskets. We made our way up to the old Cathedral where I asked a police officer what it was all about. Apparently today is an old festival where locals picnic on the river back with a special bread stuffed with jam and chorizo.

The Old Cathedral, unfortumately closed because I would have liked to have had our pilgrim credentials stamped there.

This lovely building had clam shells, the insignia of the Santiago Pilgrims, on its walls. It turned out to be the public library.

After the cathedral we headed up to the Plaza Meyor, just because we felt we needed to see it. Salamanca, the bits of which we have seen, is a beautiful little city.

We have a nice apartment for the night but will be back in pilgrim digs again tomorrow when we head for El Cubo de Tierra del Vino. After two lovely days away from traffic we will be close to, but not on, the busy motorway.

Today's ride: 64 km (40 miles)
Total: 1,055 km (655 miles)

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