Salamanca etc

From León to Salamanca and Avila via the Via de la Plata... some riding, lots of street photography (sorry)...

The Via de la Plata is another of Spain’s multitude of ancient pilgrimage routes. It begins in the south, in Seville, and winds its way north to meet the Camino Francés at Astorga. Incidentally while the name is usually interpreted as the Silver Way, the name apparently derives from the word “al-balat”, an arabic term meaning “cobbled paving”, a widely used word of the time that may have referred back to Roman origins or influence.

Via de La Plata.. some rolling countryside…

Anyway, I left the Camino Francés at Astorga to make use of the Via de la Plata as a handy trail to make my south to Salamanca – a place I’ve wanted to have a look at for a while. The 270-ish km from León to Salamanca took about 2 1/2 days – it’s pretty flat (and there was nothing else to do), and after the crowds of pilgrims on the Camino, I found it remarkably devoid of people (just the very occasional pilgrim on foot), and devoid of pretty much everything else too…

50km or so north of Salamanca I spotted a pair of bikes parked outside a village bar. It was 11am and James (@smilingpligrim) and Claire, were enjoying a nip of red wine. A pair of bright and lovely souls they were slowly trundling north one glass at a time…

 

… and also an awful lot of this. Not going to lie, this stretch of 100km or so was somewhat tedious..

I’d planned to spend a week or so in Salamanca catching up with work, but as I write I’m a little bit east, in the mediaeval walled town of Avila.. and pondering my next move. I’ve been wondering if I collected a stealthy, and mild, dose of covid while in the crowded albergues of the Camino Francés, or the crowded bars of León… nothing specific, no cough or sneeze, just a general persistent feeling of tiredness with the occasional headache, and non-specific aching muscle, regardless of how much sleep I get, similar to past times I’ve had a post-viral thing.

Avila is beautiful and so well preserved it feels somewhat like a Game of Thrones set, albeit one with restaurants… and being a tourist attraction sadly they’re often the kind of restaurants that have menus with pictures on.

Still feeling tired I slung my bike on the train to Avila yesterday – it’s a great launchpad to head into the Sierra de Gredos mountains for a few days. I’m hoping to spend a few days there but depending on how that goes it may be that I get the train back to Vitoria for a couple of weeks, my friend there has very generously left me with an open invite; we’d planned to meet anyway during October for a cruise through the Montañas Vacias (empty mountains) in the east, something for which I’ll need my energy back.

I’ll sleep on it, and sleep on it some more. In the meantime a few snaps follow. I am enjoying the opportunity for some street photography again, so apologies if that’s not your thing at all….

But.. I did spot the first Osborne Bull for this visit..
.. and did find an island of pine forest on the prairie in which to hide for a night. The soundtrack was largely a delightful one of bird song, until evening when locals were out blasting stuff nearby with their shotguns.. a popular hobby around here. It had been on my mind while looking for a place to sleep, but in the end worked out OK, the spot I chose just a few yards from a dirt road felt unlikely to be in anyone’s sights. Amusingly, unbeknownst to me, I acquired hitchhikers here in the form of hundreds of ants that made their home in the bottom of a food bag.. I inadvertently introduced them to a cheap hotel room the following day and spent most of the evening mopping them up with a towel… oops.
Via de la Plata.. kind of empty.
Directions north…
Following the recent thunderstorms these little purple flowers were sprouting all along the trail. A variety of Colchium, they’re poisonous.. not that it matters, food isn’t too much of an issue along this stretch.
Many of the smaller villages were virtually deserted with no shops or bars open, but 50km or so north of Salamanca I spotted a pair of bikes (Surlys no less!) parked outside a village bar. It was 11am and James (@smilingpligrim) and Claire, were enjoying a nip of red wine. A pair of bright and lovely souls they were slowly trundling north one glass at a time. They proved to be terrific company; we chatted and laughed for a few hours before I reluctantly continued on south.
In this pic James is talking to a local chap, Antonio (if memory serves) – with a crippled leg and barely able to stand, let alone walk, he was flying around the village at great speed on this adapted pedal-trike.. bringing in harvested tomato plants from the surrounding fields. A super chap and also a brilliant example of how important and transformative pedal power can be to some people.
Salamanca then.. the downtown is breathtaking, and not surprisingly a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The scale and opulence of the architecture is such that I found it hard to tune in properly rather than simply be awed.
Salamanca is one of the most important university towns in Spain, and the status of the university as a key seat of learning within Europe goes all the way back to its founding in 1218. It is the third-oldest university in western Europe, and the oldest in Spain.
Salamanca, the cathedral.
although the city centre is almost entirely in a monochrome of warm sandstone, there is still plenty of colour…
Salamanca
Salamanca
Salamanca – Plaza Mayor.
Salamanca – Plaza Mayor
Salamanca
Avila has a very different feel to Salamanca, the warm sandstone hues of the latter being replaced with the coolers greys of granite.
Avila is beautiful and so well preserved it feels somewhat like a Game of Thrones set, albeit one with restaurants… and being a tourist attraction sadly they’re often the kind of restaurants that have menus with pictures on.
Avila. I took a few snaps last night. Today is cold and grey so mostly just working… and of course bashing the keys on here…
Avila

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