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There's a bit more to getting from Coimbra to Ribera del Duero[1] and, amongst other attractions, it's called Salamanca.  Above: Salamanca may be a pocket city (#37 in Spain to be precise) but everything inside it seems to be larger than life, including its Plaza Mayor. Our original plan had been to travel upriver from Porto into one of Spain's premier wine regions. Both of these are situated on the Douro/Duero[1] although a fairly serious range of mountains makes land travel difficult and the river also ceases to be navigable pretty much as soon it breaches the border. So we ended up in Coimbra for a couple of nights as a sort of stepping stone. The fact that we enjoyed Portugal's 3rd biggest city in its own right's a happy coincidence that is covered in our previous blog[2]. Taxis from Coimbra to "somewhere in Spain" seemed substantially cheaper than those available in the middle of nowhere somewhere on the Douro. The other coincidence was that Salamanca was then the closest Spanish city (or at least the closest we wanted to visit) to Coimbra. Travelling with a special chauffeur We had found an outfit named Daytrip who introduced cars with drivers to clients and had booked it probably a month earlier. Our decision to do so was validated almost from the moment Miguel greeted us at the top of what had been our painful climb to our hotel less than two days earlier. In Shan's words: "Miguel fetched us in a large Tesla in the rain and we set off for Salamanca largely viewing the mist. Miguel did history at Coimbra uni and was a mine of information. Told us about the Roman village 15km away and about Pedro, the prince, whose father the king didn’t want him to be with Ines, Pedro’s dead wife’s lady in waiting. Pedro and Ines secretly married and had children while his father destroyed an entire village in anger. Finally had her killed. When the king died, Pedro told the people Ines was their queen and had her disinterred and her body moved to the royal crypt where he had a beautiful sculpture made (Shan's romantic view of Portuguese history) . "Stopped off at Linhares Castle and walked through the picturesque village to get to the castle at the top. Two keeps, both locked on the inside?! Continued on journey and stopped off at Ciudad Rodrigo. Arrived in Salamanca in a drizzle and Miguel was a little concerned that he couldn’t take us to our hotel because all the streets are pedestrianised. He wanted to be reassured that we’d found it and asked Mark to send a text when we had!" Above (L-R, Top-Bottom): Linhares Castle's (established by royal charter in 1169) ability to see off marauding Spaniards would have been a tad limited on the misty day we were there; (2) we strolled around the village and were charmed by the sympathetic restoration/maintenance; a typical narrow alley in Linhares. But, back to the journey with Miguel and our two stops in Linhares da Beira and Ciudad Rodrigo. These were two reasonably priced stopovers with Daytrip ... they had others, too, but I think we did well. We left Portugal as we had arrived, visiting a castle that would have kept a beady eye out for Spanish encroachments over the centuries given its altitude of 820m. The other thing we noted was just how well preserved these places were. Sure, all countries have their not so salubrious towns and cities but we were pretty impressed in the main. And now back to Spain Actually we didn't know much about the town of Ciudad Rodrigo other than that it was a well-preserved, fortified, walled town close to the border between Portugal and Spain. Above (L-R, Top-Bottom): (4) Graceful architecture abounds in Ciudad Rodrigo; a modern interpretation of the Ciudad architecture; relics of 1812, canons protect the outer wall. And so it was. Very tidy. In Shan's words: " ... stopped off at Ciudad Rodrigo. Very pretty walled city. Wandered around eating a bacon and cheese 'sandwich'." But why, Shan? And what about the Wellesleys Well it seems there has been a significant link between Ciudad and the UK for more than 200 years. In fact the Wellesley family has held the title of Duke/Duchess of Ciudad Rodrigo ever since 1812. For those of you who are now asking the question, "who are the Wellesleys?", you may well do so. Living in Oxfordshire, we know a bit about their immense influence and wealth. After conquering the French with his Anglo-Portuguese Army at Ciudad Rodrigo in 1812 and some other exploits, Arthur Wellesley became the Duke of Wellington in 1814 and went on to conquer Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815, ending the Napoleonic Wars. Arthur and his descendants have held the title of Duke (there was a duchess but she seems also to have been a duke[3]) of Ciudad Rodrigo until the current day. In all there have been 6 Arthurs, two Henrys, an Anne (the Duke/Duchess) and a Gerald (Gerry). I like the sound of Duke Gerry. Arriving in Salamanca As it turns out, the walk was only about 5 minutes from where Miguel dropped us, even with the bags and we were delighted with our new accommodation, the Hostal Concejo. and its location, just next to Plaza Mayor. It was difficult to believe the value at £70 for two people for two nights. Over to Shan, who had discovered our hotel gem: "Plaza Mayor - really large plaza with extraordinary number of bakeries and ice cream parlours. Had a drink in a couple of bars, one on Plaza Mayor and La Carboneria on Plaza Liberdad that was fun and quirky. Then supper at Mesón Cervantes upstairs in the one corner of the square. Walked through their very noisy bar to the rather bright dining room. Ate huge plates of lamb chops with potatoes and duck magret with chips. Had nightcap outside on the square as it had stopped drizzling." Just your typical evening in a Spanish city then ... although that night we were reminded how Spaniards can be rather noisy in the proximity of their squares! Until beyond 4am, actually more like 5! The other thing we'd done on our first evening was visit THE MOST HELPFUL GUY in the local tourist office who had us fired up for our first morning in Salamanca. I'm not a great church or cathedral person but Salamanca's is just astounding. Just for its sheer size, being two cathedrals in one, but the structures and artefacts are a must for anyone even for a cathedrophobe. In fact, this pocket city has everything including a House of Shells[4], an art deco museum, a LONG Roman bridge over the Tormes river, providing spectacular views of most of the city, and an extraordinary convent/monastery. So, if any readers of this blog ever find themselves in Salamanca just pop in to the tourist office and get them to help you design your own mini tour. Above (L-R, Top-Bottom): House of Shans - there are more shells inside; another one of those organs (inside the cathedral) that resemble an historic machine gun; there were so many extraordinary murals; a particularly ornate sarcophagus; the cathedral is so huge it is almost impossible to photograph in its entirety; looking up into the main dome from a supine position; down the road a bit - rather liked this man and pram dwarfed by the art nouveau building; the Convento D San Esteban provides a gracious setting for the ethereal cello music. A memorable Dog in the Manger (a.k.a. DiM or knob) No holiday would be complete without encountering one of these. In our case it was a pity it had to be in Salamanca and on the Puente Romano de Salamanca. The bridge over the Tormes is a particularly long Roman construction that offers very special views of itself and the city. Perfect for a bit of photography. Even our man in the tourist office had mentioned this and exactly where the special place was to take the photo. Except for the entire time we were there, we and others waited patiently for this DiM who was standing in prime position staring at his cellphone. It was obvious he was not going to relinquish the prime position for us to take the pic but also determined to block anyone who tried to find an angle from somewhere else nearby. He was looking at his phone with no attempt to look at the view and was aware of obscuring others' views. It was tempting to heave him off the parapet into the river but we were all too polite. What entitles these selfish knobs. Above (L-R,): Puente Romano with Shan and DiM (yellow speck) at opposite ends of the bridge; DiM still there later after many of the people in the first frame had attempted to take pictures from where he remains standing in the exact same stance with his cellphone; inferior picture of bridge and background. During our return journey we stopped over at the convent and had a look around including listening to the ethereal strains of a cello being played by a young woman in the courtyard. The day had been emotional and we resolved that we'd been, in Shan's words, "churched out". Lunch (late; as is this was in Spain) followed at a superb little bistro named Tapas 2.0. The food was a hell of a lot better than its name, especially the mini Ibérico pork burgers with chimichuri sauce. In true Spanish fashion we then set off for a stroll followed by a siesta and late[5] supper at, you guessed it, Tapas 2.0 "Drink in the Plaza Mayor then second in the queue for Tapas 2.0 to have their delish organic wine and wonderful food: croquettes, risotto and the pork belly burger with bbq sauce and black garlic. Honestly, the best burger I’ve ever had! Then Mark had the Beef “Callos” and “Morros” which was tripe and beef cheek stew, Finalist in Spanish Championship 2022. Absolutely delicious! Followed that with Hinojosa’s cheesecake," quoth my dear wife, who ended up with a "dicky tummy"[6] the next day. Above (L-R, Top-Bottom): This "everything shop" is more than it seems - read the "menu" beside the door carefully; made me think of my friends, especially the "reprobate retirees"; typical Spanish sunset en route to dinner; yep it's Tapas 2.0; with some tasteful special wine; a great little place on the Plaza Mayor for breakfast. Moving on to Valladolid Our Interrail pass did us proud getting from Salamanca to Valladolid at speed and in luxury but two minutes too late to pick up our rental car from Avis for the next part of the journey. Siesta got in the way, it seems, but it didn't stop the two rude Avis reps from opening up late at the end of their lunch&kip. Anyway, being forced to spend siesta in Valladolid had two side benefits. The first was a delightful señora in the station tourist office (what with Salamanca and various other Spanish towns and cities these facilities are really very impressive and an asset if you need guidance). Anyway, this fine señora first of all set about getting me to pronounce the name of her city. I'm not sure she succeeded but she did recommend an itinerary for the afternoon that allowed us to see a great rarity in England: red squirrels.   Above: it's "Byadoleeth". Coming Next
Wine and steak and castles and a monastery [Endnotes]:
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