I’ve been back in Madrid now for just under a week. The three week Christmas break was lovely and refreshing to be at home again spending quality time with family and friends; although I was very eager to come back to my Spanish city and it didn’t take long before I began to miss it!
Before we broke up for the Christmas period, the girls I live with and I booked a few cheap day trips to nearby Spanish cities to explore places close to Madrid and make the January blues a bit more bearable.
Yesterday was our first trip, we travelled from Madrid for 1 hour and 30 minutes on the train to the northwestern, historically Celtic city of Salamanca. We had heard it’s a beautiful place to visit and that there’s a fair amount to see and enjoy being a student dominated city.
One of the first things I noticed about the city upon arrival (apart from it being several degrees colder than Madrid) was the picturesque sandstone architecture – the city was founded in the 1100s and it was supposedly a key intellectual centre in the 15-16th centuries.
It was a 20-minute walk to the centre of the city and the first sight to see that we approached was the Plaza Mayor, it reminded me very much of the Plaza Mayor square in Madrid but it was still very pretty and surrounded but cafes.
The next tourist attraction we visited was the Clerecía Towers, there are two next to each other and are open to the public to climb for an aerial view of the city. We decided to climb the Pontifical one for just €3.75! At the top we walked across to the other tower, meaning we were able to get a fantastic view of each corner of the city and we got to see the impressively huge bells in the top of the towers too!
After climbing the tower and surviving the incredibly powerful winds and cold weather at the top we decided to go and grab a hot drink to warm up again. We chose to coincide this with a visit to the art deco museum in the process called Casa Lis. This museum of decorative arts had a mixture of interesting paintings and ornaments to look at, although the most eye-catching aspect of it was the stunning painted glass covering all the windows and ceiling of the museum. We enjoyed a brief pit-stop in this place with a view of the river before venturing out again.
Next we went to the historical building called Casa de las Conchas which currently houses a public library; the outside of the building and the courtyard before entering the library were both spectacular to look at. The outside had shell-shaped decoration on the walls and the courtyard was open-air and had decorative plants. After coming out we realised there was an art exhibition on in an underground passage next to the entry of the library. We of course decided to take a look and found some interesting paintings and drawings; this actually turned out to be beneficial for Jasmine and I as some of the paintings were of people in water which we will now use as research for a water/fashion project we are planning to do in the near future.
We then moved on and went to the cathedral, however, it was €7 to get in so we didn’t bother entering.
The Roman bridge of Salamanca also known as Puente Mayor del Tormes was next on our list. It is a scenic structure which runs over the Tormes river. As a key symbol of the city, it is definitely peaceful to walk along and you can enjoy a wide view of the river and the rear of the city. If you’re lucky like we were, you’ll see some big birds too such as a beautiful Heron!
After completing all the sight-seeing, we finally stopped for a late lunch at a place rated as number 1 on TripAdvisor called Vinodiario. It was definitely traditionally Spanish and specialised in wine. The shared starter of smoked salmon and cream cheese on bread did not disappoint, however, the two main dishes (I shared with Kelly) of chickpeas in a BBQ sauce with dried fruit and Thai prawn curry were quite average – so was the house wine!
By this point we only had a few hours left before we had to catch our train back to Madrid and after wandering around for too long trying to find a famous mural only to discover it was €10 entry to see it; we finished the day off at Café Bar Mandala where I got a tasty chocolate and strawberry ice cream milkshake.
Overall, the trip made a very pleasant day out and I feel very lucky to be able to visit these Spanish historical cities so easily as they are all very beautiful and have interesting sights to see. I am definitely taking advantage of this (I have already been to Toledo too and next week we are visiting Aranjuez) as I really appreciate this easy travelling to cultural places and will miss it when I move back home to England!
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