Vacation in Spain, Salamanca

From Toledo, we headed to Salamanca, the home of the oldest university in Spain, a Romanesque cathedral, and a Roman bridge.

The city had a large, beautiful plaza mayor (main city square):


Around the arches were reliefs of different rulers and cultural icons of Spain. Here are Ferdinand and Isabella:


Ian and Sophie taking a break:


Salamanca has a really interesting public library:


The Roman bridge has been built upon for centuries, so only part of it is Roman these days, but still beautiful. At the entrance of the bridge, there is a statue of Lazarillo de Tormes, a character in the first picaresque novel, Lazarillo de Tormes. (Tormes is the river that this bridge spans.) Lazarillo is apprenticed to a blind beggar in the beginning of the novel, and well, you'll have to read the novel to find out what happens!


Sophie loved this bridge, and was willing to explore on her own:



The old part of the city was beautiful and boasts a Romanesque cathedral (which was subsequently built upon).


As mentioned, the University of Salamanca is the oldest university in Spain. We walked through a little of it, and found this beautiful courtyard:


When we woke up the next morning, it was to a dusting of snow on the city.


And as usual, Sophie loved the snow! She is "ice skating" here:


This was an unusual statue of someone I didn't recognize:


And this was my favorite part of it:


We also ran across this decoration of some exposed construction work:



And finally, appropriately for a university city with literary connections, we found this "grafitti," a quote from Bécquer (a 19th-century Spanish poet). It translates as, "What is poetry? / And you ask me that? / Poetry is you." (Translation mine.)


How can you not love Spain?