salamanca

We rented a car in Madrid and hit the road for destinations unknown - most of the time we would decide the next stop the night before we left. The first stop was the walled - and quite windy - city of Avila. We only stopped for lunch, for fear that ourselves along with our car might be blown away by the torrential winds that swept through the town.

View of Avila from outside the walls--and inside the car.

From there headed to the famous college town of Salamanca. It is known for having a beautiful ancient skyline and driving into town, we were struck by how right that was. The things the town is known for are its Plaza Mayor, ancient university and colossal cathedral. The university was started in the 1200's and is known for putting out the likes of Coronado, Christopher Columbus and Cortez.

Driving into town we headed straight for the old city and the Plaza Mayor to look for a place to stay. We were lucky enough to find one just across the street. We spent two days in the city taking all of its beautiful sites.

The family in the Plaza Mayor.

The outside of cathedral.

Entrance to the Cathedral. They put a little detail into it.

The main altar of the old church which was built in the early 1200's.

The last thing worth mentioning about Salamanca was the it housed our favorite bar in Spain, Erasmus. By happen chance, it happened to be right next door to our hotel and had the largest selection of Belgian beers we had seen outside of Belgium. We ate there both nights in Salamanca because we couldn't imagine anyplace being better. Spain is not known for its beer and most bars will have only one selection for beer (and it's never very good). At Erasmus, one beer in particular was dubbed the best beer Andrew had ever had (which is a long list). It was a Belgian beer called Kasteel Donker and it was Heaven (or so says Andrew).

The family at Erasmus.

The best beer ever - at least in Andrew's opinion.