Spain – Salamanca Part II (En)

In this part of our visit to Salamanca, my cousin took us to see several buildings of the University of Salamanca. Founded in the 12th century and a key intellectual centre during the 15th and 16th centuries, the university continues to contribute to the city’s dynamism with its international student population. We also saw the famous House of Shells, currently a public library, as well as the town hall square surrounded by bars.

The first thing we saw was the House of Shells, built between 1493 and 1517 by Rodrigo Arias de Maldonado, a knight of the Order of Santiago de Compostela and professor at the University of Salamanca. Today, it is a public library. We were also able to go inside a university building with a beautiful courtyard.

Then we walked through the streets full of shops with typical products until we reached the Town Hall square, which is full of people, bars and restaurants.

We wandered through the streets, passing the central market and a church, until we reached the tapas area, where we enjoyed a delicious fried squid sandwich, and my cousin had one with pork loin, egg, and bacon. We continued exploring the streets and saw the Salamanca student musicians. A tuna, or estudiantina, is a group of university students who, wearing traditional university attire, are known for singing, playing music, and travelling the world thanks to these skills (even though they aren’t professional musicians). We decided to have lunch in a square at Café La Platea, where my cousin and her husband had the menu of the day, and Ben and I had a combination plate. Mine was a hake with salad and asparagus, and Ben’s was a plate with calamari, eggs, bacon, and fries, all for 9 euros!

After lunch, we took a long walk and ended our visit at a park/viewpoint overlooking the Roman bridge.

My cousin drove us back to the campsite, and saw our campervan, and we ended the day having drinks on our porch.

Many thanks to my cousin and her husband for showing us Salamanca; we hope to see them again soon. We left Salamanca and went to Plasencia, in the province of Cáceres, famous for its medieval walls and old town, which you’ll see in the next blog post!