Salamanca

With das Madchen's fingerprints firmly imprinted on the rental car steering wheel steering, we arrived in Salamanca. In fact, the reason we chose to do this road trip was because mein Bruder and meine Schwägerin were spending a few weeks in Salamanca as chaparones for their high school, Spanish summer trip. We arrived later than expected because someone wasn't driving at an optimized speed.

"Salamanca" in Spanish means "The Land of Overexposed Church Pictures"

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I once asked meine Mutter if the radio in Grandpa's room would play music from  Grandpas time. At the time I didn't have a full grasp of how electromechanical waves worked. In any event, if youthful theory of how a radio worked were true, this is what Salamanca would have looked if we had taken the picture with Grandpa's camera.

Das Madchen had done her homework on a place to stay as usual. The location was great, but, unfortunately, they stuck us in the attic. Therefore, the layout was weird and it had a bathtub that could- in case of an emergency- double as a sarcophagus.

The Pharos' Tub.

They must have heard we were coming, because they had a parade for us. A little ornate my tastes but the sentiment was nice.

Not sure the significance of Benjamin Franklin (right), but a nice touch.

"Nice party, fellas, but where's the Pope?"

After the welcome parade, we met up with mein Bruder and meine Schwägerin and had a great day and a half walking around the city, eating a ridiculous chocolate soup, and generally trying to deconstruct the truth behind what16 year old boys were telling us.

There was a Medieval Fair while we were there. Sort of like a Medieval Times, only with a Spanish accent.

View of the Fair from the New Cathedral.

Would you prefer to leg of lamb from the spit or cask of mead?

"Where's this door go?"

Tonight, the part of Das Madchen will be played by...

One of the events of the day was a tour through the city. This was organized for the high school boys, and was given in Spanish. It was a cool opportunity to walk through the city on a guided tour and pretend like we spoke Spanish.

One interesting story: There are two Cathedrals in Salamanca- something that is very rare They are cleverly called the Old Cathedral built in the 12th Century and the New Cathedral built in the 16th Century.

In the 1990's they were doing some renovation work on the New Cathedral. In the processess they were dismantling the ornate stone work on the front of the church, cleaning it and, if necessary, replacing it.

Door of New Cathedral. Apparently, people were taller in the 16th Century.

Cathedrals take long time to build. Just ask the people of Barcelona. In the process of building a cathedral, the masons and artists add a touch of the "modern" to their work. Apparently gargoyles were the "shabby chic" of their day.

But durring the restoration work of the early 1990s, an artist wanted to commemorate the 20th century. Our pinancle achievement of mankind that we want generations to know about? The moon landing. And so, beautifully carved on the main entrance to the New Cathedral is John Glen, or maybe Neil Armstrong.

Detailed stone work of various different carvings.

Tough to tell: is it a Cosmonaut or an Astronaut?

Salamanca was a very cool city with lots of great history and architecture. Maybe not worth the 5 point increase on my blood pressure, but I'm glad we got there.

No relation.