Day 4 - RSHS does Salamanca

This morning found us heading out early by ourselves to Salamanca. It was a 3 hour drive, but our guide Alberto had our bus driver make a stop at a little spot called Cuatro Postes which overlooks the ancient walled city of Ávila. 

This city is the home of Santa Teresa de Ávila. The convent still holds her arm and finger as relics. Evidently Franco kept these in his room during his control of Spain.

We arrived in Salamanca around 11 am. We were dropped off at la Plaza Mayor, which is similar to the one in Madrid, but in our collective humble opinion much much prettier!

We ate a nice lunch at a restaurant called Cervantes, themed after the most famous / important author of Spain. Then we did a little shopping and ice cream eating.

We met our local guide, Carmen outside of la Catedral Nueva. She was awesome! The kids did some photo hunting in the façade for an ice cream cone and an astronaut. Then Carmen took us inside and up in the bell tower. It offered AMAZING views over Salamanca. The students took some amazing snapshots! Many of them have commented on wanting to become photographers!

After the cathedral, we headed over to the University of Salamanca. Ask them about the frog, on the façade. All of us were absolutely amazed by the University. We literally walked in the footsteps of history, Columbus, Cortés, Cervantes, and Lope de Vega to name a few. Highlights were the library, the original classroom that is hundreds of years old. One of the kid's exclaimed, "This is my favorite thing I have seen ever, for real!" 

We returned to Madrid with hopes of visiting el Palacio Real, but it wasn't free for us. So we hung out in the park playing Heads Up before dinner.

We enjoyed a dinner as a whole group and then headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep and to pack up for our departure from Madrid in the morning.

Vamos a Segovia y Burgos mañana.