3 Weeks in Spain (via Japan)

[rbjhan]

Next day's sightseeing started with Casa de las Conchas.
I could do without the cars really...


Wish my local library looks like this

 

[rbjhan]

Catedral, the New and Old.
First up is the new one. That was a Korean group by the way, saw so many Korean tours I was getting rather curious and did some digging. Apparently there's a very popular Korean tv show named "Memories of the Alhambra" and then they all come to Spain! It's on Netflix if anyone's interested









And then the old

 

[rbjhan]

Universidad de Salamanca, founded in 1134!


Many of you would know what they were doing...


Very pretty plateresque façade. But not easy to locate the frog!


Salamanca is the place to learn Spanish, hmm maybe I can do that some day...

 

[rbjhan]

Convento de San Esteban




Still feeling the efforts of the day before, I decided not to climb the towers of La Clerecia. Sigh, more travel regrets...

 

[rbjhan]

Tapas 3.0
Cana con limon instead of tinto, ha


Bacalao


Not bad but I prefer Bambu...

 

[rbjhan]

Went for a walk after 8pm. Ended up on the other side of Roman bridge and decided to wait for the perfect light...Good thing I brought the jacket as it was chilly!

Not entirely happy but this will do.


Casa Lis


Close up


Catedral


La Clerecia & Casa de las Conchas

 

[rbjhan]

All in all I'd say Salamanca is my favourite during the first half of this trip.
It is just that bit further away from Madrid that it's not overrun by day trippers like Toledo or Segovia. More interesting than Avila, at probably half the cost of Madrid. What's not to love?!

 

[RooFlyer]

You aren't a frog spotter?

 

[rbjhan]

You aren't a frog spotter?

Haha took a while but I found it!

 

[rbjhan]

Last stop before heading south is Toledo.
Must say I'm in love with Renfe, their trains are superb! (No I don't want to talk about our trains, depressing topic)


My ticket is def Tourista class but somehow I got the nice(single) seats in coach 1.


Toledo station is very nice.

 

[rbjhan]

For the one night stay in Toledo I booked the Parador, coz, when you can have this view, why not?!


The room is okay I suppose...fake double bed, sigh


Lobby


It's all about the view!

 

[RooFlyer]

Paradores are THE way to stay in Spain.

Moody disappointing one was in Salamanca ( it was modern) but it still has a superb view.

 

[rbjhan]

Paradores are THE way to stay in Spain.

Moody disappointing one was in Salamanca ( it was modern) but it still has a superb view.

More paradores to come! Their rooms are really dated though (not in a good way!)
I thought about the Salamanca one but decided against it since it's not in town, I wanted to be close to Plaza Mayor and very happy with my studio.

 

[rbjhan]

Of course to have that view you'll need to be somewhere high up and outside of the walls. Taxi to Zocodover cost about 10 I think...
First stop is San Ildefonso.






As far as climbing towers go, this one is easy.


And the view not half bad. Top tip: do it in the afternoon to avoid back lighting.


That's the Parador.

 

[rbjhan]

Unfortunately it was a really hot day, 35C or something and I'm not good with heat...
Probably should have taken one of the hop on hop off buses or something, ended skipping quite a few spots coz I just couldn't do it...Toledo being 0% flat didn't help either.


But at least we have this...


Just looking at this picture I can feel the heat still.


So I didn't go to the Alcazar.

Only a very quick look inside the Catedral.


Then retreat to the nearest air-con place...

 

[rbjhan]

The heat even killed my appetite
So lunch was some quick tapas and cana con limon...


I did buy a box of Mazapan to take back to the Parador.

 

[rbjhan]

I felt like I didn't do Toledo justice but the heat was simply too much.
Next trip to Spain will be in winter!

A few more pictures and then we are moving on to Andalucia!

 

[ellen10]

I was planning on doing a day trip to Toledo by train, as I already have my 5 night booking in Madrid.
I guess it will be busy with day trippers.

 

[rbjhan]

I was planning on doing a day trip to Toledo by train, as I already have my 5 night booking in Madrid.
I guess it will be busy with day trippers.

Toledo is extremely touristy, as long as you are prepared for that...

 

[ellen10]

Did you book your train tickets online? If so how far ahead?