An early get up at 6.30 was difficult this morning. We had to meet a lady who was driving us from Madrid to Salamanca at 8am. All went well and it was great to spend 2 hours talking to Patricia in Spanish and Nicola enjoyed the extra sleeping time.
We arrived at 10am and went straight to the apartment of the family we are staying one night with. They are a couple that I stayed with 3 years ago for 2 weeks when I came to Salamanca for language lessons and work experience. When I told them we were coming they offered us to stay! It has been really nice to catch up with them and to have a room to ourselves.
This morning was actually pretty cold -13 degrees and windy. To warm up we went to the Chocolateria where I did work experience. Nicola excitedly decided we would share 6 churros, 1 mug of chocolate to dip them in and against my warning she ordered a large mug of hot chocolate with cream on for herself. I told her it would just be pure chocolate with cream which pleased her even more. However after not even eating/drinking half of what she'd ordered her confident attitude had changed to defeat and she could no longer bear to look at the mugs of thick warm chocolate. It was quite funny. Whilst she was recovering, I talked with Ruth, the manager of the cafe. She recognised me as soon as she saw me and it was really nice to catch up with her.
After we walked around the town (we walked 19km today) and saw all the beautiful buildings. I forgot how amazing the arquitecture is. The cathedral is incredible. Nicola was impressed by most things, however one of the main selling points of Salamanca is the 'ranita' (little frog) which is carved somewhere on the facade of one of the buildings. I couldn't remember which so we spent a good half an hour searching for the 'ranita', amusing various waiters when I asked where we could find the little frog. The anticipation was building and finally we found where everyone was looking up and pointing trying to find the frog. I let Nicola search hopelessly for a bit without success before pointing out the eroded lump of rock on one of the skulls carved into the wall, the frog. She couldn't believe that was what all the fuss was about and was not impressed.
At around 3pm it had warmed up a lot and it was a nice temperature to sit in the park and eat some lunch.
After picking up a few things from the apartment we went for a long walk along the river, in search of a viewpoint I was sure I could remember. It seemed as if the promised viewpoint was not going to appear until the end of the walk when you could see an amazing view of the cathedral and the rest of the city.
For dinner we ate in the Plaza Mayor. Sangria and salmon hamburgers. We thought the burgers were quite cheap, but when they came out we thought the opposite. They were tiny although delicious still tiny.
After a not so filling dinner we walked around again seeing the buildings in the dark, they are so pretty.
Then we came back and made the most of having a nice shower and very comfortable beds.