Salamanca—2

Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Woke up early, did breakfast at the hotel and took a brisk walk to the Guggenheim Museum. Some 20 minutes later we were face to face with this icon. The architecture of the building, it’s history, the permanent exhibition, the latest exhibition by David Hockney, it is all just too much to take in at once. (Picture: Bilbao 1, 2, etc. The exhibition by David Hockney is in one word, incredible, an absolute must-see.We spent the better part of the day at the museum (10:00 to 14:00) and by 15:00 we left for Salamanca. Our initial plan was to drive to Madrid, spend a few hours there and then stay the night in Salamanca. With the amount of time spent at the museum, we decided to change the itinerary and head straight for Salamanca.

We finally arrived in Salamanca at around 20:00, found a hotel (to be included, “how we got to the hotel”) with a beautiful view right on the central square, supposedly the most beautiful square in all of Europe, according to the travel guide (Picture: Salamanca – 1, 2 etc.). You decide for yourself.

Sleeping on a beautiful square has its pros and cons as we found out. “For whom the bell tolls” took on a whole new meaning for us. The bell tolls once for quarter past, twice for half past, thrice for quarter to, and four times on the hour. On the hour there is another bell, at another decibel, to point out the hour. thus, at 8 in the morning, there were 12 tolls in total. Needless to say, sleep was not deep and plentiful.

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