Monday 21 October 2024
It's about 5 pm, so time for my daily update. A pretty busy day (relatively speaking) for the albergue, with 7 pilgrim guests (everyone can still have a bottom bunk). We have a couple of Spanish gentlemen a little older than me, one of those multinational Camino families with two French men and Australian and Belgian women, and, rolling in just now, another Spanish bicigrino.
After the usual morning chores, I went to visit the University. Although it was established in the 13th century, it didn't move to the current location until the late 15th century and most of what they are showing off is 16th century, give or take. The usual formal patio, grand staircase, elaborate chapel, etc. There is also a very pretty old library, which one can see (and a more modern one that wasn't open), as well as several historic lecture halls. After visiting this campus of the University, I went over to the College of Archbishop Fonseco, but it was closed to touristic visits today. So I decided to see some street art.
One of the pilgrims who stayed here (a French pilgrim who stayed an extra day) had mentioned that he had gone to see some street art near the Plaza del Oeste. He had found it on a website streetartcities.com. I decided to check it out and ended up downloading the app. Wow! There was a ton of street art in that neighborhood. I probably saw about half of what was there, just seeing the art to the west of the Plaza, and I took well over a hundred photos of different street art pieces (not all of it). But then it was time to head over to lunch. I will have to return to see what is east of the Plaza on another day.
Lunch was at the usual place. For the first course,
patatas meneas, a local Salamancan dish, was recommended. Since a recommendation is not usually forthcoming, I accepted it. For the second course, I went with
albondigas (meatballs) in sauce. After lunch, I did some shopping and headed back to the albergue for a rest. There were a couple of pilgrims waiting outside, and I invited them to leave their backpacks in the albergue until opening time. My rest was a bit longer than usual and instead of opening up 15 minutes early, I ended up opening up a couple of minutes late. Of course, these two pilgrims were waiting outside when I opened up. One had a copy of Peregrino magazine for me that had clearly been left by Correos. While I was checking them in, the multinational pilgrim family arrived. It was busy for a while. But it has very much settled down now.
Photos: lecture hall at the university; ceiling of the upper walkway around the patio, old university library, street art (x3)