From North to South through Spain and back again - Part 4 Salamanca continued... onwards and upwards

18th October - Salamanca continued

 The House of Shells is a famous Salamanca landmark - neat way of breaking up an expanse of bare wall with projecting carved cockle shells. Looks a bit like a climbing wall but, as far as I know, even the university students haven't been tempted!

 Typical street in the casco historico with paved streets running down to what was presumably a central gutter. Narrow streets and high buildings reflect the need for shade.

 The Plaza Major is what everyone comes to see! An amazing open space and so lovely that it doesn't have traffic. The arcades around the sides are full of (expensive) cafes.

 It is a simple, direct, walk through from the Cathedrals to the Plaza Major and back again, unlike Toledo's winding streets!
This is the north side of the New Cathedral.

 And this neat little cupola over what is presumably a spiral staircase tower, caught my eye.

 As did this lovely pointed dome with its scalloped tiles and bold use of crocketing.

 A bit more geology just to finish off - a mafic enclave in granite paving - this is on the way up the ramp into the Casco Historico.
Such a smooth, rounded shape implies that it must have been pretty well melted into a lava lamp type blob within the cooling granite magma surrounding it.






From here we headed on north, stopping overnight in Tordesillas as we had on the way down. Once you find a good campsite it is worth noting, though there are many more inland than when we first began travelling in Spain some twenty years ago.

And here we are again with yet more windmills. Spain does well at wind farms - traditional I guess in Castile-La Mancha?

 And the other thing we spotted as we heading into our final mountains - the Cantabrian range - and apart from some rather nice cuttings, was the cow passes and ramps. Whether it was the time of day, but spotted cows heading up to be milked on several occasions.

, 

 And the other thing of course is the Spanish passion for rearranging the countryside - "ooh a mountain, let's knock it to bits, pop it in lorries, and build something."

Finally reached our goal, the caves at Altamira. We had seen some stunning caves and cave art in France a few years ago at Peche-Merle in particular so were keen to see this too,
Unfortunately you don't see the "actual" caves - too fragile but there is quite a good reproduction. Doesn't feel the same, but I guess it is the only way to conserve the art.

From here we went to Santillana del Mar - next episode.....