Today we moved on from Leon, packing up the car and popping out for breakfast in the little cafe we discovered yesterday.
Avoiding monks and nuns we made our way out of the city and towards Zamora, our stop on route to Salamanca. The motorways are amazingly quiet and in just over an hour and a half we had reached Zamora, using my phone to navigate us right into the city, a car park on the edge of the old quarter.
Although this was mainly for a break in driving and to see the castle, it was a little gem of a city with narrow backstreets and more churches in a small area than I think I have ever seen before. It was a hot day and as we walked the ramparts of the castle, we saw lots of storks nests balanced on church towers and tall buildings. Each year the storks add to their old nests and some we saw were the size of a large armchair, balanced precariously on the stonework. These are just a few of the storms nests in Zamora.
After a wander along the banks of the Duoro (the same one that flows in Portugal and out to sea at Porto), we found a great little tapas place called ‘Los Abuelos’ (The Grandparents). We sat at the bar and ordered little plates of tapas that were cooked in front of us. It was very traditional, great food and great value. After yesterdays experience with morcilla I spotted the more traditional slices at the bar. Using the analogy of ‘if you’ve fallen from a horse the only thing to so is get back on’, I ordered a portion. We were relieved to see it being cooked ‘a la plancha’ and Colin went for it and even I tried a tiny bit - I can’t say delicious but Colin was really pleased! We meandered back to the car via a cafe for a ‘cortado’ and continued our drive into Salamanca.
Our new hotel is an old building but modernised and the room is a good size although it smells of the decorating as downstairs is being decorated and there is a strange exhaust smell that I cannot place - very nice views over the city and a lovely bathroom though. We have already been out exploring and clocked up our footsteps and finished with a tapas dinner. Lots to explore tomorrow.
