Salamanca, Ledesma, and a bit of Madrid

Well, I have spent the last week or so in Spain. Can I say how nice it is to be in a country where I can actually speak the language? It´s good to be using my Spanish except that they talk with a lisp here so that throw´s me off a bit.

I arrived here on the night train from Paris and immediately jumped on a train up to Salamanca, a smaller town about 2 1/2 hours away. I decided to spend the night there before I went on to Ledesma. I really liked the town. It was small and quiet and such a great place to people watch. I stayed at this awesome family run Pension that was pretty cheap. The family rents out rooms on the 2nd floor and they live on the 3rd floor. There were kids running around when I asked if they had a room and then the morning that I was trying to pack my backpack, the little baby who is probably about 1 came walking into my room cause the door was opened and was not happy with her dad who made her leave. The night I was there, I walked around town, grabbed an ice cream, and did some great people watching in Plaza Mayor where it seemed like everyone in town was.

I headed for Ledesma the next day. It´s about 30 minutes outside of Salamanca, but such a small town that there are only 2 buses that go there daily, 1 on Saturday, and none on Sunday. Since, I went on a Saturday, I was there until Monday, which was fine by me. There are 1800 people who live there and that´s where my last name originated from. I loved it! The place is just dripping with history by the way it looks and it seems like if the walls and streets could talk, they would have a lot to say. It litterally looks straight out of the 1700 or 1800 hundreds with the exception of a few cars and some light posts. Other than that, I doubt anything has changed. I walked all around town, went to Mass on Sunday at church, and just had a great time relaxing and talking with people. My last day there, I met a guy in the park from Paris who was playing with his little boy. He lives in the town now and I ended up having lunch with him, his wife, and their baby before I left. The twon was beautiful, set up on a hill next to the Rio Tormes and you have to cross a bridge to get into the town. There was always a nice breeze blowing and it is extremely quiet there.

Today was Madrid and I went to the Prado Museum, walked around town checking out the varius parks and some of the other sights. I saw the Palacio Real, Plaza Mayor, and a couple Catedrals. Mardid is a great city. Lots of people and so many different types as well. Tomorrow is going to just be a relaxing day before I catch the night train into Portugal.

That´s all for now folks. To be continued soon....