Stage 25 - San Pedro de Rozadas to Salamanca (26km): 22/09/2014 07:34

Pauline and Mary in Salamanca

Pauline lost a filling the other day and as a result her tongue became so sore that she was hardly eating. Of course, these things happen at weekends or in villages where the pharmacy only opens on a couple of days during the week. We decided last night that Pauline should take the morning bus into Salamanca and seek help. Within an hour of arriving there she collected something from a pharmacist to treat her tongue and a dentist had dealt with her tooth. After that she was able to eat breakfast and is now feeling much better.

Halfway

Meanwhile Mary and I were making our way to Salamanca on foot. It was a cool and misty morning and for the second successive day fleeces were required for the first couple of hours. It was a relatively easy walk into Salamanca, much of
it downhill, but was also frustrating. With 12km and 3.5 hours behind us we had a great view of the city and our immediate reaction was "nearly there". We quickly realised that we were only half way.

We then walked down into a bit of a dip and when we next viewed Salamanca we had completed another 6km and we almost appeared to be in the suburbs. 

6km to go

There was, however, more walking to be done and on rather empty stomachs. There was no breakfast available in San Pedro and the cafes were still closed when we came through the only village en route at 8:45am. We did have a few energy bars and some dried fruit and nuts. We finally reached the suburbs but when I looked at my satnav we were still three kilometres from Plaza Mayor, but I didn’t have the heart to pass that information on to Mary.

We had been keeping in touch with Pauline and eventually met her at the Cathedral and stopped for a long leisurely lunch. That was 24km out of the way and we had to walk another 2km to reach our accommodation.

We learned from the web that the Royal Scots College offered accommodation when it was not required by seminarians or other visiting groups. We thought it would nice to stay there as we are stopping a second night - there is so much to see in Salamanca. The Royal in the title was bestowed by a King of Spain.

We thought we would be staying in an old building in the city centre but we are in a fine new building, on the campus of the Pontifical University, about a kilometre from the Plaza Mayor. You might say we are living in luxury. The head of the college at present is Fr Charles O'Farrell. There no seminarians about but there are four other guests, all from Glasgow. One is a priest, Fr Liam McMahon of St Michael's, Parkhead, who knows Fr O'C well. He was telling me that he visited Flora (Fr O'C's former housekeeper) on Eriskay last year and that she is keeping very well despite the stroke. Only the Ferrie connection will know what I am talking about.

P.S. I didn't know at the time but I would get sad news about about Fr Jim O'Connell before we reached Santiago. 

462km completed, 440km to go (was given a new estimate of km to go so we are past the halfway point).

We have finally reached the old city

Next: Sightseeing in Salamanca