Up the Ladder to the Roof

Yesterday Irma and I decided to climb the Cathedral tower, since it is said to have some of the best views of the city.  The series of steep spiral staircases were broken up by outdoor terraces, indoor rooms with museum exhibits, and a chance to walk the balcony catwalks in both the old and new cathedrals.  We put our dizziness aside momentarily to look over the the balcony when we heard the voice of Ángel, our guide and film teacher, leading a group tour. He's the one in the dark blue shirt in the bottom center.

After that, it was flat up against the wall for me, but I did manage to get some photos of both naves from up there.

 

 

We continued our climb, stopping to take some outdoor shots of the gothic architecture along the way.

 



 

To get to bell tower, the final staircase is so narrow and steep that they actually have a little stop light to keep people from going up and down at the same time.

 

 

Once at the top, we found ourselves surrounded by both bells and lovely views on all sides.  You could really see how far Salamanca and its little suburbs spread, until they abruptly end and turn into miles of empty land.  I unfortunately didn't get a very good photo of that delineation, but if you look below, you can see the Roman Bridge on the right.

 

 

After our equally steep climb back down the tower, we made our way across the plaza, where we caught up with Ángel once again for our very last film class.  This class covered the modern era since the end of Franco's reign and the associated censorship.  We watched some of Volver a empezar, the first Spanish movie to win an Oscar, and also discussed many of Almodóvar's quirky films.  We also watched the following recent animated short, which served as an advertisement for a full length animated takeoff of the Indiana Jones movies.  Edlin Parents:  This one IS kid-friendly. :-)  I am a little bummed that our classes with Ángel are over, but I now have a whole list of Spanish films that I plan on watching on Netflix when I get home.

 

This morning something crazy happened:  I actually went for a run.  Usually, the heat or our evening activities - or some combination of the two - keeps me up super late, making it difficult for me to exercise before breakfast.  However, between the low-key night and the fact that the temperature has finally cooled down a bit, I was able to get more sleep than usual, and finally made it out the door at an earlier hour.  The weather was still quite cool, and it was nice to go for a quick jog along the river before the city officially woke up.

 

Right now, I'm preparing the finishing touches for tomorrow morning's trip.  In about 15 hours, I'll be arriving in Oporto, Portugal!  I can't wait!  I probably won't be able to update this blog for the next couple of days, but I'm sure I'll have plenty to write about when I get back. :-)