Avila & Salamanca

We left early today to travel through rather pretty hilly country Into Castilla Y Leon, which was drier with cattle, wheat and stone walls. Our first stop was Avila, which was a lovely old medieval fortified city with well- preserved city walls with 88 turrets. It has been the residence of nobles and is famous as the birth place of St Theresa in the 16th century. She started the first barefoot Carmelite community, a strict religious community. The setting was stunning, but I personally preferred Toledo.
Then we travelled to Salamanca across 'las vegas' (the plains)which had red soil and were heavily cultivated with wheat and corn. Salamanca was a beautiful city, with most of the buildings an attractive golden stone. It has one of the oldest universities of Europe, especially for medicine, so there were students everywhere. What a magnificent campus with a very ornate facade and cloister. The huge cathedral, dating back to the 11th century was also lovely. The Plaza Major, the cathedral and the baroque facade of the university were special sites. Students are reputed to have good luck if they can find a statue of a skull with a frog on its forehead!
Then it was on into Portugal, which became independent from Spain in the 1130s. Portugal became rich as a country in the 16th century through its explorers such as Vasco da Gama and Marco Polo. The Portuguese Empire only extended from the Iberian Peninsula in the 19th century to places such as Angola, Mozambique, Rhodesia, Macau and Brazil.Portugal had a dictator until 1976, since when it has been a democracy with a president and a prime minister.
The Portuguese landscape was hillier, rockier and more forested than Spain, mostly pines and eucalyptus. It was a very long day, as we left at 8am and didn't get to until after 7 pm.