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Europa numero uno - Wed, 24 Apr 2002
Hola muchachos.
We’re writing to you from sunny Salamanca. That’s in Spain, Northwest
of Madrid, for the geographically challenged. :) This is only day 13 of The
Big Trip, but New York seems so far away. As most of you know, we started off
in Paris. It was perfect, except for the fact that we froze our asses off. We
walked miles (KMs here) every day to take in all this great city has to offer
(fantastic art, beautiful buildings, food!) as well as to keep warm.
Then we picked up the car that would be our transport for the next 4 months
(a silver diesel Peugeot 307 with stick shift that we named “Madame La”)
and headed south to the Loire Valley. Unbelievable chateaux, more food and less
cold. After a couple of days it was on to the Bordeaux region for more food,
beautiful Medieval villages, lots of wine and yet more art - this time not Picasso,
but Cro-Magnon cave paintings from 20,000 years ago. Pretty cool.
Onward to Spain, across the completely non-existent border. We only realized
that we were no longer in France when all of the signs suddenly appeared in
Spanish. Gotta love this EU thing. No borders, no Francs, no Pesetas, no conversions,
no problema. After a brief stop in Bilbao to check out Frank Gehry´s Museo
Guggenheim. We were fortunate to arrive in the evening when the sun hung low
in the sky and reflected off the titanium surfaces of this fabulous structure
- we then sped onwards across the Spanish plains to Salamanca, the third oldest
university town in the world (after Bologna and Oxford). It is a beautiful city
dating mostly from medieval times, littered with churches and cathedrals and
a pedestrianised centre, with its narrow cobbled streets, perfect for wandering
through past centuries. We are attempting to improve our Spanish by taking a
week of language classes. As we’re now students, we have to drink a lot,
a prospect made awfully easy by the ridiculously cheap drinks. However, much
stamina is needed, as the Spanish don’t even consider getting down until
after midnight - school nights included!
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