Day 57, Thursday 10/5:

Today we decided to go on an excursion to some of the surrounding towns, to the northeast of Salamanca. We set off, visiting the following towns:

-      Madgrigal: The birthplace of the influential Spanish Queen, Isabel la Catolica.

-      Arèvalo: We stopped here for a tapas lunch in the now quite warm, 30˚C temperature (especially coming from -3˚C temperatures not all that long ago).

-      Coca: This town is home to an extremely impressive castle, which is of brick construction (fairly unusual) in the Mudèjar Gothic style, from the 13^th century. This has been fully restored and now operates as a forestry school.

-      Segovia: This town is most well known for its Alcazar Castle, used by Walt Disney as a model in a number of films. As we approached the town we were able to get excellent views of the tower. 
We continued into the town to view its very impressive aqueduct. Constructed somewhere between the 1^st and 2^nd centuries, its stones are freestanding, held together with no mortar. Very impressive.

 We managed to find our way into the town’s Plaza Mayor, with the very imposing 14^th century Segovia Cathedral. We had a quick look inside the cathedral – equally impressive – before returning to the square for a coffee. We were also able to find a geocache near the base of the alcazar, very pleasing after not being able to find any of the three in Salamanca.

We then returned home, about 170km, to prepare for tonight’s dinner date at Jose- Louis and Maruja’s 8^th floor apartment. We arrived at the allotted time and were warmly greeted by our hosts, along with Pilar and their very handsome dog, Pancho. Their apartment is quite massive, with four bedrooms, study, lounge room, kitchen and large balconies on two sides of the house. The dinner conversation was riveting and Maruja cooked traditional dishes for dinner, all of which were delicious.