Day trips to Leon and Salamanca

September 21, 2024 & September 24, 2024

To spare me from the 6+ hour drive from Orduna to Porto, Francesca arranged for us to stay one night in Leon, Spain on the way there and one night in Salamanca, Spain on the way back.  Both cities were enjoyable, although I think we all agreed that Salamanca, a university town, was the more enchanting of the two. 

It was drizzling when we got to Leon so we ducked into a Japanese restaurant called Udon Leon for lunch.  The food was good and reasonably priced. Afterwards we hoped on a tourist "train" tour that took us passed several of the key sites and monuments in Leon, all under the cover of the train canopy. 

Later in the evening as we were tired and heading home, we stumbled across the Plaza Major de Leon which was lovely in the fading light. 

On our return from a lovely weekend in Porto, we had perfect weather for our 1 1/2 in Salamanca.  The part of the town with the university is a delight to walk through with limestone walls and cobblestone streets everywhere. That first evening we wandered from our hotel, the Plaza Mayor Catalonia, through the Plaza Mayor, widely regarded as one of the most beautiful plazas in all of Spain, and through the streets to the University, stopping for dinner at an Irish Pub along the way. 

When we got back to the Plaza Mayor we treated the kids to some dessert at a yummy place on the square.

The following day Francesca and I took a morning run down to the River Tomas which afforded some lovely views.

Then, after the kids took a swim in the (very) small and (very) cold rooftop pool, we wandered back into the town streets. To make it fun for the kids, we got a scavenger hunt booklet from the local tourist office, that listed various animals and creatures that are carved into the various buildings around the university that the kids would have to search for and locate. 

We stopped at a restaurant near the university for a meal before getting back on the road for the drive back to Orduna.