Day 8 - Bejar - Salamanca

A day that takes one from the remote mountains round Santibanez to the cosmopolitan city of Salamanca.

The 1033 metres of climbing was mainly in the first hour or so, a long grinding, unremitting climb. Then one reaches the plain, or what passes for a plain when you are on a bike, that leads to Salamanca. The flatter section starts around Linares, and continues with not much more than undulations to Salamanca.

I suffered 3 punctures today, and ended up changing a rear wheel puncture in the middle of Salamanca. I chose the slightly longer route from Salamanca to Zamora via Fuentesauco, which avoids the need to ride on the n630

Because I had stayed in Salamanca previously, I chose to stay outside the city at Castillo Buen Amor . Originally a castle-palace, now a listed national monument. I have stayed in many fine and unusual hotels in my time, but this one really does stand out in my memory. The castle is all by itself, there being no town or other dwellings around it, and it is reached down around 3 kms of track off the N630. The bedroom (see photo below) was in an enormous stone room with a vast ceiling. Dinner was in the dungeons, and was extremely good.

Salamanca Cathedral	Salamanca Plaza Major
Castillo Buen Amor	Castillo Buen Amor
Lounge at Buen Amor	Bedroom at Buen Amor

I changed the back tyre agin when I got to the hotel for a new tube, just to be on the safe side, and not starting tomorrow with a patched tube.

Camino de Santiago - Via de la Plata Map of my route

Day 9 Day 9 of my route