Salamanca is an old city in the autonomous community of Castile and Leon on the camino Via de la Plata. It is home to the Old and New Cathedrals and Spain’s oldest university. Students and professors from all over the world study, teach, and do research here.
University towns are vibrant and full of energy. Could it be the buzz of thousands of minds whirling, twisting, and mingling in a perpetually fired cauldron containing all of the knowledge of the world?
I like university towns.
Solo
The trek to Salamanca was long. It rained earlier in the day. I was anxious to get to the city. My plan: absorb the air of this place. I had to get there first. I have to admit that I was struggling. Most mornings, now, my toes start to feel a bit of pain within the first hour or two after I leave the albergue.
Ahead, Salamanca emerged out of the mountains. The city seems so close but the mountains create that illusion. Just when I had the sprawling city in sight, it disappears.
Then it reappears.
When it seems that only five kilometers remain, many more show up. The distance does not add up at times. I don’t know how but the trek along the parts of the trail marked by the Roman markers versus the camino markers differ slightly. It depends on which markers I follow as I explained in the last posts on reading the signs. Sometimes the math just ain’t mathin’! It’s just more kilometers ahead. I had no choice but to keep walking the distance until I sincerely believed that my toes might, indeed, fall off!
Not so solo
That is exactly what I was feeling until I heard behind me the very familiar “scrunch, scrunch” of footsteps on the rocky ground leading toward the city. Ahh, more peregrinos are on the trail also headed to Salamanca. I think there are two or three from the sound of talking and laughing. Also, I recognised the distinctive clicks of more than one set of metal walking sticks on the ground.
I know that soon these fellow pilgrims, like many others will quickly catch up and pass me on the trail. Ask me how I know. That is a sad moment for me. Usually people do not slow down to walk with me, let alone stop. Sometimes it is a quick hello and maybe a few minutes talking about where we are from and how far we are going, then off they go. I spend a lot of time alone on the trail. After an encounter like that I feel a little bit letdown.
Why didn’t they stay for a few minutes more? Why, oh why, didn’t they walk with me… at least for a little while? That is my silent lament. I know its hot, people are tired, and space in the albergues is limited. And I know that I have to learn – really learn – to let go. Oh well, that is one of my teachings on the camino.
This time however, the pilgrims gaining ground on me did something different. They slowed down and walked with me.
There were three – one from the United States and currently teaching English in Valencia (Spain), her partner who traveled from Oregon and the last from Switzerland (if I remember right). We talked excitedly about staying in Salamanca for a rest before continuing on our respective journeys.
Two of them – the couple – planned to stay in the city before continuing on to Santiago. They started in Cadiz, walked through Seville, and on through Merida. Their Swiss friend was ending his trek in Salamanca to visit with a friend who was in the city studying Spanish.
They were fast walkers but walked with me all the way to Salamanca.
That gesture made me happy for the two hours it took to finally reach the city limits and the university grounds and complex at Salamanca.
The New Cathedral rose in the background above the old Roman bridge over the Tormes river. We crossed over to the cathedral, university and old city center.
The camino trail leads right into the university enclave, shops, hotels, cafes, restaurants, municipal hall, other historical and religious points of interest and the albergue. And it goes up the hills of the city.
The city was busy with students, tourists, cars, buses, and tired pilgrims looking for a place to stay. It is also a place where people live the everyday life that most of us pilgrims temporarily left behind.
My American pilgrim friends and I went our separate ways to find our accommodations. They planned to stay at an airBnB in Salamanca for two days. I planned to rest in the city at a private albergue.
Later, I ran into the couple at a grocery store in the city center. We discovered that we weren’t staying very far from each other.
The university at Salamanca, established in 1288, is a cultural magnet that attracts scholars, both aspiring and most learned. I absorbed the “fumes” of knowledge. The schools and library of the university are housed in very old stone buildings that, though touched by modernity, remind me of caves.
Solo again
Like a wanderer, I cannot stay in one place too long if I want to get to Santiago. I got what I came for: rest for my weary body, longer recovery time for my injured feet, and immersion in a center of education, knowledge, and the people who seek them.
There are infinite reasons not to do it,
yet there’s only one reason to do it:
You want to.
— Christopher Walker
Again, I am reminded to keep learning about myself and the world.
That is why I am here… continuing on the Way.
Baadaye and Buen camino
Shirley J🌹
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My YouTube channel – Noire Pilgrim By Shirley J – features mini videos, snippets, and shorts from my pilgrimage on the camino.
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This and several posts this summer will chronicle my pilgrimage in Spain where I am walking the 1400 kilometer-long camino Mozárabe, now on the Via de la Plata, northward to Santiago de Compostela. Read my announcement here.
