Peña de Francia

Saturday, the Seattle group went with the Universidad de Pontificia to see a few smaller towns about an hour away from Salamanca. Our professor, Nunci, from Seattle U, came into town for the weekend and came on the trip with us.

The first stop was the Peña de Francia. The bus ride there was terrible. I didn't realize how windy the roads were going to be, and of course, I forgot to bring my motion sickness medicine along (don't worry- I didn't actually get sick- I just felt nauseous). The Peña de Francia is at the top of a mountain- it's a church and a monastery with some great views of the landscape in all directions. The climb was so steep, a lot of people were scared our bus was going to tip over. I was more rational, but was really impressed with all the bicyclists I saw. Apparently it's a good weekend workout to climb the entire mountain on your bicycle. No thank you...

After reaching solid ground (thank goodness), we went to check out the cathedral (my favorite as most of you know). The cathedral and the monastery were both built in the 16th Century.

Stained Glass Window Above the Choir Loft

Candles At an Altar

Another Stained Glass Window in the Cathedral

The Virgin of the Cathedral

Mural in the Monastery

Another Altar in the Monastery

The Bell Tower of the Cathedral

In front of the "wishing well" of the monastery

After that, we visited a few smaller altars that were around.
Another one of the altars to Mary

Standing By Some Stairs that lead to Another Altar

The Altars At the Bottom of the Stairs


Next, we went to take in some of the landscape. I was wearing sandals which were probably not meant to climb around on mountainsides or cobblestone streets, for that matter, but I was not about to let that stop me. However, I did slip a little while walking down a pretty steep cobblestone street and almost gave one of our university professors a heart attack. Don't worry- I didn't actually fall.





We hiked back up the hill without any big issues, but next time I may have to rethink the shoe thing.



We sat down to take in the view while we waited to leave, as there was nothing else left to really do.


At the end, the church bells started ringing so I took a video because they sounded cool.

Then we headed off to our next site, Alberca, which will be in the next blog.