Excellent website SalaChic!
I love the link to the nearby towns.
Thanks,

I say Salamanca too.

Winston

I want to thank everyone who suggested Salamanca as a destination. My only regret was we could only spend 3 days there. It is one of the friendliest places I have been to on the face of the earth, and I have been wandering over the face of the earth for 55 years.

On our first night, a chef gave me a copy of his recipe for Sangria, after I remarked to the waiter that I could not find good Sangria in the United States. The next day, a local older man enjoying his lunch at the next table suggested in Spanish I drink a clear liqueur to help with my digestion. He must have identified my wife and I as American because he could hear our conversation as well as he could hear his with his companion. He and I carried on a conversation about Spanish food and how it is good for your health. While touring some of the historical sites, several Spanish-speaking college age students offered take a photograph of my wife and I with our camera. In a small town nearby Alba de Tormes, my wife and I were wandering around looking for the grave of Saint Theresa of Avila. I asked for directions from an old man. To my surprise he pulls out a key from his pocket and gave us a personalized tour of the basilica of Saint Theresa on Monday when it was closed. I told him that Saint Theresa of Avila was my mother’s favorite saint, and I have promised her I would visit her grave. He told me a son must always keep his promises to his mother. We had many other personal encounters all were very friendly.

None of the people above spoke any English, and my Spanish is limited, but they all took time out of their day to talk with my wife and me. It is this type of contact I enjoy, and I really enjoyed Salamanca.

SalaChic, Your website is fabulous! Your students must really love it and they must find it very useful!
BTW: Salamanca IS an amazing little city! Every time I have been there, it has been fun! The Plaza Mayor is my favorite. Years ago there was a small bar in the back of the Plaza where the owner/waiter used to do some sort of a trick to put the change ( then pesetas) into his apron pocket by slapping the tray( where the change was) and the money would fly into the air and into his pocket ...It was his Schtick...and we students LOVED it! just a little Salamanca memory

It's what you'd get if you crossed a university glee club with a small, all-male madrigal ensemble and a shtikky vaudeville act.

Tuna Players?

The wonderful site called Don Quijote has a short history of the Tuna Player Tradition:

In 1212, during the reign of Alfonso VIII, the first Studium Generale was founded in Palencia-an institution that would give rise to what we now know as universities. These "general studies" and their successors were attended by young people, including sopistas, the forerunners of the present-day tunos. The sopistas were poor students, who made the most of their musical talent, cheerfulness and japing to stroll through the towns, visiting streets, squares and convents and entertaining people in return for a bowl of soup and a few coins to help them pay for their studies. At night they played beneath balconies, serenading the women they had their eyes on. They were called sopistas not only because of the real soup their efforts were rewarded with, but also because it was often said of them that they lived de la sopa boba-a colloquial expression that is more or less equivalent to "sponging". They always had their wooden spoon and fork at the ready to dive in whenever the occasion arose, and this wooden cutlery has become a typical symbol of tuna groups.

Clearly, Booklady, I am never very far behind your always delightful and insightful posts!

gsobotta wrote:

"In a small town nearby Alba de Tormes, my wife and I were wandering around looking for the grave of Saint Theresa of Avila. I asked for directions from an old man. To my surprise he pulls out a key from his pocket and gave us a personalized tour of the basilica of Saint Theresa on Monday when it was closed. I told him that Saint Theresa of Avila was my mother’s favorite saint, and I have promised her I would visit her grave. He told me a son must always keep his promises to his mother. We had many other personal encounters all were very friendly."

In May 2202, I stopped in Alba de Tormes to visit the convent chapel where St. Teresa of Avila died, and had a similar if different experience to gsobotta. When I asked a short and stout woman who was chatting on the church steps with another woman, if I was in the right place, she took me firmly by the arm, and maneuvered me into the church, then took me to each area of significance inside the church, still holding me firmly by the arm. Then she left me on my own, and I spent about an hour taking in the atmosphere. When I turned around to leave, I found her sitting in the last row near the exit. When she saw me, she rose, waved me goodby, and walked out. It was a very touching moment.